Friday, Sept. 30, 2011
Posted: 12:06 p.m.Updated: 12:54 p.m.
By John Mullin
CSNChicago.com Bears InsiderFollow @CSNMoonMullin
Williams-bashing
NFL Network analysts Joe Theisman, Willie McGinnest, Jim Mora Jr., and Marcellus Wiley broke down the Bears and Atlanta Falcons playoff situations and their analyses are worth checking out. If they are right about the Bears, this will not be a pleasant next three months.
Theisman challenges what the Bears did to upgrade their wide-receiver group. He isnt buying Roy Williams. Neither is McGinest. Not at all. Not even a little bit.
McGinest, rolling his eyes at the mention of Williams, rips the veteran wideout for showing up to training camp not in NFL shape and notes that Williams has had just one quality year in the NFL.
Those are some of the nicer of the things said about Williams.
Roy Williams will never be a quality receiver in the National Football League, Theisman declared. Because he doesnt have what it takes. Roy, if youre listening, Im saying it right to you. You have to make a decision that you want to play football as a professional, not someone whos entitled because someone was not thinking when they gave away two No. 1s for you... The wide-receiving corps is non-existent.
NFL
We dont even know that Jay Cutler is getting better because hes spending a lot of time doing everything going backwards.
Wiley is blunt about the mesh of protection and the Mike Martz scheme: If you dont protect on the offensive line, this offense does not go.
NFL protecting Cutler better than Vick?
Former NFL official Mike Pereira is mad as hell and hes not going to take it anymore. If defensive linemen got after Michael Vick as hard as Mike P, Mike V would be in a body cast, or at least more than the one he claims the NFL is setting him up for.
Pereira,the NFLs vice president of officiating from 2004-2009, takes on Vicksrecent charges that he (Vick) isnt being protected as well as otherquarterbacks. In his column at FOXSports.com, Pereira tells Vick to go check the facts.
Turns out that officials arguably are protecting Jay Cutler perhaps better than his offensive line has at times. Cutler is second only to Oaklands Jason Campbellin drawing roughing-the-passer penalties per 100 pass attempts.Campbell is getting 1.48 calls per 100 throws and Cutler 1.28. Vick isNo. 9 on the list with 0.88 flags per toss.
By comparison, Aaron Rodgers only draws 0.52, slightly more frequently than Drew Brees (0.51) and less than Philip Rivers (0.60) and Matt Ryan (0.58).
Theproblem with the analysis is that quarterbacks who are getting hit themost obviously will get the highest numbers of roughing calls. SoCutler (or Vick) will be getting hit more often as theyre releasingtheir 100 passes than Tom Brady or Peyton Manning, who also get rid of balls faster.
Picking on the Bears
Ive had reasons for picking the Bears to win each week so far which means Im wrong two-thirds of the time. Small consolation here, but Im not alone.
Mike Florio at ProFootballTalk.com has gone exactly the same route, for pretty much the same reasons. Hes gone Bears again vs. Carolina and I will too (officially on Sunday); the Bears simply can not lay a third straight coaching and performance egg, and I saw the Bears as 10-6 or better this season. That call still stands, but it was based on certain assumptions about Mike Martz and hes fooled me. Unfortunately for his team, not the Saints or Packers.
But Mikes PFT colleague Gregg Rosenthal has a different take on Sunday, and its a dark one, because the Bears are at Detroit the following weekend. It just feels like bad times are brewing in Chicago, Gregg surmises, and if his call on Sunday is right, there likely will be...
Peter King at Sports Illustrated has the Bears but by just a 20-17 score. His comment about using Matt Forte says where his reservations lie. Peter also has the other three members of the NFC North winning as well.
John "Moon" Mullin is CSNChicago.com's Bears Insider and appears regularly on Bears Postgame Live and Chicago Tribune Live. Follow Moon on Twitter for up-to-the-minute Bears information.