The sad thing about the title of this post is that it’s not completely obvious as to what team the title is about. The Bears and Blackhawks both had a rough time this past week. I’ve had a fun time writing my first two blog posts, but let’s be honest, we were bound to hit a rough patch at some point. After all, this blog IS about the struggles of a Chicago sports fan. So let’s get started…

Bears

This game just felt like a constant punch in the gut after the 1st quarter ended. I miss how excited I felt when I was driving and listening to the game on the radio when I heard Khalil Herbert put the Bears up 7-0 right away. And then to get even more excited after the Bears sacked Aaron Rodgers to get the ball back right after that. If you remember in my last post, I talked about what the Bears needed to do to win the game, so let’s talk about what happened with some of those aspects shall we?

  • I mentioned that Bill Lazor needs to be the main play caller, and that he needs to be more aggressive with his play calling. Lazor was indeed the main play caller, but he continued to not succeed in putting his foot on the gas with Justin Fields and this offense. There’s no reason the Bears shouldn’t have been able to at least make this game closer, let alone win. After the Bears went up 7-0 AND forced the Packers to punt, they should’ve opened up the most dynamic section of their playbook to put at least another 3 points up on the board. Bill Lazor is definitely an upgrade over Matt Nagy when it comes to play calling, but Lazor still isn’t exactly anything to write home about either. This will be something the Bears should look to address in the offseason.
  • On a more positive note, I also mentioned that Khalil Mack and Robert Quinn needed to have themselves a day and make Aaron Rodgers as miserable as possible. For what it’s worth, Mack and Quinn did their jobs to the best of their abilities. They were not the reason the Bears weren’t in a position to win. In fact, these two are the main culprits of the Bears leading the NFL in sacks so far this year.
  • I talked about Jaylon Johnson needing to shadow Davante Adams, and while that did happen for the most part, he didn’t have as much success as we would’ve liked him to have. And to be totally unbiased in my criticism of his play, it unfortunately looked either fatigued or just downright lazy on some plays. Then again we must remember that this is a second year cornerback who suddenly was tasked with being the top guy on the depth chart after the Bears suddenly let Kyle Fuller go. Better times are ahead for Jaylon Johnson.

A Bears loss is never fun, but a Bears loss to the Packers (again) always feels like the end of the world. And if I’m being honest, it’s a lot harder to be optimistic going forward with the schedule we have coming up. Starting with Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Don’t let your Packer fan friends get to you too much after this past Sunday, the future is still brighter in Chicago than it is in Green Bay.

Blackhawks

I like to think of myself as a pretty optimistic person, but man this Blackhawks team makes it incredibly hard to keep a positive mentality. Don’t get me wrong, this team is incredibly talented, but significant changes need to be made to the coaching staff and possibly front office. I will give Stan Bowman about as much credit as he deserves for going out and acquiring the talent that he did this offseason, but if he fails or refuses to relieve Jeremy Colliton of his coaching duties at some point, then Stan Bowman needs to be fired as well. The Blackhawks are too good of a franchise to have such bad play carry on for so long. I truthfully don’t have the energy to get into what the Hawks need to do going forward to improve, but after the next couple games I’ll be sure to have more to talk about. Let’s just hope Toews, Kane, and company figure this all out as soon as possible.

To end on a bright note, the Bulls won their opening game of the regular season as I was typing this out! So that’s something to be happy about my fellow Chicago fans. We’ll discuss more about them as well in my next post. Till next time!

4 thoughts on “Well That Went Well… (NOT)”

  1. These reasons are why I abandoned my fanhood in the Bears years ago (shortly after my father died). I have bad news for the Bears. Now that I’m starting a new life in Wisconsin, I may become a Packer fan. lol

  2. Watching these two teams play this season has given me massive anxiety, I am a huge Chicago sports fan but now every time I am asked which football team I root for, I say “unfortunately the Bears”. It has been such a nightmare to the point where I don’t even bother watching.

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