Still Gotta Come Through Chicago
Still Gotta Come Through Chicago
MVP Mitch, Bulls developing, trivia, Len & JD back
This week in Chicago:
Bears: At Los Angeles Rams for Sunday Night Football, 7:20 p.m.
Bulls: Tuesday vs. the Knicks at 7 p.m., Thursday at Milwaukee 7 p.m., Saturday at home vs. the Nets at 5 p.m.
Blackhawks: Wednesday at Las Vegas 9 p.m., Saturday at Nashville 7 p.m., Sunday vs. Buffalo at 6 p.m.
Looking to bring back the audio portion for next week’s letter, among other things. Got an idea for a good guest? Let me know.
Comment on this week’s thread (Bears reaction and postseason hopes)
Follow Still Gotta Come Through Chicago on Twitter: @stillgottaChi
Trivia: Since 1995, two Chicago athletes have been awarded the MVP award in one of the four major leagues in the same year twice. Which years were they, and who were the athletes? (Answer at bottom)
Bears:
Cue Bear Down, Chicago Bears. Get the playoff calculators out. Dust off that Trubisky jersey you bought way too early in the process when the only two possible jerseys you could purchase were his and Kyle Long’s. Put those “Trade Khalil Mack” takes back into your pocket. You might need them later, but not today.
In reality, a loss today probably would’ve been better for the psyche of Chicago than a win. I know all of you crazy sons of bitches walked with a little pep in your step to work or class this morning. You took your coat off and said, “Hey, if Trubisky plays like that…” and pointed to the Rams loss today as evidence that the Bears could go in there and win that game. And hey, the Giants are after that. How does 6-5 sound? We’re a bunch of sick ass holes, us SGCTChicagoans.
There hasn’t been one single thing to get excited about in Chicago Sports for what feels like months now, so forgive me and anyone else who is a little bit encouraged by the win today, even with all of the warts that came with it. Also, if you’re mad that the Bears celebrated in Club Dub today, grow up. I don’t care who the opposing quarterback is—NFL wins are hard to come by, and team morale is important. What were they supposed to do, change and shower with straight faces and tell their teammates to fuck off if they asked for a high five? Come on, man. Life is too short to not celebrate little achievements and Chicago sports suck too bad for me to not be happy about a win, no matter how we got it.
The fact of the matter is that Trubisky did look better yesterday. In the second half, when Nagy let him air the ball out a bit (what a concept), he made the throws he needed to make. I’ve been watching a lot of Trubisky highlights from 2017 and 2018 lately, and the quarterback that we’ve seen for the first eight games is not the guy that we knew before. Do not get me wrong, he’s not the guy of the future, but if Nagy realizes we’ve got nothing to lose and that Trubisky is better when he’s getting creative and throwing the ball down field, we’re much better off.
And he still made the bad throws. The touch he had on that throw to Braunecker is something he usually struggles with on longer throws down the field. He missed Gabriel down the sideline with one of those liner throws later in the game. But he compiled more good throws in this game than in any other so far in 2019. I’ll take 16/23, 173 yards, 3 touchdowns, and no picks from him any day of the week. He averaged 7.5 yards per completion, which is tied for his best mark of the season and the highest clip since the Redskins game.
If you take the handcuffs off the guy and don’t manage him like he’s a Freshman B team quarterback, he can be serviceable. The Lions defense is obviously not a great test for the mighty Bears offense, but common sense play-calling should go a long way against anybody from here on out.
David Montgomery has gotten caught in the crossfire of this shitty situation we’ve been stuck in offensively, but he deserves more credit. We all miss Jordan Howard’s tenacity while running, but Montgomery regularly refuses to go down after the first point of contact. He had 17 carries for 60 yards, which is far more impressive when considering how little room he generally has to run.
And that’s the same reason why I cut Trubisky some slack for a lot of his struggles this year. The offensive line is god awful. Clearly the Bears realized this and hoped moving Cody Whitehair back to Center and James Daniels back to guard would help. Not only did it not necessarily help today, but Whitehair also screwed Trubisky from the jump with a lot of bad snaps today. Theoretically, that should improve moving forward, and hopefully the blocking will too.
I hate how often I have to clarify this but it nags at me every few paragraphs: I’m not saying Trubisky is good or that he doesn’t deserve blame. He’s just not the only one that deserves blame and there’s obvious things that Nagy can and should do to improve his production.
Bullets:
Matt Nagy not accepting that penalty in the second quarter was just an awful decision. Back them up and force them to try to get closer for a field goal again. If they fail, they have to punt it. If they succeed (high chance they don’t convert on third and long), they’re back in the same spot they would be in without the penalty. There’s just no reason to decline there, considering Matt Prater’s ability to hit those kicks.
I love Danny Trevathan maybe more than any current Bear. That injury looked Hicks-esque, though. Hopefully he’s okay, but if not, Kwiatkoski was dragging those big polish balls all over the park district-maintained grass again today. Nine tackles and a pick, but more than that, he was just all over the place. Having him out there for the foreseeable future can only be a good thing, from what I can tell. That’s two games now (Vikings) where he’s kickstarted our defense and made play after play. Oh, and Roquan Smith has looked so much better the past few weeks. I love that linebacking tandem moving forward.
The offensive line’s struggles were mentioned above, but hopefully opening up the playbook for Trubisky a bit will create more room to run moving forward. If he is capable of playing the way he did in the second half today, it will naturally give the run game a boost and will prevent future defenses from stacking the box. The penalties from that group also desperately need to improve.
Another bad throw Mitch had was the one where Cohen was interfered with. The play was negated because of offsetting penalties, but the refs could have picked up that flag because Trubsiky didn’t make a throw that allowed Cohen to compete for it.
Prince Amukamara is an absolute liability out there. He holds because he can’t be trusted in man coverage and when he doesn’t hold his man is bound to be open. I don’t know what you can do to fix this, but a start would be to create more pressure upfront so he’s not forced to cover for longer than necessary. The pressure was nonexistent for the majority of the fourth quarter. If you didn’t know Jeff Driskel before today, I don’t blame you, and the Bears let him showcase a bit too much of himself today.
The Bears cut Mike Davis and now can collect a compensatory 4th-round draft pick. Honestly, I have no idea why that took so long.
The Mitch Trubisky quote about turning off the televisions in the facility was blown out of proportion. I was listening to the comments live and honestly thought nothing of it. It was just a winding, cliche answer about not worrying about outside voices. Pretty simple stuff and also reasonable to not have people talking about how bad you suck in the team facility.
Adam Shaheen with the healthy scratch today. Looks like the experiment for “Baby Gronk” is just about over. Good riddance.
The Bears playoff chances still look bleak and beating the Detroit Lions without Matt Stafford is not any reason to paint your face blue and orange next Sunday. But a win is a win and don’t let anybody tell you you can’t be happy about one.
Onward to Sunday Night Football. The Rams have looked very average and the Bears defense terrorized Goff and co. last year. He’s going to be a bit banged up heading into next week (left the game momentarily today) so there’s no excuses for the Bears not to be competitive.
This week’s thread is the usual Bears’ reaction thread, but don’t be afraid to get a little optimistic. I want all the irrational Bears-to-the-playoffs takes. It’s a safe space for irrational Bears fandom, both good and bad. If you don’t participate in the thread this week, I’m going to start calling on people just like in third grade. Get out ahead of it.
Bulls:
Here are the notable blown leads just ten games into the Bulls season:
At Charlotte: Up 118-108 with 5:16 left in the fourth quarter, lost 126-125 in overtime
At New York: Up 98-90 with 3:13 left (hadn't trailed), lost 105-98
At Cleveland: Up 84-80 to start 4th (hadn't trailed since 1Q), lost 117-111
Vs. Detroit: Up 77-62 mid-3Q, lost lead with 3:46 left, but eventually won
Vs. Los Angeles Lakers: Up 19 in third quarter, then 13 heading into the fourth quarter. They lost the lead just three minutes in the fourth, and actually trailed by 13(!!) in the fourth before losing 118-112.
These losses are usually marred by Zach LaVine’s insistence that he’s the second coming of Michael Jordan, committing unforced turnovers and taking bad shots. But the last one was particularly disheartening, because it proved that Jim Boylen is largely to blame for these collapses.
Boylen said after the game that he didn’t think about replacing the reserves in the game during the 19-0 Lakers run because he wanted them to “develop”. The head coach of the six-time champion Chicago Bulls left Luke Kornet in during a real game against the Los Angeles Lakers because he wants his players to develop. Boylen is what Daniel Day-Lewis would look like if he spent years method acting to turn himself into a junior varsity high school coach. It’s actually astonishing an NBA front office looked at him and decided yup, this is our guy. Some fans call his press conferences must-watch because of ridiculous they are. I find them to be infuriating, considering that a caricature like him has a high-profile NBA job and it happens to be for the team I bet my savings on to win 34 games.
The sad thing about the Bulls is that they really aren’t that bad of a team. They have some pieces, and probably should be over .500 right now and not 3-7. If they had a competent coach, they’d probably be a halfway decent watch. Instead, because GarPax needs a puppet as the conduit to the team, we have to watch double-digit leads slip away on a near-nightly basis.
Bright Spots:
Wendell Carter Jr. has been a man amongst boys thus far and is averaging nearly a double-double with 12.8 PPG and 9.8 rebounds. The Bulls get out-rebounded in nearly every game, another bigger issue, and sometimes it seems like WCJ is the only one fighting for one out there. His defense has been fabulous. He had a career high 14 rebounds the other day.
Bulls point guard Tomas Satoransky got off to a rough shooting start this season, but heading into the Rockets game, the Bulls were significantly better offensively when he was on the court than when he was off. I know fans want to see more Coby White, but he’s light years away from Satoransky from a facilitating perspective. Bottom line, Satoransky knows how to run an offense. Even when he’s not shooting well, he’s helping the other four guys on the court. He had 27/8/7 in the win over Atlanta last week on 10/13 shooting.
Tommy Edwards, who has been the Bulls PA announcer for 25 years, is retiring. If you’ve ever gotten chills during intros at the United Center, you’ve got Edwards to thank. He’s one of those people that made the Chicago Bulls experience what it was over the last couple of decades. Whoever is next won’t sound or feel the same. If you thought the “And now… your starting lineup…” was a thing everyone always said, that’s not the case. Edwards pioneered that call.
The Bulls intro has been watered down a bit over the last decade, particularly when they struggled. I’ll never forget how Edwards and that intro made me feel going to Bulls games as a kid. We’ve now lost Neil Funk and Edwards in just a few months. Enjoy retirement, gentlemen.
Blackhawks:
Via John Dietz, the Blackhawks beat writer for the Daily Herald: The Blackhawks have allowed 45 shots or more on goal nine times since Jeremy Colliton took over and three times in the last seven games. From 2013-2018, that happened only five times.
The Hawks went 2-1-1 this week to bring them to 6-7-4. All things considered, it was one of the better weeks the Hawks have had this year, but troubles remain.
Jonathan Toews defended Brandon Saad on Sunday and dropped his gloves, a rare occurrence for the captain.
I LOVE when Toews gets fired up.
Baseball:
The Cubs are officially bringing back Len and JD for next year’s broadcast. I’ve written about it here before, but I think that this was a no-brainer. Len and JD have developed great chemistry and JD is way more likable than he was when he first took the job. His baseball insight is great and he’s gotten a little bit more homer-y, which is something I happen to enjoy.
The best thing that’s happened to Ricky Renteria and David Ross this offseason has been Jim Boylen and Matt Nagy. For the love of god, our coaching situation in Chicago is awful.
Next week, I’m going to dig a little deeper into some potential Cubs and Sox transactions. The “trade Willson Contreras” talk is heating up.
Historical perspective:
Speaking of Chicago coaches—
I’m a sucker for a good comeback (Illinois was down 28-3 in this game) and a sucker for an up-and-coming program. I’ve been rooting hard for Lovie Smith ever since he got the job there and I could not be more pumped that his plan is coming to fruition. I never felt like Lovie was appreciated enough when he was here, but he seems to be getting that overdue appreciation now. Marc Trestman, John Fox, and Matt Nagy are unfortunately the biggest reasons for that. I’ve watched the above video 45 times.
Betting pick:
The MACtion picks went 2-1 last week, but the main pick unfortunately did not hit. Western Michigan won, but failed to cover. Record: 15-9.
This week’s pick:
Pelicans +4.5 vs. Houston on Monday
Trivia answer: 1998: Sammy Sosa and Michael Jordan; 2016: Kris Bryant and Patrick Kane
Next week’s newsletter should be a doozy with a lot more planned content and not just reactionary stuff. Remember to comment on this week’s thread and to tell your friends to subscribe. Let’s get a couple Bulls wins this week and go into L.A. and beat the Rams. As always, thank you so much for reading. I appreciate it.