Still Gotta Come Through Chicago
Still Gotta Come Through Chicago
MUST READ—Nagy uses Mitch as scapegoat, are Blackhawks going to save the winter?
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This week in Chicago:
Bears: Sunday at noon vs. Giants
Blackhawks: Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. vs Hurricanes, Thursday at 7:30 vs. Lightning, Saturday at 7:00 p.m. at Stars
Bulls: Monday at 7:00 p.m. vs. Bucks, Wednesday at 7:00 p.m. vs Pistons, Friday at 7:00 vs. Heat, Saturday at 6:00 p.m. at Hornets
Trivia:
Since 2000, seven teams in the NBA and NFL have made the first overall selection in the draft more than once. Who are those seven teams? (Answer at the end of the newsletter)
Still Gotta Come Through Chicago is about to be better than ever. Beginning this week, I’ll be rolling out more features that I plan to make staples of the letter moving forward. Thanks to all of you for being a part of this thing and I hope you’ll continue reading, commenting, and sharing moving forward. We’re just getting started. Let’s go.
New features:
MOL of the week—Mrs. O’ Leary of the week. If you remember fourth grade history class, Mrs. O’ Leary’s dumbass cow started the Chicago Fire. Not cool—at all. The MOL of the week will be the antithesis of a SGCTChicagoan every week.
This week’s MOL: Christian Yelich. Didn’t ever really mind the guy until he came at our man Yu Darvish on Friday for just replying to a tweet insinuating the Brewers may be doing something nefarious.
This is the video that Yu was replying to, which was dissected after the Brewers surfaced as one of the teams that players thought were stealing signs electronically. The Astros way of relaying stolen signs was by banging the hell out of a trash can in the clubhouse. People suspected the Brewers were relaying the signs from the bullpen in the outfield, which is why Yelich directing his eyes there was in question.
Not sure there’s a worse way to respond to vague, not fully-developed accusations than to immediately unhinge and go at the pitcher, who didn’t even accuse you of anything. Especially when that pitcher has dominated your team since he came into the league.
Congratulations Christian Yelich—you’re the first MOL of the week and an enemy of the SGCTC mob from this day forward.
Send nominees for MOL of the week at stillgottacomethroughchicago@gmail.com or on twitter at @stillgottaChi.
The next new feature is the four stars of the week. As a nod to the Chicago flag, four athletes will make the SGCTC flag every week.
Here are this week’s stars:
Kirby Dach: 5 points and 3 goals in three games this past week
Dave Leitao: DePaul’s head coach has the Blue Demons ROLLING. Chicago basketball is back, baby! (at a collegiate level) DePaul is 5-0 and just got another four-star commit this week from Simeon. I might hitch my wagon to DePaul and drop the Bulls.
Yu Darvish: Yu Darvish learned that the Astros were electronically stealing his signs in the 2017 World Series, which led to an unfair narrative about him being unable to handle big moments, with total grace. Then MOL of the week Christian Yelich came at him and he handled that with grace, too. At this rate, Darvish is going to be SGCTC certified in no time.
Roquan Smith: An interception and 11 tackles on Sunday for Smith. A small silver lining.
Honorable mention:
Coby White had 27 points against the Knicks on Tuesday and 26 against the Bucks on Thursday. He became SGCTC certified this week, a major achievement.
Send submissions for next week over.
This week’s thread:
Real disappointing turn out on the thread last week. Let’s make this week’s home to the best and most fired up takes in entire Chicago sports media landscape today.
Tell me how you feel about the Bears:
Should Pace be fired?
Should Nagy be fired?
What should the Bears do at QB?
Historical perspective:
This Chicago Tribune article on the 2017 NFL Draft and Ryan Pace’s obsession with Mitch Trubisky is well worth your time.
Here are some takeaways :
Ryan Pace was obsessed with finding the next Drew Brees. Having been a 29-year-old scout for the Saints when they signed him in free agency, that makes sense. But that concept is fundamentally flawed. After all, there’s only one Drew Brees. There's only one Tom Brady. And there’s only one Pat Mahomes and one Deshaun Watson. The objective should be to find the next great quarterback, not the guy with the highest similarity score with an already successful NFL quarterback.
This article and Pace’s process is plagued by confirmation bias. If you’re that in on a guy from the jump, instead of finding flaws in his make-up, you will only look for things that confirm your infatuation with him. That’s what Pace did, and he was giddy every time someone agreed with him.
About that—it’s worth mentioning that A LOT of people agreed with Pace. A slew of draft experts, both in the media and in the NFL, thought Trubisky was the best prospect in the draft. The revisionist history driven by the media is sometimes unfair, especially when Sports Illustrated, the Washington Post, CBS, the L.A. Times, and Fox Sports all tabbed Trubisky as the no.1 guy.
The Bears never worked out Deshaun Watson, which is blatant negligence.
“Who wouldn’t be excited about landing a quarterback who posted a 32-3 record as a college starter, becoming a Heisman Trophy runner-up and a national champion in the process?”
Answer: The Bears
“You want to look for a player who has lifted his program for the most part,” Ryan Pace said. Trubisky sat behind Marquise Williams for two years and UNC won their division in the year before Trubisky started. They went 11-3 without Trubisky and 8-5 with Trubisky as the starter, ultimately losing the Sun Bowl to Stanford.
It’s notable that John Fox’s favorite quarterback was Deshaun Watson and that he was kept completely in the dark on the front office’s obsession with Trubisky essentially until Draft Day. Speaking of obsessions, Pace loved—and I do mean loved—the fact that Trubisky drove a beat up 1997 Toyota Camry. If that’s the prerequisite to getting drafted 2nd overall, I know some SGCTChicagoans who’d like to put their hat in the ring.
Also, why did we pay Mike Glennon $18.5 million guaranteed if Pace loved Trubisky so much? And why did the organization send poor Glennon to the draft, where they’d be selecting his replacement? That’s not even negligence, that’s just mean.
Both Jordan Palmer—Watson’s QB coach leading up to the draft—and Dabo Swinney (Clemson coach) basically begged the Bears to draft Watson and warned them that it’d be a mistake if they didn’t.
Lastly, I feel bad for Trubisky. It’s not his fault that Pace fell in love with him. It’s not his fault that he has a bad offensive line and no tight end to throw to. And it is true that many great quarterbacks have struggled in their first few years and found their footing later. Progress is not always linear and not everyone can be Mahomes and Watson. I personally don’t believe Trubisky will ever be a franchise quarterback. I also don’t know what it would feel like to have an entire city be disappointed in you based on expectations you did not set for yourself.
Bears:
Matt Nagy just benched Mitch Trubisky, one of the single dumbest attempts to cover someone’s own ass I’ve ever seen in my entire life watching sports. Not only was it done abruptly, it was done in probably one of Trubisky’s best games this year? I mean, does anyone think Chase Daniel gave us a better chance to win at that point in the game? (Good thing he slid inbounds to keep the clock going with 2 minutes left in the game, down 10) The Bears PR said Mitch’s hip was bothering him, which was about as good of cover up as me putting gum in my mouth after drinking 10 Natty Ices before heading home to greet my parents when I was 16.
Does this look like a chat about Trubisky’s hip?
Matt Nagy probably would have gotten some brownie points from fans if he made that change 3 weeks ago. But because he’s such an awful decision maker, he decides to wait until the most nonsensical time possible to pull him. It’s never Nagy’s fault, guys. He had to pull his starting QB and humiliate him in front of a primetime audience because the offensive line sucks, the receivers couldn’t catch a ball, and Nagy ran an option in the NFL to the short side of the field on 3rd and 1.
I’ve never done a 180 on a human being more than I have with Nagy. It feels like I married someone and a year and a half into wedlock I found out they had a second family and are a serial killer. His play calling is dreadful and his decision making oftentimes falls short of following basic logic.
Eddy Pineiro misses the first kick, so he goes for it in Rams territory on the next possession on 4th and 9, electing to not kick a field goal from the same spot (31 yard line). Fair enough. But then, he turns around on 4th and 6 from the 30 and sends Pineiro back out there to miss another kick from virtually the same spot.
The Bears punted on the Rams 39 with 27 seconds left in the half. Matt—you’re down 10, you’re 4-5. What are you afraid of? There’s no reason you shouldn’t be playing for points there. Worst case scenario, the Rams get the ball back in their own territory with 20 seconds left in the half.
On a similar note, the Bears lucked out with a running into the kicker penalty on 4th and 5, which would have landed them at 4th and a matter of inches. Ever heard of a QB sneak, Matt? That play call with that little to gain has got to have a 90 percent success rate.
Obviously penalties helped us out in a lot of instances. A few big Rams plays were called back because of them. But there were also major missed opportunities. That Cooper Kupp fumble was on the ground for 10 seconds and the Bears couldn’t recover it. That would’ve given the Bears a real shot to take the lead and steal the game. Same with the Kyle Fuller dropped interception, which he may have taken back to the house. And same with Marqui Christian barely tipping a ball thrown to Anthony Miller that, if completed, would’ve probably ended up being a touchdown. Then again, who knows with Anthony Miller, who committed offensive pass interference, missed the throw (granted, it was errant), and then threw up (I think, gang signs?) and talked shit on his way back to the sideline. Ryan Pace’s second round picks sure had a showing tonight:
Adam Shaheen (Ashland University’s finest)—healthy scratch
Anthony Miller—see above
James Daniels—completely helpless when Aaron Donald lined up in front of him
(I also don’t totally understand how that fumble from Kupp wasn’t ruled a touchback, but that feels irrelevant at this point.)
The offensive line got negative push on virtually every run play and gave Trubisky no time to throw on almost every drop back. Trubisky has, on average, 2.59 seconds of time to throw, which is 34th among qualified quarterbacks. Tonight, he had just 2.47 seconds on average, second to worst in all of the NFL. For context, Jared Goff had 3.09 seconds to throw, fifth in the NFL this week. Also, Cody Whitehair snaps like he’s trying out for center at the first day of Pop Warner. Nothing like starting every single play with uncertainty.
The Bears have eclipsed 300 yards on offense just once this season—against the Redskins.
The drops were also inexcusable. When your quarterback finally looks serviceable, you can’t miss balls that should be caught, particularly in crucial situations. Both Gabriel and Robinson took turns killing drives with drops.
Jared Goff’s time to throw was the biggest problem on the other end. There was absolutely no pressure on him throughout the game. All things considered, the secondary played really well. We knew the Akiem Hicks loss would sting, but it seems to be having an even larger impact than any of us would’ve imagined. If even a little pressure was applied to Goff, there’s no doubt in my mind he would’ve cracked and made a few more mistakes. Hey, at least we haven’t committed over $100 million to Mitch.
I genuinely feel bad for Mitch, and I’m starting to wonder whether any guy we drafted would’ve turned out. Like, if the Bears drafted Deshaun Watson does he become Deshaun Watson in this mess of an organization? Probably, but I don’t think it’s as sure as a bet as most people do.
The Bears season is effectively over just ten games into the season, one that was being dubbed “Super Bowl or bust”. I’d be surprised if they finished with a winning record. We don’t have a head coach to count on. We clearly can’t trust our general manager. No long term plan at quarterback. Where do we go from here? Goddamn, this sucks.
Blackhawks:
The Blackhawks have bumped themselves in front of the Bulls in the Still Gotta Come Through Chicago newsletter format. If they keep this up, they’ll bump the Bears in no time. As a matter of fact, they scored 11 goals this weekend, four more points that the Bears mustered in 60 minutes of football on Sunday.
The Hawks are now 5-0-1 in their last six and boat raced two teams this week when they were heavy underdogs—the Las Vegas Golden Knights (+220) and the Nashville Predators (+180), who dominated them the last time out. Kirby Dach, the Hawks no. 3 overall draft pick, is proving that he was worth that high of a selection after all. He had a goal in each of those games.
Patrick Kane, Jonathan Toews, and Dach all scored on Sunday. Kane is ninth in the league in points and the Hawks are just one point out of a playoff spot.
Could it be? Are the Blackhawks—who saved Chicago sports from depression for many years—picking up the slack for us again? When the going gets tough, the Hawks get going. I might become a full-on hockey guy this winter.
I’m thinking of doing a Blackhawks audio portion for next week. Fade the Bears, Fade the Bulls. It’s Blackhawks hockey and DePaul basketball from here on out.
Bulls:
The Bulls have a decent team that is plagued by:
1. A coach who has no idea what he is doing, one that left Ryan Arcidiacono, Kris Dunn, and Coby White in the game together for over a quarter together in a crucial stretch in the loss at Milwaukee. Arcidiacono (6 feet, 3 inches, unathletic) was forced to guard Giannis Antetokounmpo (6 feet, 11 inches, the MVP of the league) during two possessions.
2. A “star” player in Zach LaVine who is not a star at all, but instead a basketball player with a lot of talent and no sense of what a good shot is or how to play rudimentary team defense.
The Bulls are, through 13 games, 6.3 points better without LaVine on the floor. Their plus-minus is -4.8 with him in the game and +1.5 without him in the game. Per 100 possessions, they’re over 18 points better with LaVine on the bench. In other words, he’s not a star, and he’s not even a productive team player. If I have to watch a Bulls lead dwindle because he’s taking contested threes, turning the ball over, and losing his man on defense again I may stage a protest outside the United Center.
It turns out that dunking basketballs on a beach in California and posting it to Instagram did not help LaVine with basic basketball concepts heading into his sixth year in the NBA.
There’s no reason to believe that the Bulls will fire Boylen, because he’s a front office puppet. But this team has far more talent than they did a year ago when Fred Hoiberg was fired with a similar record.
He’s going to cost me years on my life and a lot of SGCTChicagoans money on the win total if he keeps losing winnable games with this identity-less team. Five Thirty Eight’s projection model now has the Bulls winning 32 games.
Baseball:
The Cubs have started to talk with Javy Baez about an extension
They’ve done the same with Kris Bryant
Jose Abreu accepted a qualifying offer from the White Sox, which will pay him over $17 million next year
Betting pick:
So last week, I picked the Pelicans to cover against the Rockets. I put the line at 4.5 here, but it was actually 6.5. If you took that game, you got it at +6.5, or at the worst, +6. The Pelicans lost by 6. So although the vast majority of you covered anyway, because of the error, I’m voiding that pick. Record: 15-9
This week’s pick: Knicks -2 vs. Cavs on Monday
Trivia answer:
Browns, Rams, Texans, Wizards, Cavaliers, Pelicans/ Hornets, and 76ers
Thanks for all of you who followed along this weekend on Twitter at @stillgottaChi. Over 10,000 impressions on those tweets this weekend. Now go ahead and tell your friends to follow the newsletter and the Twitter page.