Democratic nominee Alexi Giannoulias is planning to release two new television campaign ads to air in the Chicago area on Tuesday — the first batch in his general election race to succeed retiring Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White.
And once again they feature the former state treasurer playing basketball with children, a theme he introduced in his primary election campaign, which saw the Near North Side Democrat handily defeating City Clerk Anna Valencia and Ald. David Moore (17th).
Giannoulias now faces Republican Dan Brady, a veteran state representative from Bloomington, and Libertarian Jon Stewart in the November election.
An ad called “Promise” features Giannoulias teaching kids basketball skills and vowing to clean up government “for everyone, whether you are a Democrat or a Republican.”
“As secretary of state, I’ll keep politics out of the office, so that when these kids are old enough to pay taxes, they’ll get better services and less corruption,” Giannoulias says. “And yes, some more ice cream, too.”
If elected, Giannoulias has said he’ll enact an executive order on Day One to eliminate pay-to-play politics by prohibiting contractors from doing business with the office and banning employees from contributing to his campaign fund. An ethics plan has been a key promise of Giannoulias’ campaign, even as his primary opponents tried to bring up baggage from his past, including controversies surrounding his family’s failed bank.
Another commercial dubbed “Skip The Line” features antsy kids waiting in line to play hoops, with Giannoulias, as a narrator, detailing plans to modernize the office by making appointments online, creating digital drivers licenses and a vow of “no more waiting in line” at drivers’ license facilities.
“It doesn’t matter if you’re a Democrat or Republican. Government needs to step up and make life easier for everyone,” Giannoulias says. “With modernized services, saving time and money could be a slam dunk.”
The bipartisan theme comes as Giannoulias tries to reach out to downstate voters. But the ads will first run simultaneously Tuesday on broadcast and cable, beginning with Chicago and the collar counties.
Giannoulias’ campaign said the TV spots feature new footage from the same filming that was used in his primary ads. In one of those primary ads, Giannoulias called former President Barack Obama his “friend and basketball buddy.”
Giannoulias was the fundraising leader in the primary. Campaign finance records show his campaign had $773,259.33 cash on hand at the end of June. Since then, he’s received more than $1.6 million in contributions.
Brady has $95,298.33 cash on hand, records show.
Brady, a 21-year General Assembly veteran and deputy minority leader, has promised to modernize the secretary of state’s office. Brady beat former federal prosecutor John Milhiser in the primary election 77% to 23% to win the GOP bid.
The Blackhawks defenseman will miss 10-12 weeks from Tuesday after undergoing cervical spine surgery, the team announced.
That timeline puts his return in approximately late November or early December, meaning he’ll likely miss the first 15 to 25 games of the regular season.
He missed all but 13 games of the 2021 pandemic-shortened season with the Sabres while recovering from knee surgery, too. He began last season shaky as a result of that long time off, too, but he managed to play in 75 of 82 games, averaging 20:18 of ice time per game and recording four goals, 18 assists and 166 hits.
He said in April he was “pretty unhappy” with how his first Hawks season went, particularly from a team perspective.
“Yeah, it sucks,” he said. “But I’m committed to helping turn this thing around here and continuing to work my butt off every night and trying to help us find a culture and identity here.”
McCabe’s early-season absence further explains why the Hawks signed free-agent defenseman Jack Johnson in order to have six established NHL defensemen under contract.
With only five immediately available — and that assumes Connor Murphy, coming off a major concussion, is good to go –the Hawks’ numerous arguably NHL-ready prospect defensemen, including Ian Mitchell, Alec Regula and Alex Vlasic, will now have a spot in the opening night lineup to fight for.
The Hawks also announced Tuesday that prospect forward Jalen Luypen, a 2021 seventh-round pick who signed his entry-level contract in August, will miss 14 to 18 weeks due to a left rotator cuff injury.
It took a day to digest the box of Pizza Hut chicken wings I had during the Chicago Bears’ win against the San Francisco 49ers Sunday. It was an improbable win after a first half that had me scrolling my news feed for coverage on the Death of Queen Elizabeth that had the Bears looking like a Jimbo Fisher coached team what national analysts had predicted this offseason.
The second half was near unwatchable for the rest of the NFL’s fans was a different story. Justin Fields turned this team around and showed the organization he would be the leader they drafted him to be. Fields finished the game with 121 more passing yards than Trevor Siemian with two touchdowns but that’s not the full story.
Fields resilience in the face of whoever Braxton Jones was blocking a 10-point second-half deficit was inspiring. On a drive where Fields should have been picked off a few plays earlier the offense had to come away with something; Fields escaped the pocket to throw a dime to Dante Pettis, who took it in for a score.
I’ll admit, when the ball was caught, my first thought was who the hell is Dante Pettis? should Fields have just made the check down? But the second-year quarterback is coming into his own. After that touchdown, Bears fans knew that Darnell Mooney looked like a fifth-round draft pick that head coach Matt Eberflus would have the team bring this one home.
Weather helped the Chicago Bears out
Speaking of home, the rain certainly helped the Bears’ cause. Grounds crews at Soldier Field did what they could to squeegee off standing water that looked cleaner than what you’d pour from Jackson, Mississippi tap before the game. But the field was still normal for the Bears bad. Trey lance seemed lost in it. (So did his coach Jeremy Strong Kyle Shanahan.) At least in the second half. But his day wasn’t as bad as Scott Frost’s is one he will learn from.
The Bears’ defense looked like a group from the Senior Bowl held up its end of the bargain after giving up the first two scores. Early on, the defense gave up big plays to the 49ers. But the defense created turnovers and forced sacks to keep the fantasy points at a premium 49ers from scoring. Their performance has me worried about playing Justin Jefferson seems to indicate they’ll stay in most games. Kudos to rookie Dominique Robinson. His performance didn’t make me forget about Khalil Mack was impressive in his first NFL game.
This Chicago Bears team looks different than Matt Nagy’s bunch
This team is going to break my heart in December will surprise people this season. The Bears proved they can finish a game. When the Bears went up 19-10 I remembered how the 2016 Bears win over the 49ers is still one they’re paying for what it was like to be excited about the teams future. Imagine what Eberflus and Fields can do with drafted players once they have cap space. The team looks to have bought into his vision.
That’s ultimately all going to matter this season what the change at the top was all about. The Bears play the Packers this Sunday and I’m stupidly getting my hopes up in a test that will determine how much progress this team has made. If the Bears could beat the Packers, the NFL will investigate the organization for PED use this might be a hell of a season. If they get blown out again on SNF, it might be time to rewatch Game of Thrones on Sunday’s the long season it was supposed to be. But for now, the Bears are at the top of the division. I’ll take it.
THE CHICAGO BULLS were hosting the Golden State Warriors on Jan. 14 in a marquee matchup featuring, at the time, the top seed in the East versus the top seed in the West, but one that quickly turned into a disaster for the home team.
Bulls guard Zach LaVine had already left the game in the opening minutes of the first quarter because of a knee injury that would linger for the rest of the season and now the Bulls were trailing by more than 30 points with about five minutes to go in the third quarter.
After Stephen Curry knocked down another 3-pointer to extend the Warriors’ lead, Bulls coach Billy Donovan called a timeout with 5:02 remaining in the game. Coming out of the huddle, rookie guard Ayo Dosunmu replaced a wincing Lonzo Ball for the duration, a seemingly innocuous move with the team facing such a large deficit.
Ball’s health wasn’t even a topic during the postgame news conference that night, with concerns about LaVine’s MRI scheduled for the following day and the Bulls’ third double-digit loss in four games dominating the conversation.
Unbeknownst to everyone at the time, including Ball himself, he would not play another minute for the rest of the 2021-22 season.
Ball was ruled out of the following game the next day because of left knee soreness. By the next week, the team announced he would require arthroscopic knee surgery with a recovery timeline of six to eight weeks.
Ball was the catalyst for Chicago’s red-hot start through the first half of last season with his pesky defense serving as a constant disrupter, his vision in the passing lanes producing easy transition baskets and his knowledge of the game leaving teammates raving. The Bulls were off to a 27-13 start when Ball injured his knee; they finished 19-23 down the stretch without him.
Lonzo Ball was originally scheduled to return to basketball activities in March after a knee injury but had various setbacks. The team announced his season was over on April 6, and he will not return through the preseason. Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports
Ball turns 25 on Oct. 27 but played in 35 games last season, a career low during his five-year NBA tenure. But even in a handful of games, Ball’s talent and impact on the court has been clear. What has been less clear has been his ability to stay healthy.
“He’s gotten better every year; he was having another career year last year,” Bulls guard Alex Caruso told ESPN earlier this month. “Shooting was lights out, the usage was up, assist percentage was up. Defensively, me and him went like top 5-10 guards in the league, on ball defense.
“We were that team last year [that couldn’t stay healthy]. After maybe November, I don’t think we had a full team, even through the playoffs. [Ball] is a worker, so he’ll come back ready.”
Now eight months have passed, and it remains unclear when Ball will be ready to rejoin the Bulls. There is confidence the bone bruise and meniscus tear is structurally sound following the surgery, but Ball still experiences pain when attempting certain basketball activities. Sources told ESPN earlier this month that Ball is not expected to participate when the team begins training camp, and he seems almost certain to miss the start of the regular season.
Here is a timeline of how a projected eight-week return for Ball turned into a summer filled with question marks.
Jan. 19, 2022: Donovan tells reporters Ball’s left knee is not responding to the team’s initial treatment plan.
Jan. 20, 2022: Ball is diagnosed with a bone bruise and small meniscus tear in his left knee that will require arthroscopic surgery following an “initial period of rest and targeted intervention.”
2 Related
Jan 28, 2022: Ball undergoes surgery in Los Angeles with Dr. Neal Elattrache.
March 12, 2022: During a video produced by the team, Ball is shown lifting weights and running on the court at the team practice facility, and he says: “Feeling pretty good. Obviously, it’s a slow process. I definitely want to get back on the court as soon as possible.”
March 21, 2022: With Ball experiencing discomfort while running, the Bulls announce they will “pull back” on Ball’s rehab process, pushing him past the initial timeline.
March 31, 2022: Ball restarts the rehab process.
April 6, 2022: The Bulls officially rule Ball out for the rest of the 2021-22 season and playoffs. In a news release, the team says he is still experiencing pain with high-level physical activity.
WITH THREE GAMES remaining in the regular season — on the morning between back-to-back games against the Milwaukee Bucks and Boston Celtics, two of Chicago’s most likely potential playoff opponents — the Bulls officially announced Ball would not return for the 2021-22 season.
By that point, the announcement felt like a fait accompli. The previous night, following a double-digit loss to the Bucks, Demar DeRozan was asked about the impact Ball made this season and reminisced on the “swagger and excitement” Ball’s presence had brought to the team before finishing by saying Ball’s “health is more important than anything.”
The Bulls knew they were running up against the clock, but they had hoped a 10-day pause near the end of March would help with the discomfort Ball was feeling from running. When Donovan admitted earlier in the week Ball was having the same issues when they tried to ramp him back up, the end of his season seemed near. After the season, Ball acknowledged he was “going at it pretty hard” trying to get back on the court.
The Bulls were in first place for most of the first half of the season before their roster started getting decimated by injuries, and there was internal belief in giving their roster another chance, alongside the return of Patrick Williams, who missed most of last season because of a wrist injury.
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“Especially for the younger guys it’ll be a lot better for them just to kind of already have that understanding of what we want to try and do,” Caruso said. “For the older guys on the team, it’s understanding how everybody likes to get to their spots. What you’re going to get from everybody night in and night out so you understand how to play with guys or what looks they’re looking for coming off pick-and-rolls or transition or isolation.
“I think that extra year of us not having to learn on the go is going to be really beneficial.”
Before Ball’s injury, the Bulls ranked sixth in points per game off turnovers while Ball ranked in the top 10 in the league in transition assists. He shot a career-high 42.3% from 3 on 7.4 attempts per game helping keep Chicago’s 3-point shooting afloat — despite taking the fewest number of 3s in the NBA (30.3 attempts per game), the Bulls made them with the highest frequency (38.6%).
However, in Ball’s absence, those traits all but disappeared from the Bulls’ offense. They plunged toward the bottom in points per game off turnovers (26th) and failed to replicate his 3-point shooting, still attempting the fewest 3s in the league but now making them with the 22nd-most frequency.
During their first-round playoff series, Milwaukee all but dared Chicago to beat it from behind the line, and the Bulls couldn’t capitalize, shooting a league-worst 28% from 3 in the postseason.
“Every time you watch the game, you feel like you can leave an impact on the game,” Ball said during his end of the season exit interview in April. “I feel like my shooting could’ve for sure helped. And also obviously defensively versus the guys they have on the other side that are All-Stars.
“You can’t change what already happened. I couldn’t be out there. So I didn’t tell the guys, ‘Oh, I wish I was out there with y’all.’ Or, ‘I could’ve been doing this if I was there.’ It was more about them. They were there. They were ready. And I was just encouraging them.”
Lonzo Ball watches his teammates struggle against the Milwaukee Bucks during the first round of the 2022 playoffs. Chicago struggled shooting from long distance all series and sorely missed Ball’s productivity. EPA/KAMIL KRZACZYNSKI SHUTTERSTOCK OUT
April 8, 2022: Bulls lose to the Charlotte Hornets, locking them into sixth in the East.
April 20, 2022: Bulls shock the Bucks in Game 2, their last win of the season.
April 27, 2022: The Bulls are eliminated in Game 5 of their first-round series against the Bucks.
April 28, 2022: At his exit interview, Ball says his knee recovery is at a standstill.
“Obviously something needs to be addressed this summer. A lot more leg workouts as opposed to probably upper body. I’m going to work with the doctors and strength coaches and do what I’ve got to do to get healthy.”
May 18, 2022: Ball’s father, Lavar, tells NBC Sports Chicago he took issue with how quickly his son began running again after the surgery. “It’s too fast and it’s too hard, and that’s when I knew he’s not going to be able to play. They’re training him the wrong way.”
June 23, 2022: Speaking to reporters on the night of the NBA draft, Bulls general manager Marc Eversley says Bulls performance staff is working with Ball and Ball’s trainers on his rehab in Los Angeles. When asked whether Ball would be ready for training camp, Eversley says he “certainly hopes so.”
AS THE BULLS’ summer league squad took the floor at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas for their first game against the Dallas Mavericks on July 8, a large contingent of the current Bulls formed a cheering section down the sidelines.
Bulls vice president Arturas Karnisovas and general manager Marc Eversley sat in seats along the baseline aside coach Billy Donovan and a few assistant coaches, while 40% of their current roster sat to their right along the sidelines — DeRozan, Williams, Coby White, Javonte Green, Ayo Dosunmu and Ball.
Ball wore an all-black T-shirt with black shorts while sporting a black Washington Nationals cap. He smiled and politely declined an interview with reporters as to not detract from the summer league team’s 100-99 overtime win that day but said he was doing well as he made toward the exit.
But a few days later during a broadcast of another summer league game Karnisovas delivered a less-than-encouraging assessment of Ball’s status, saying Ball was “getting better, probably not at the speed we would like.”
Since becoming lead executive in April 2020, Karnisovas has flipped the bulk of the roster, with only LaVine and White remaining from the players he inherited. But after 18 months of roster overhaul, “continuity” has been the buzzword while the team remained quiet at both the trade deadline and during the offseason. After re-signing LaVine to a max contract, the Bulls added a couple of veterans in Andre Drummond and Goran Dragic.
“I hope for continuity because we’re constantly competing against teams that have been together for three, four, five years,” Karnisovas said at his exit interview on April 28. “Results come obviously when you keep the same group [and] when you keep the same group longer.”
The Bulls made an attempt to address their lack of shooting in the offseason and were in the running to sign forward Danilo Gallinari before he chose to sign with the Boston Celtics and eventually suffered a torn ACL this summer. Adding a 14-year NBA veteran like Dragic, a career 36.2% 3-point shooter, could help provide a boost from behind the line, but the move was intended to provide guard depth and veteran presence behind the team’s two young guards, Dosunmu and White, per a team source.
But the team’s lack of major additions this offseason once again underscores the heighted importance of getting Ball back this season.
“We missed him greatly this year,” Karnisovas said at the end of last season. “We missed his size, we missed him pushing the break. We got a little bit slower the second half of the season. … We’re missing him, but we also have to pay attention to what’s going on there and we’ll try and figure it out.”
While the Bulls were focused on keeping their roster intact, the Eastern Conference appears to have gotten more competitive around them. The Bulls finished in sixth place in the East last season, but the three teams that finished directly behind them are the Brooklyn Nets, with Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving committed to the roster (for now at least), the Atlanta Hawks and the Cleveland Cavaliers, who made major trades this offseason to add Dejounte Murray and Donovan Mitchell, respectively.
The Bulls have a deep rotation of guards to absorb a potential absence from Ball with LaVine and Caruso rounded out by White, Dosunmu and Dragic coming off the bench. But after returning to the postseason for the first time in five years, the Bulls find themselves in a familiar position for the organization: entering a season with their playoff hopes, perhaps, hinging on the health of their point guard.
Erik Kramer was back in town for the 49ers-Bears game Sunday at Soldier Field, and he slogged out to midfield with a host of other former Bears players who were honored at halftime.
The day was beyond wet, with the signature photo being Bears players hydroplaning through the end-zone swamp after a 19-10 upset victory.
Kramer didn’t partake, of course. None of the old Bears did.
But a lot of things went through the former quarterback’s mind as he watched. Prime among them was how happy he was to be witnessing such a joyful display. Indeed, he’s happy to be witnessing anything at all these days.
As football fans might recall, Kramer — the Bears’ single-season leader in passing yardage and touchdowns (3,838 yards, 29 TDs in 1995) — tried to kill himself in 2015 with a shot below his chin from a handgun purchased for the sole purpose of ending his life.
But the bullet passed through his tongue, his sinus cavity, his frontal lobe and out the top of his head without killing him. It was a one-in-a-million card draw, a pull of a nickel slot machine with gold coins pouring onto the floor.
That is, if he still wanted to live. And he knows now that he did — and does.
As we sat and talked over lunch Saturday, Kramer explained there was a force back then that overwhelmed him in a way that vicious blitzing linebackers never could.
It hit him when he was most vulnerable. It crushed him.
His teenage son Griffen recently had died of an accidental drug overdose, his mother had died not long after of uterine cancer, his father had been diagnosed with terminal esophageal cancer and his marriage had come apart. Of the gunshot not killing him immediately, he shakes his head and says, ”I don’t know how it is possible.”
But it was. And now during Suicide Prevention Awareness Month, Kramer’s story is one people hopefully can learn from. He went to the brink, then over it, and he came back. And that almost never happens.
He recently finished a book manuscript about his nightmarish journey, written with author Bill Croyle, called ”The Ultimate Comeback: Surviving Suicide, Conquering Depression, and Living with a Purpose.”
In it, he writes: ”I regret that I tried to kill myself. I do not regret surviving, and I do not shy away from ever telling my story. I am not ashamed of it. I was sick beyond my control.”
The sickness was depression, a huge, dark beast.
Kramer had battled it off and on for years, including in 1994, his first season with the Bears. The cause was complex and defies simple explanation, like the functioning of the brain itself. But his father’s constant pushing of him to excel in sports as a boy (he made Erik change high schools four times for better quarterbacking opportunities), his mother’s emotional distance, his lack of friends as a youth and his own sensitivity were contributing factors.
”The thing is, killing myself made sense to me at the time,” he says. ”That’s how lost you are.”
He mentions former Steelers quarterback Terry Bradshaw and his public statements about his own depression, a darkness that once caused Bradshaw to cry in the middle of a game.
Kramer seems normal. He might slur a word here or there, but it’s nothing much. He worries about chronic traumatic encephalopathy, which he’s afraid he might have, because who knows how many concussions and subconcussive hits a 10-year NFL quarterback receives. He takes anti-seizure medication and deals with impulse control and anger issues.
But the brain is resilient, and here, after all, is living proof.
Amazingly, you can’t see any evidence of the entrance or exit wounds of the gunshot, other than a dot under Kramer’s chin. His shattered skull from the bullet’s departure expertly was replaced with, as he says, ”high-tech plastic.”
There’s a lesson about the randomness of depression when one considers that Eric Hipple, the Lions’ quarterback not long before Kramer arrived in Detroit in 1991, also suffered from depression badly enough that he tried to kill himself by jumping out of a moving car.
Both men now work with young athletes and their mental health.
Before he left town, Kramer went with several other former Bears to visit Steve McMichael, the once-ferocious defensive lineman now immobilized by amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).
”It was tough,” Kramer says of the visit.
And the irony and mental-health message was manifest. The paralyzed McMichael has whispered often to wife Misty, ”I want to live,” and not that long ago a seemingly healthy Kramer said with a gunshot that he wanted to die.
One of the most interesting aspects of the Bears’ offense in the opener was the way coordinator Luke Getsy leaned on No. 2 running back Khalil Herbert when the game was on the line.
With the Bears ahead 13-10 and holding possession at the 49ers’ 21-yard line after Eddie Jackson’s interception with 9:42 remaining, Herbert got the ball on 4 of 5 plays before he finished the drive with a three-yard touchdown run.
In total, David Montgomery ran 17 times for 26 yards and caught three passes for 24, while Herbert rushed for 45 yards on nine carries and caught one pass for minus-two yards.
Herbert matched Fields for the Bears’ longest run of the day at 12 yards, but even aside from that big play he averaged 4.1 yards per carry.
“Some of them holes were pretty big,” coach Matt Eberflus said in a nod to the offensive line. “And he’s got a good pad level to him. He’s got a good style. The touchdown run was pretty good vision and a really good cut by him.”
Herbert was a sixth-round pick last year (No. 217 overall, 15th among running backs) and showed promise as a rookie with 433 yards rushing (4.2 per carry) and two touchdowns. When Montgomery was out with an injury for four games early in the season, Herbert averaged 86 yards per game and 4.4 per carry.
It’s likely Getsy will look to split the workload between Montgomery and Herbert. When he was on Packers coach Matt LaFleur’s staff last season, A.J. Dillon got 187 carries, and Aaron Jones got 171.
Don’t even try
Bears cornerback Jaylon Johnson said last week the only reason he didn’t have name recognition yet as one of the best players at his position was that he doesn’t get many interceptions. But he defended his work by saying that hardly anyone in the NFL covers receivers as fiercely and consistently as he does.
The 49ers seemed to agree.
Quarterback Trey Lance threw 28 passes, but none to a receiver matched up against Johnson. Johnson played 26 snaps in pass coverage, which is the third-highest without seeing a ball thrown his way by any outside cornerback in the last three seasons.
Penalty-free on offense
The Bears committed just three accepted penalties Sunday, a sign that Eberflus’ insistence on having officials on hand throughout training camp — including Big Ten refs when NFL ones weren’t available — made a difference.
“We use those guys to educate us, and they do a great job when they come in,” he said. “That’s probably our cleanest game, even through the preseason. That’s a tribute to the players who have been paying attention.”
The team averaged 6.2 penalties per game last season.
None of the penalties Sunday were on offense, where the only flag thrown was on an intentional delay of game by Justin Fields for better positioning on a punt. The 49ers declined it.
The 49ers, meanwhile, committed 12 penalties for 99 yards.
Right guard rotation
It’s rare to see drama at right guard of all positions, but there’s plenty of it with the Bears as they try to assess whether former second-round pick Teven Jenkins or free-agent signee Lucas Patrick is better suited for the position.
Jenkins started and played 31 snaps while Patrick played 27 in what Eberflus said was a planned rotation. He gave no indication Monday of which player looked better, saying they both “had a solid performance.”
Neither player was originally brought in to play right guard. Former general manager Ryan Pace drafted Jenkins to be the left tackle of the future. Patrick signed on as a center, but that’s not an ideal position as he plays through a broken thumb on his right hand.
The return of Dak Prescott could be when the Bears travel to Dallas
The Dallas Cowboys were once again hyped up prior to the 2022 season. Their first challenge was against the GOAT Tom Brady and the stacked Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Dallas got manhandled 19-3 but that was not even the worst part. QB Dak Prescott fractured his thumb in the fourth quarter that required surgery. It was a successful surgery that took place earlier today. He will be sidelined 6-8 weeks.
Now, with that return timetable in mind, Prescott is eyeing a return against the Bears on October 30th. However, if he is not ready to go, he will get an extra two weeks rest with a bye week following the Bears matchup.
Dak Prescott is looking at a possible return for either the Oct 30 game vs the #Bears or after the bye, Nov. 13 against the #Packers. https://t.co/KRmADXTOSt
The Cowboys will have a tough time replacing Dak but this surely won’t be the first time where he missed significant time. For now, Cooper Rush looks like the starter, however, Cowboys Head Coach Mike McCarthy says the team will look at other options.
Whichever QB the Bears end up facing, they’ll have to be ready for it. If Dak Prescott suits up, best believe there will be a lot of media attention. Time will tell what type of Dallas team awaits the Bears in a week eight clash.
The name Patrick Mahomes was hard to hear at Halas Hall the last few years, especially as Mitch Trubisky failed to get anywhere close to his level and the Bears knew they’d made a mistake in the 2017 draft.
But that pain has faded, at least a little, and Mahomes’ name sounded pretty good as wide receiver Byron Pringle — a Chief the last three seasons — used it to compliment quarterback Justin Fields on his steady demeanor during the Bears’ late rally to win their season opener against the 49ers.
“I love his composure throughout the game,” Pringle said of Fields. “I like how he handled himself — kind of like the guy from where I left, Pat Mahomes. He’s always calm and being able to progress and keep the offense rolling, not just giving up on the guys because something bad happened early in the game.”
Fields and the Bears’ offense was a mess in the first half, but outscored the 49ers 19-0 in the second. The heavy rain and pooling water on the field was problematic the entire day.
Fields bounced back from a first-half passer rating of 2.8 to complete 5 of 8 passes for 102 yards, two touchdowns and a 145.8 rating in the second half.
Herbert making moves
One of the most interesting aspects of the Bears’ offense in the opener was the way coordinator Luke Getsy leaned on No. 2 running back Khalil Herbert when the game was on the line.
With the Bears ahead 13-10 and holding possession at the 49ers’ 21-yard line after Eddie Jackson’s interception with 9:42 remaining, Herbert got the ball on 4 of 5 plays before he finished the drive with a three-yard touchdown run.
In total, David Montgomery ran 17 times for 26 yards and caught three passes for 24, while Herbert rushed for 45 yards on nine carries and caught one pass for minus-two yards.
Herbert matched Fields for the Bears’ longest run of the day at 12 yards, but even aside from that big play he averaged 4.1 yards per carry.
“Some of them holes were pretty big,” coach Matt Eberflus said in a nod to the offensive line. “And he’s got a good pad level to him. He’s got a good style. The touchdown run was pretty good vision and a really good cut by him.”
Herbert was a sixth-round pick last year (No. 217 overall, 15th among running backs) and showed promise as a rookie with 433 yards rushing (4.2 per carry) and two touchdowns. When Montgomery was out with an injury for four games early in the season, Herbert averaged 86 yards per game and 4.4 per carry.
Trey Lance threw 28 passes, but none to a receiver matched up against Johnson. Johnson played 26 snaps in pass coverage, which is the third-highest without seeing a ball thrown his way by any outside cornerback in the last three seasons.
Right guard rotation
It’s rare to have drama at right guard of all positions, but there’s plenty of it with the Bears as they assess whether former second-round pick Teven Jenkins or free-agent signee Lucas Patrick is better suited for the position.
Jenkins started and played 31 snaps while Patrick played 27 in what Eberflus said was a planned rotation. He gave no indication Monday of which player looked better, saying they both “had a solid performance.”
Neither player was originally brought in to play right guard. Former general manager Ryan Pace drafted Jenkins to be the left tackle of the future. Patrick signed on as a center, but that’s not an ideal position as he plays through a broken thumb on his right hand.
Modern baseball metrics usually don’t address runs batted in.
Things such as runs created, weighted runs created plus and weighted on-base average focus on individual contributions toward scoring. RBI are team-dependent. A hitter whose teammates don’t get on base often enough has an RBI handicap.
We’re seeing some of that this season with White Sox first baseman Jose Abreu.
Now in his ninth season, Abreu has driven in 100 or more runs six times, including 123 in 2019 and 117 in 2021.
This season, he’s at 66 RBI. His only lower total was 60, which led the majors in the 60-game season in 2020.
At .310/.383/.450, Abreu’s .833 OPS isn’t far off his career OPS of .862. His 14 home runs are down for someone who has slugged 30 or more five times, including 30 last season.
Some of the RBI difference between 2021 and 2022 stems from the home-run gap. Last season, Abreu hit 16 bases-empty homers for 16 RBI in which he drove in only himself. This season, he has five bases-empty homers.
In 2021, Abreu hit 14 homers with runners on base, including two grand slams. Those homers drove in 36 runs. This season, nine homers have come with runners on base, with no grand slams and 21 RBI.
That’s a 26-RBI gap on homers, but it still leaves a considerable amount of distance between his 117 RBI last season and his 66 so far this season. That gap will close a bit down the stretch for Abreu, who had 659 plate appearances in 2021 and has 603 to date this season.
Some of the difference comes from Abreu hitting with more runners on base last season. The Sox’ .336 on-base percentage in 2021 has tailed off to .318 in 2022. Along with a drop by others, they’ve missed Tim Anderson (.338 OBP in 2021, .339 in 2022) high in the lineup as injuries have dropped him from 551 plate appearances last season to 351 so far this season.
Abreu hit with 451 runners on base last season. That has faded to 392 this season. The difference is smaller with runners in scoring position, where the Sox had 206 in Abreu’s plate appearances in 2021 and have had 189 in 2022.
If we look back to Abreu’s biggest RBI season — 2019 — we see something similar. He hit with 461 runners on base that season, 221 of them in scoring position.
Abreu steadily has climbed the Sox’ career leaderboard since he arrived from Cuba in 2014 and became an instant hit in the middle of the lineup.
His 854 RBI rank fifth on the Sox’ all-time list behind Frank Thomas (1,465), Paul Konerko (1,383), Luke Appling (1,116) and Harold Baines (981). Earlier this season, Abreu passed Minnie Mi?oso (808) and Eddie Collins (803) on the list.
Abreu is a long-established good hitter, and he’s having a good season with an OPS that ranks 20th in the majors. His RBI count is down, but a hitter can’t control how often his teammates reach base.
Around this time last year, just days before Aaron Rodgers stomped the Bears yet again and taunted the crowd at Soldier Field by screaming, “All my [expletive] life, I own you,” he mentioned — unsolicited — an amusing pattern he’d noticed at Halas Hall.
Every Bears head coach — there have been five during his 15 seasons as Packers starter — blusters about the same thing.
“Themain focusforso many of these coaches’ press conferences in Chicago is beatingthePackers,” he said, knowing every word of it would sting a team he has now beaten 23 of 28 times.
The newest coach to take his shot at Rodgers and the longstanding kings of the NFC North is Matt Eberflus, who will make his debut in the rivalry Sunday night at Lambeau Field. And he’s not giving Rodgers any newmaterial.
Eberflus never even mentioned the Packers by name Monday and rejected the premise that he was hired to dethrone them.
“I don’t look at it that way,” he said. “I really just focus on our process and what we want to get done and how we want to improve every single week.
“We’re writing our book and we’re turning our pages and we’re going to do that one gameat a time.”
That’s fine, but the central conflict to this tale is that he’s following a long line of fallen coaches who couldn’t defeat this super villain. The plot needs to be one of vengeance, or no one is buying Eberflus’ book.
So regardless of whether he wants to discuss it, there’s no doubt his success or failure against the Packers will be one of the key determinants of how long he keeps this job.
The last Bears coach to post a winning record against the Packers was Mike Ditka, who went 15-5 from 1982 through ’92. Since then, Brett Favre and Rodgers shredded everyone except Lovie Smith, who managed what is considered a relatively respectable mark of 8-11.
Dave Wannstedt, Dick Jauron, Marc Trestman, John Fox and Matt Nagy each won two or fewer games and combined to go 6-34. The last three came and went very quickly.
“I mean, sure, I hear things and all that… but we’re going to focus on us,” Eberflus said. “This is going to be about our football team, about how we operate, how we play and what we do.”
There’s prudence in that mentality, but it’s undeniable that the Bears and Packers are always playing a zero-sum game. Their fates are inextricable from each other, and that’s been true for more than a century.
With a new coach and a roster loaded with young players, most of the Bears haven’t been around long enough to truly grasp the exasperation of Rodgers’ domination.
Linebacker Roquan Smith is one of the few who does. His introduction to the rivalry was the maddening collapse in the 2018 opener, and he is now 1-7 against Rodgers and ever eager for his next shot.
He expects Rodgers’ absolute A-game after stumbling in the season-opening loss to the Vikings on Sunday.
“The guy is obviously one of the greatest to ever play the game, and as a competitor myself, I love going against people like that,” Smith said. “I’m sure he will be a little bit [angry] after this last game.
“Hey, you wouldn’t want it any other way — Get the best version of him, and then we get the dub and it will be even sweeter.”
Alright, now it’s getting a little spicier. Anybody else got anything?
“They don’t like us, and we don’t like them,” said wide receiver Byron Pringle, a newcomer. “We already know what type of game it’s going to be.”
That’s hardly a jalape?o compared to, “I own you,” but it’ll do for now.
