Chicago Bears: What It Will Take to Return to the Super Bowl in 2011 - Bleacher Report

Chicago fans have a tendency to make years feel much more like decades when it comes to the city’s sporting achievements. Hell, it’s felt like two years since the Bears fell to Green Bay in the NFC Championship game.

All kidding aside, it has been some time though since the Bears made the franchise’s most recent Super Bowl appearance in 2007 when they lost to Indianapolis.

Remember how Rex Grossman and Muhsin Muhammad struck fear into the Colts secondary? Me neither.

Chicago came within a game of making it back to Super Bowl Sunday in 2010 finishing with an 11-5 mark and division championship, much to the surprise of skeptical fans and critics. With the bar set higher coming into this upcoming season, the Bears will once again look to turn heads and impress with another run at the Lombardi Trophy.

Certain elements of the traditional NFL offseason have yet to begin due to the lockout. Once the owners and players settle their differences on a new collective bargaining agreement, a new league year will begin.

What must the Bears do in 2011 to make it back atop the National Football League’s elite?

5. Solidify Linebackers

Chicago has just two linebackers currently under contract in Brian Urlacher and Lance Briggs. While those may be the two best on the team, they can’t do it all by themselves.

Expect the Bears to re-sign Nick Roach and Pisa Tinoisamoa to give depth at the position. If money becomes a concern, Bears fans might see rookie J.T. Thomas get some playing time.

In the Cover 2 defense Lovie Smith operates, the linebackers play a large role in defending the underneath game. Not being able to attack in the box with poor linebacker play defeats the purpose of this defense.

4. Get Hester More Involved on Offense

How to use Devin Hester the most effectively is something Chicago has been trying to solve for the better part of the last decade.

Of course, his return skills are what separate him from the rest of the pack, but he only gets that opportunity a handful of times any given Sunday.

One thing the offense hasn’t played around with yet is the idea of making Hester the slot Y-receiver. Hester’s 5’11” frame doesn’t necessarily make him the primary receiver in a Mike Martz offense. If the Bears moved him to the slot, he could become very effective running short routes in wide open spaces.

If Hester plays the slot, Earl Bennett can take over the primary X-receiver and Johnny Knox can man the Z.

3. Increase the Turnover Ratio

It’s no mystery the key to the Bears success rests in the defense. The Cover 2 defense is one that doesn’t necessarily focus on takeaways but forcing offenses into making poor decisions.

Chicago had a plus-four rating on turnover differential last season. While it’s always a good thing to finish on the positive side of the takeaway battle, the Bears could certainly improve this statistic thus giving the team better chances to win contests.

Quarterback Jay Cutler’s 16 interceptions in 2010 are drastically improved from the 26 picks he threw the year prior. Interceptions are sometimes a deceiving number. Remember that for the first part of 2010, the Bears were a pass first team until the bye week arrived.

Cutler’s 26 interceptions came in a season where he attempted 555 passes. The fewer times he tries to throw, obviously the chance for an interception decreases. For the record, Cutler threw 432 passes in 2010, down 22 percent from 2009.

2. Find a Compliment to Matt Forte

Matt Forte has been the most valuable offensive weapon Chicago has featured in the last few seasons. Forte, in 2010, became the first Bear since Walter Payton in 1983 to rush for over 1,000 yards and catch 500 or more yards in a single season. Not a bad Hall of Famer to be compared to by any means.

The problem herein lies with the depth chart. Forte’s heavy workload will cause him to be injured or break down eventually. Should he have to miss any part of a season, Chester Taylor would become the featured back.

Former Minnesota Viking Chester Taylor came into Chicago last season as a free agent but left his football skills up north. Taylor rushed for only 267 yards and three scores, averaging 2.4 yards a touch. He was used mostly as a goal line back, so the opportunity to collect large chunks of yards became difficult.

Taylor has shown in the past he is capable of making a living by catching balls out of the backfield. Should Forte need to be relieved on the field, it will be interesting to see if Taylor, 31, can make up for the loss of production.

1. Protect Jay Cutler

Without a doubt, the biggest hurdle to clear for the Bears to make another postseason run will be to keep Cutler upright and unharmed.

Many different elements can be involved in protecting Cutler. Previously discussed, the amount of times Cutler throws versus the number of runs called not only keeps the offense two-dimensional but takes more pressure off of the man under center. Starting field position plays a role in how effective a quarterback does as well.

The largest concern would however be the offensive line. Chicago spent its first-round draft pick on Wisconsin tackle Gabe Carimi wisely. It has not yet been announced whether Carimi will be the right or left tackle to compliment J’Marcus Webb.

Chris Williams, a first-round draft pick from a handful of years ago, also remains in the mix but has shown issues with adjustment and health.

Roberto Garza and Frank Omiyale look anchored into their respective positions as guards. That leaves just one offensive line position left—center.

Olin Kreutz is a free agent once the lockout if lifted and the Bears could not have a more valuable piece to the puzzle to bring back than him. Kreutz has spent his entire professional career with the Bears and is the anchor to the offensive line. Without him, the franchise has a huge hole to fill in the roster. Kreutz may be getting up there in age, but still has value. Re-signing him to keep Cutler safe is a must.

Thoughts? Comments? Follow Brett Lyons on Twitter @BrettLyons670.

This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters featured article: Ten Years Of Media Lens - Our Problem With Mainstream Dissidents.

Source: "Super Bowl 2011" via Glen in Google Reader

Superbowl Ad Star, 'Mini Darth Vader' Sheds Spotlight on Heart - TIME

One of the more endearing commercials to emerge from the slate of Superbowl ads earlier this year featured a  pint-sized Darth Vader who surprised himself by starting up a Volkswagon with a wave of his hand. Now the boy behind the mask is taking on a different kind of role: health care activist.

As Sanjay Gupta reported last night on CNN, 6-year-old actor Max Page has a rare congenital heart defect called Tetralogy of Fallot that has required him to receive three different pacemakers in his young life, as well as eight major operations to correct other complications.

And while Page has been able to lead a fairly typical lifestyle for a child his age (medical appointments and national ad campaigns notwithstanding), he and his family know how lucky they are to receive the kind of highly sub-specialized medical attention he requires. Not just any hospital — not even any children's hospital — can provide the care. In fact, his doctor, a pediatric electro-physiologist is one of only 100 such sub-specialists in the country.

And that's the problem: there are just 56 children's hospitals in the United States. "We represent just 1% of all the hospitals in the United States, but we are responsible for training over 40% of all the pediatricians and 45% of all the pediatric specialists who take care of the kids," says Robert Adler, vice chair of pediatrics for the Children's Hospital of Los Angeles in the video. His graduate program may be a casualty of budget cuts and because of this, the Pages are headed to Washington to plead for continued funding.

Watch the full story below, or read an accompanying piece from Page's mother Jennifer on how she and her husband first learned about their son's condition and the way they cope.

This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters featured article: Ten Years Of Media Lens - Our Problem With Mainstream Dissidents.

Source: "Super Bowl 2011" via Glen in Google Reader

Lockout yields perfect scenario for Green Bay - Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

July 21, 2011 |

How much does the lockout help the Packers in looking to repeat as champions?

Hurt them: 4%

Not at all: 25%

A little: 48%

A lot: 16%

Now a virtual lock: 7%

Total Responses: 153

Green Bay - The Green Bay Packers didn't need any favors in their attempt to repeat as Super Bowl champions.

Then along came an off-season without football, which provided the Packers with a subtle but almost unfair advantage entering 2011.

Each day that the National Football League lockout persists represents one fewer day for 31 teams to catch Green Bay. If the labor dispute had dragged on until September, as I guessed all along that it would, the Packers might have been almost impossible to beat.

One day last month, Mike McCarthy was trying to stay sharp as a football coach without a team. When it was suggested to McCarthy that every day without football only benefited the Packers, he blanched.

"We always get a lot better during the OTAs," insisted McCarthy. "We needed them."

McCarthy's three-month off-season program (mid-March to mid-June) was run as well if not better than most other programs around the NFL. He swore by the results. So did many of his players.

It isn't that the Packers didn't need their off-season. It's that every other team needed it more.

No off-season programs basically meant every team stayed right where it was. That's precisely where the team at the top, in this case the Packers, would want everyone else to remain.

Twenty teams haven't been on a football field since Jan. 2. Of the 12 playoff teams, only Super Bowl participants Green Bay and Pittsburgh had the benefit of 15 practices after the 20 non-playoff teams were finished.

McCarthy already had planned to delay the start of the off-season program by two or three weeks so his players, coaches and support staff could catch their breath. More than any other team, the Packers will have benefited simply by getting away from football and just resting.

In the first 44 years of the Super Bowl era, eight teams have been able to win championships back-to-back but no team has ever won three in a row. The Super Bowl hangover is real. Just seven of the last 15 champions so much as won their division the following season.

Super Bowl champions face a variety of obstacles. Friends and family tell every player on the roster how great they are. And, having accomplished the ultimate goal, some players lose their desire for the punishing workouts that are at the core of their job livelihood.

In the case of the Packers, they played 24 games last season and ended up with one of the most magnificent seasons in franchise history. It would have been difficult for some players to be right back in town nine or 10 weeks later sitting in meeting rooms listening to the same stuff that they had mastered during the season.

Let's assume the Packers won't practice for the first time until the weekend of July 30-31. That's 25 weeks, almost half a year, since they beat the Steelers in Dallas.

Listen to and read the words of players in the last few weeks. There's a sense of eagerness among the Packers that simply wouldn't have been there had it been a normal off-season.

This is the perfect scenario for a team trying to recapture its esprit de corps of six months ago.

The last time the Packers were in this situation was 1997. That team overcame early season-ending injuries to Edgar Bennett and Craig Newsome, duplicated the 13-3 mark of the '96 titlists and made it back to the Super Bowl before falling to Denver.

On the eve of the '97 season, I wrote that the Packers should be favored for five reasons: the quarterback, the coach, the general manager and his scouts, the corporate structure and the continuity within the organization.

The principals are different now in each of the five categories, but the level of excellence is similar.

Not only does Aaron Rodgers have the best regular-season passer rating in history, he has the best postseason mark in history. Upon careful study, and multiple interviews with Packers and Steelers alike, Rodgers' performance in Dallas should rank among the half-dozen finest in Super Bowl history.

McCarthy became more than just a top-flight offensive coach a year ago. He grew into the leader that the organization sorely needed.

Ted Thompson will never change. He outworks many of his peers, listens to his people and keeps demonstrating the knack for picking the best of closely rated players. What shouldn't be overlooked about Thompson is the understated, professional workplace that he creates.

Mark Murphy recognized early that Thompson and McCarthy were worthy of his support and that of the board of directors.

After camp opens, the Packers should be ready to play a game in no time.

On offense, McCarthy starts his sixth season with the same scheme, the same coordinator (Joe Philbin) and five position coaches that have been with him throughout his tenure. Jimmy Robinson, the premier wide receivers coach, departed for Dallas.

On defense, the coordinator (Dom Capers) and his entire staff remain intact for a third year in a row.

It isn't only that these coaches know exactly what McCarthy wants. The collective level of expertise on this staff might match favorably against any in club annals.

In the personnel department, the Packers have been as stable as just about any group in the NFL over the last 10 years. When the Eagles and coach Andy Reid pursued Eliot Wolf hard after the draft, the Packers promoted Wolf to a position akin to what John Schneider had and retained his services

Compare that checklist to what's going on around the league.

Eight franchises will have new coaches with, for the most part, entirely new schemes. Minus an off-season, none of them really has a chance in 2011.

Depending on your definition of "set," 14 of the 32 coaches either don't know who will be their starting quarterback or, if they were honest, recognize that their starter isn't good enough to win the Super Bowl. Six quarterbacks were drafted in the first round, but in the wake of the lockout there just aren't enough hours of preparation for them to stand out as rookies.

Six of Green Bay's 16 games are against teams with new coaches or teams unsettled at quarterback, or both.

When the gong sounds for the start of free agency, the Packers won't be signing anyone. They'll try to re-sign some of their own veterans before they hit the market, add a dozen or so undrafted rookies and take the practice field with all but a handful of players from their Super Bowl 53 supplemented by eight to 10 of the 15 players that ended the season on injured reserve.

No one in their right mind should ever think that the Packers would even entertain lavishing $18 million or more this year alone on Raiders cornerback Nnamdi Asomugha. They'll continue developing Sam Shields, hope for another good year or two from Charles Woodson and see what fourth-round pick Davon House has to offer.

The Packers have more than enough players. Even if they didn't, a blockbuster deal in free agency might be hard to handle given their cap situation.

In late February, the players under contract to Green Bay for 2011 totaled $128.6 million against the salary cap that was in effect through 2009. Only the Cowboys ($134.2 million) had more cap commitments, although A.J. Hawk's new deal on March 3 did reduce the Packers' charge by about $8 million.

The proposed collective bargaining agreement approved by the owners Thursday includes a salary cap of $120.375 million for 2011.

Cullen Jenkins will be leaving for what should be a huge contract in free agency. Jenkins was the team's second-best pass rusher, but he's 30 and Mike Neal was drafted high a year ago to replace him.

The decision to pay Hawk enormous money means he'll keep starting alongside Desmond Bishop, Brandon Chillar will back up at inside linebacker and Nick Barnett will become a cap casualty.

McCarthy still thinks James Jones can become consistent even though he has dropped 30 of 285 targeted passes (10.5%) in four seasons. Now it's up to Jones.

The Packers are expected to offer him a reasonable contract even though Randall Cobb was drafted to do more than return kicks as a rookie. The market, however, likely will provide other opportunities for Jones.

Mason Crosby's next contract will be with Green Bay. So will John Kuhn's. I wouldn't offer Daryn Colledge a representative multiyear deal, but someone might because players from Super Bowl teams often are overvalued in free agency.

The flurry of developments that transpire over the next few weeks will be newsy. Still, they'll be merely window dressing in comparison to the arresting level of talent residing on the depth chart.

Jermichael Finley, one of six key Packers sure to be inspired by a contract year in 2011, heads the list of five tight ends, four of whom can get downfield. Drafting Derek Sherrod all the way down at No. 32 in the first round gives McCarthy the luxury of having three tackles. And then there are three or four respectable candidates to succeed the mediocre Colledge at left guard.

Few teams can match the Packers' collection of three running backs, all of whom at least have the size and ability to be every-down players.

Wide bodies B.J. Raji, Ryan Pickett and Howard Green, a stubborn three-man front down the stretch, have had weight issues and will be monitored closely next month. Defensive end C.J. Wilson might not have Neal's ability but he is no slug, either.

The Packers won a Super Bowl with Frank Zombo, Erik Walden and Brad Jones playing opposite Clay Matthews. The return of Morgan Burnett and the re-signing of Charlie Peprah give Capers three safeties.

Perhaps Cobb will help improve the special teams that haunted McCarthy in four of the six defeats.

McCarthy's enemies are selfishness and greed in the locker room. Everything else, at least when compared to the competition, couldn't be more to his liking.

The lockout locked in the Packers as the team to beat. Pick against them at your peril.

Send email to bmcginn@journalsentinel.com

This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters featured article: Ten Years Of Media Lens - Our Problem With Mainstream Dissidents.

Source: "Super Bowl 2011" via Glen in Google Reader