PFF SAYS SHEA PLAYED POORLY

Some guy named Pete who has been anointed over at PFF Tweeted the following:

Shea McClellin: 2nd-worst @PFF grade of any 4-3 DE in Wk 9. But 2 loud sacks, so naturally NFC Defensive Player of the Week.

PFF attempts to qualify the performance of a player over the course of an entire game and thus weighs a run stop on 2nd and 3 in the first quarter equally to a run stop on 3rd and 1 with the game on the line in the fourth quarter. This is essentially what the baseball metrics folks do. They believe players play to their numbers.

But football is a situational sport. If your analytics tell you Shea McClellin played poorly Monday night, you have to acknowledge in the text of that piece the limitations of your analytics.

I responded via Twitter:

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My spot with Marty Tirrell and Trent Condon starts a bit after the six-minute mark.

We don’t want to overstate the importance of Monday night’s game at Lambeau for Bears head coach Marc Trestman but sometimes we can’t help it. Packers games always feel a bit bigger than others and primetime games are the ones national media members use to deliver their misguided opinions. (Hey, maybe they are a good offense but they weren’t good when I saw them so they’re not good!”) Like it or not, the Bears will dominate the conversation across the sports world Tuesday morning.

Is it a pivotal game for Trestman? It can be. If the Bears deliver an intense, noteworthy performance (especially on defense) all the credit will go to Trestman as his captains have been sidelined with injury. If Josh McCown leads the offense up and down the field against Green Bay, all the credit will go to Trestman for whispering to yet another mediocre quarterback. Nothing is expected from the Bears. Everything they produce will be credited to the new head coach.

That is what comes from being the offensive “savior” in a city starved for offense. Read More …

Wednesday afternoon I appeared with my friend Marty & Trent on ESPN Radio (1490 the Jock) in Des Moines, Iowa. They like me. Here is the audio.

SAVE THE DATE!

DaBearsBlog will be co-hosting a charitable benefit in Chicago on Sunday night, December 8th with Bears legend Otis Wilson.

The event will be co-hosted by a new organization called Art of Men (pairing men with volunteer projects across the country) and raise money for the Otis Wilson Charitable Association. TICKETS WILL ONLY BE $20 and will include drink deals. All proceeds will go directly to the OWCA.

What.

To celebrate the following evening’s Mike Ditka number retirement ceremony, we’ll be hosting a:

Mike Ditka Look-a-Like/Impersonation Contest.

Come dressed in your best Mike Ditka costume and bring your best Grabowski-laced voice.

Celebrity judges will include Super Bowl Champion Otis Wilson and other members of the 1985 Chicago Bears. 

Contest winner will receive two tickets to the Monday night Bears game vs. the Dallas Cowboys, including the Ditka jersey number retirement ceremony at halftime.

There will also be a Christmas toy drive and various raffles for Bears-related memorabilia as well as large screens showing the Sunday night game featuring the Green Bay Packers and Atlanta Falcons.

When.

Sunday Night, December 8th

Doors Open at 7:00 pm.

Where.

Double Door

1572 N. Milwaukee Avenue, Chicago

Wicker Park

To visit the venue’s website, click here.

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Tickets will be available for purchase in the next week or so through the Double Door’s website. I will update when that time comes. For any questions regarding the event, please email me: jeff@dabearsblog.

Most would consider the eighth game the halfway point of a sixteen game season. Those people are what I refer to as math-dependent. The Bears have played seven games and now must wait fifteen days before playing again as they lick their injury wounds. Hell, the team is off this entire week. If ever there was a line of demarcation signally HALFWAY, this is it.

So what follows are responses to the first half, thoughts on the second half and the normal awards, predictions and general folly that have filled this space lo these eight years. You’re not going to see everything below but you’ll see the things on my mind. I’ll leave it to you from there.

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Did you ever think the day would come? Did you ever think we’d be sitting here post game discussing an offense so good they can put up forty with a backup quarterback and a defense so bad they can’t make that number stick? Well that’s exactly where we are.

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Yes I am spending a third day at the DBB focused on the piece I wrote Monday regarding Brandon Marshall’s green cleats, the NFL fine and the league’s embarrassing mental health record. If you haven’t had an opportunity to read a rare piece of journalism from this part of the internet world, please CLICK HERE and do so.

Why a third day? Because I believe it wrong to succumb to the 24-hour news cycle and let a piece I am proud of and truly believe in be swept into the “yesterday’s news” category. And the responses I’ve received from a wide range of individuals leads to believe the column had a nice impact. So, really, what’s one more day? Could I really make a larger impact with this week’s installment of Audibles From the Long Snapper? (This week’s game preview will be posted first thing Thursday morning.)

Responses have been wonderful and what follows are some of the responses I’ve personally received. Please feel free to send along yours to jeff@dabearsblog.com.

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Yesterday in my column about about the NFL fining Brandon Marshall, I wrote:

What if the word concussion did not exist? What if the NFL was forced to label the injuries sustained in football games as what they are: traumatic brain injuries. Would there be traumatic brain injury-related symptoms? Would they put traumatic brain injury in parentheses like hip or ankle?

Limited: Matthew Stafford (Traumatic Brain Injury)

Last year I did an interview with Cameron Worrell that I hadn’t intended as a discussion on concussions. But that’s where the conversation went. What he revealed was quite frightening and I think it is a perfect addendum to yesterday’s piece.