Bears vs Vikings week 6 – Adrian Peterson dominates.

I’ve spent the first part of this season asking myself, “Why would you ever kick to Devin Hester ?” It seems to defy all logic, but teams seem to just keep gambling on it. In this game, I think the question would be “Why did we kick to Adrian Peterson ?” We basically gave him a bullet and played our own game of Russian Roulette, and paid the price. Of course they also needed a 55 yard field goal as well, but the return made it all possible.

As much as I’d like to believe that we should have won that game, I truly believe that the best thing we had going for us is that the Vikings didn’t run Adrian Peterson more. They ran Chester Taylor 23 times, so it’s like they wasted 23 bullets and Adrian Peterson only needed 20 to get 221 yards and 3 TD’s.

It’s a shame that Devin Hester’s heroics went to waste, he had another great game and is now making a large impact on the offense. I also saw alot of positive things about our offense in this game. They seem like they now have the will to comeback, which is something they didn’t seem to have with Rex Grossman. I think anyone who would contend that moving to Griese as our starter was a mistake is delusional. Griese is doing his fair share of making things happen on offense. He seems to do a bit more touch passing than Grossman did, which is kind of scary when you see the higher arc on the ball on some of the short passes. The longer the ball is in the air on short passes, usually means the more chance there is for someone to defend. But so far, Griese has done it in the right situations and placed them effectively. 381 yards of passing ain’t too shabby.

My one gripe is — Why did we abandon the run in the second half ? Even before we needed to, we started slipping back into our primary attack being passing. I though Benson had a very good first half. I also think that our running game set up the long pass. Even though the DB slipped, it’s just nice to be getting single coverage on your #1 receiver, and that comes from effectively running the ball. But hey.. who notices that kind of thing anymore ? Certainly not Turner, who decided that we needed to pass more in the second half. The longer Peterson sat on the bench, the better in my opinion. Why not run some clock and get their defense tired ? Oh well, it was Adrian Peterson’s game, we were all just there to watch.

How to fix a dead pixel on a LCD TV

When I first got my 60 inch Sony LCD TV back in 2004, I was introduced to the reality of dead pixels. I had 1 green dead pixel in the lower left quadrant of the screen. The only time I could really see it was if the screen was dark, but psychologically it was always there.

I began a quest to rid myself of this pixel, but all to no avail. But little did I know that I had already solved the problem even before I bought the TV. So, if you are struggling with that stubborn dead pixel, you too can have relief from the psychological strain that comes with said pixel.

In my case, the solution was named “Luke”. He was born in April of 2004 and for roughly two years he was completely incapable of helping me with this issue. But as soon as he became able to reach the TV screen, that dead pixel seemed to be completely insignificant. I was now introduced to the world of greasy little handprints. Every time I sat down to watch TV, I no longer fixated on that green dot but instead the sea of those little handprints.

In my case I only needed one child to solve the problem. Depending on the amount of dead pixels and their location on your screen, you might need 3-4 children of varying height to properly solve the problem. Fortunately my son’s reach was just enough to cover the area where my dead pixel was located.

Problem Solved.

Heroes Season 2 – Ho-hum.

I’m really growing quite bored with this series, and although the reintroduction of Sylar should help the show, it just might not be enough.

Episode 2 was pretty much as boring as the first episode of season 2. It really didn’t reveal much, and really didn’t add anything really intriguing and new.

Peter can’t remember who he is, and a portion of the episode is setting the stage for him having to go along with his captors plan to get the “box” that contains his identity. If he had any smarts, he’d wait till the guy stepped away from the fireplace and then knock him over with his powers. But instead, he’s a lame enough super hero, that he’ll accept the deal.

Hiro’s plotline is pretty lackluster right now as well. He’s now posing as his childhood idol to try and make history turn out right. We all see Hiro’s love life heating up in the near future. ho hum….

Claire and her family…. ho hum. Lets lay low and not get discovered. Of course the flying peeping tom kid, that is undoubtedly her new love interest, discovers Claire chopping off her finger and regrowing a new one. ho-hum…

The good doctor has located the haitian dude and given him the vaccine. He’s back at Claire’s fathers side… ho-hum

Now we have this new Maya girl who has some dark power that it seems only her brother can control. Ho-hum..

I’m thinking this next episode might be my last if Sylar doesn’t inject some kind of excitement into the show.

I think for a show like this to succeed you really need to have new powers along with new interesting ways of utilizing existing powers. Right now, I don’t feel like I’m seeing anything really new or innovative from the series. I’d say it’s bordering on boring right now.

ho-hum….

Did Lovie cost us a Super Bowl ?

 

Let me put this question in perspective. Grossman has a dismal first 3 games fo the season, and hasn’t looked good since the first part of last season. My question has been since mid season last year – Why is Griese on the bench ?

Fast forward to games 4 & 5 of this season, and we get a glimpse of what could have been. Griese’s game 4 was not the picture of consistency, but it did show improvements over Rex in my opinion. Our offense actually held a small margin in time of possession, and not keeping our defense on the field. Someone should mention the 102 penalty yards we racked up that didn’t exactly help us.

Game 5, I see something that I have to struggle to think if I have seen Grossman do well — make decisions under pressure or with the game on the line. Griese was in a position last night to make something happen and he did it beautifully. I am going to say that I don’t think Clark was not the primary receiver in the game winning touchdown. Griese made the right decision with the game on the line. Does anyone notice how Griese’s play is motivating this team ?

This is seemingly the perfect type of offense for Griese. Grossman much of last year was a gunslinger. His penchant for going deep was what made him so vulnerable to mistakes. Our playcalling – passing first, running maybe – also gave him the oppurtunity to cost us games.

So… as Griese rode the bench all of last year. Is it possible that we had a potential Super Bowl winning QB on the bench ?

One game is not enough to know. But it does make me think about if Lovie might have stuck with Grossman long enough to cost us a Super Bowl. It also makes me think that maybe our gameplans were meant to suit Grossman, not the strengths of our team – running, defense, and Ball Control Football.

Who is ultimately responsible for choosing the best QB to suit the team ?

Who is ultimately responsible for establishing gameplans that suit the team ?

Who is ultimately responsible for evaluating these things and making hard decisions ?

Lovie Smith in the case of the Bears. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying Lovie is a horrible coach. I’m just saying that there is something here for Lovie to learn from, something that could win us a Super Bowl.

It really sucks to think that we might have won a Super Bowl last year, had the decision to go to the more experienced Griese happened last year. In my opinion, that is exactly what happened. We not only played the less experienced QB, but we also featured him – our weakness. That’s not how you win Super Bowls.