Jaire Alexander had much to say about the Bears matchup

The Chicago Bears started of their season with an exciting upset over the San Francisco 49ers in Week 1. Their Week 2 opponent, the Green Bay Packers, had a pathetic showing against the Minnesota Vikings in a 23-7 defeat. The loss didn’t appear to humble Packers cornerback Jaire Alexander, who seems to relish in the opportunity to play the Bears.

Recently history should give Alexander confidence going into the Week 2 matchup on Sunday Night Football. The Packers have won six straight games in their series with the Bears. It’s a rivalry game that Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers has claimed to “own.”

On Friday, Alexander made comments that backed up Rodgers’ statements last season. Per Ryan Wood of USA Today, Alexander made comments that rub salt in the wounds of Bears fans.

“It’s fun. It’s exciting,” Alexander says. “I always say, ‘Things could be a lot worse. I could be a Bears fan.’”

That hits below the belt.

Both teams’ players have been putting up “bulletin board” material

Jaire Alexander made quite a few more comments Friday. He wants a shutout. Alexander also wants Packers fans showing up lit. He wasn’t the only player making exciting comments before the rivalry game. Bears backup defensive end Trevis Gipson promised a win Sunday night.

It’s fair to say this game will have a lot of emotions between the players on each team. Bragging rights will be on the line during their primetime contest.

As for Jaire Alexander, he needs to focus on playing better defense. His secondary got absolutely rocked by Vikings wide receiver Justin Jefferson in Week 1. Jefferson made Alexander look ridiculous. I’ll keep repeating Sunday night, “Things could always be a lot worse. I could have this play on my film record.”

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A 71-year woman died early Saturday in a house fire that also injured a firefighter and a man in Roseland on the Far South Side, officials said.

About 4 a.m., officers were called to the 10500 block of South Forest Avenue for a fire on the second floor of the home, according to Chicago police.

The woman was found unresponsive and taken to Roseland Community Hospital, where she was pronounced dead, police said.

Another person in the house, a 77-year-old man, was listed in critical condition at the same hospital, Chicago fire officials said.

A responding firefighter was taken to Little Company of Mary Hospital with a knee injury from a fall, fire officials said. He was listed in good condition.

The cause of the fire wasn’t immediately known.

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The Fire’s availability report for Tuesday’s 3-2 loss to CF Montr?al was too long to list here, with seven players out and another questionable due to injuries.

That begs the question: Why are the Fire so banged up? Is coach Ezra Hendrickson to blame? Is the team’s performance staff not doing its job? Or is it luck?

“Well, you know, injuries happen,” Hendrickson said. “We have had some unfortunate ones. I think we have a very good training staff. The high-performance people are [a] very knowledgeable staff that we have.”

Hendrickson said most of the injuries — specifically Kacper Przybylko’s back problem –were chronic issues that players had coming into the season. Yet as the year has worn on, more and more Fire contributors have found themselves on the shelf. And for the Fire, the absences couldn’t have come at a worse time.

There have been opportunities for young players such as Andre Reynolds II, but the problems have led Hendrickson to make other adjustments like starting defender Jonathan Bornstein as a central midfielder. That decision — in part due to Federico Navarro’s suspension for yellow card accumulation — was costly, as the veteran committed a turnover that led directly to a CF Montreal goal.

“We do our best we can as a staff, as a club, to protect our players,” Hendrickson said. “Sometimes maybe guys play a little longer than maybe they should or we didn’t rotate some games that maybe we should have, but all in all I thought we did what we can to make sure that guys are available. Because for a coach, the most important thing, doesn’t matter how good a player is, if he’s not available to play it’s very difficult. So we try to do our best as a complete staff to make sure we limit those injuries.

“But they have happened, and we have to deal with them and move on. We can’t really point fingers right now because we are all in this together and we are all trying to make this club a successful club, and it’s going to take everyone with that kind of mentality and that kind of focus for it to happen.”

Managing injuries is incredibly important for any team, and maybe more so for the Fire.

Their depth, an obstacle even before attrition set in, was going to be worth monitoring. And their biggest name, designated player Xherdan Shaqiri, has international commitments with Switzerland that add to his workload, and he isn’t exactly known for his durability.

Along with improving the roster, figuring out how to keep more players healthy should be one of the key goals this offseason.

“We’ll get this thing sorted out, get guys back on the pitch as quickly as we can,” Hendrickson said. “And moving forward we just make sure we do what we can as a club to make sure that player availability is something that’s front and foremost because that’s what it takes to win games in this league. You have to have the players to do it but every team has some injuries. We just have to manage it better and deal with our injuries the best way we can, and I think that’s what we’ve been trying to do.”

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Look, this frustrating White Sox season is all Tony La Russa’s fault.

Or maybe it’s Rick Hahn’s and Kenny Williams’ fault.

Or is it the players’ fault?

But wait: What about the man who sits at the top of all this? Is it Jerry Reinsdorf’s fault?

In this week’s “Polling Place” — your home for Sun-Times sports polls on Twitter — we asked who’s chiefly to blame if the Sox fail to reach the postseason.

“It’s so easy to pick the owner,” @ShawnaP79 commented, “but this is on La Russa. You see the difference since he has been gone.”

“La Russa is the problem,” @TimothyMccue2 wrote, “but the owner is who put him in charge.”

More voters were in line with the latter take.

We also asked about Notre Dame: Is this going to be a losing season for the 0-2 Irish? And, of course, we asked about Sunday’s Bears-Packers game in Green Bay. Dare we even consider the possibility of a Bears win?

Offered @VerbanEmil, “I’m drunk with hope.”

Bottoms up, and on to the polls:

Poll No. 1: Who is at the top of the blame list if the White Sox fail to make the playoffs?

Upshot: The front office is getting an undeserved pass, according to @ScottTKennedy, who cites a weaker pitching staff than the Sox had in 2021. The players are the real problem, say @TFroehlig and @raulbarrogan43. Whatever the truth is, the bottom line is the Sox have to win like crazy the rest of the way or else they’ll go down in local history as the frustrating duds they’ve already been for five-plus months.

Poll No. 2: Is Notre Dame — off to an 0-2 start — headed for its first losing season since 2016?

Upshot: Saturday’s home game against Cal shouldn’t — again, shouldn’t — be a problem, but there are so many potential losses left on the schedule. You want us to name them? Fine: North Carolina, BYU, Clemson, USC. Wait, those are just the obvious ones. You’ll just have to take our word for it that there could be some other miserable Saturdays in the mix for the Irish.

Poll No. 3: The Bears are 9 1/2 -point underdogs in Green Bay on Sunday. What’s your pick?

a. Packers cover (XX%)

b. Packers win, Bears cover (XX%)

c. Bears win outright (XX%)

Upshot: Remember that one guy who was drunk with hope? He has lots of company. The Packers have treated the Bears like trash for a good three decades, but voters see a close game coming and — more of them than we can believe — a Bears win at Lambeau Field. We don’t want them to be wrong, mind you, but let’s just say we’re a tad less cautiously optimistic.

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Isometimes wonder if you try to guess my weekly theme before you open your copy of Sports Saturday (for which we are all appreciative that you do). I’m sure that it is of no surprise to you that I couldn’t let an event as momentous as the change in the monarchy in Great Britain, an event that has captured the world’s attention, go without inclusion in our weekly quiz.

Now, I am not deeply invested in the royal family, but I have respect for the dedication that Queen Elizabeth had to service in her lifetime. And, yes, I am slightly dismayed that King Charles is not referring to himself as “King Chuck.” I do have some royalty on my r?sum?. There was a period when I was known as “The Czar of Entertainment” on Boston television. But enough about me. It’s time for the weekly quiz. May you reign supreme.

1. After the death of King George VI, Princess Elizabeth Alexandra Mary ascended to the throne on Feb. 6, 1952, at age 25. How many World Series were Chicago teams in during Queen -Elizabeth’s monarchy?

a. 5

b. 4

c. 3

d. 2

2. On May 15, 1991, the A’s visited the Orioles at Memorial Stadium. Also on that date, Queen Elizabeth and Prince Phillip visited the ballpark. They saw Hall of Famers Rickey Henderson, Cal Ripken Jr., Harold Baines, Dennis Eckersley and Tony La Russa. The queen was accompanied to the game by the President and the First Lady. Who were they?

3. Cecil Fielder played 13 seasons in the AL and hit 319 homers. He’s still alive, which is why his son, Prince, is not King Fielder. Prince, who played 12 seasons, seven in the NL and five in the AL, also hit 319 homers. Which Fielder (as a batter) hit more home runs against Chicago teams?

4. Here’s another royal father/son question. Pitcher Mel Queen had a son, Mel, who was no Shohei Ohtani, but he did start his career as an outfielder and finished as a pitcher. As much as I would have liked, for the purposes of this question, neither played for a Chicago team. So, here are some fathers who played in the bigs. Which (if any) played for a Chicago team?

a. Jose Cano

b. Tito Francona

c. Dave LaRoche

d. Steve Swisher

5. He was known as “King Felix.” -Pitcher Felix Hernandez won 169 games for the Mariners, but he was 0-1 against the Cubs and 7-7 against the White Sox. Against the Sox, in 143 2/3 innings, King Felix struck out 125 and allowed 21 homers. Jim Thome hit the most Sox homers against Hernandez. Did he:

a. Have more homers than strikeouts?

b. Strike out more than he homered?

c. Have the same number of homers and whiffs?

6. In the 1970s and ’80s, there was a surly ballplayer with a somewhat redundant last name, Dave Kingman. He played three years for the Cubs and had a memorable season in 1979, when he slammed 48 homers, drove in 115 runs, slugged .631, had an OPS of .956 and struck out 131 times. Kingman led the league in four of those five categories. In which did he finish second to Dave Winfield?

7. The Kansas City Royals were born in 1969. Three of the four players listed below played for the Royals, Cubs and White Sox. Which one didn’t?

a. Tom Gordon

b. Billy Hamilton

c. Pete LaCock

d. Moe Drabowsky

8. George Herman Ruth had many nicknames, but of all of them, the most famous was “the Babe.” Many of his nicknames were related to royalty, such as “the Sultan of Swat.” Here are four nicknames. I may or may not have made up some of them. Please determine which are real and which are from the quizmaster’s fertile (or fertilizer-filled) brain.

a. “The Earl of Boston”

b. “The Maharajah of Mash”

c. “The King of Swing”

d. “The Baron of Brews”

9. Paul Goldschmidt is having a wonderful season. While it’s less prestigious than it once was, Goldy is trying for the Triple Crown, leading in batting average, home runs and RBI (please, don’t use or say RBIs; it’s not “Runs Batted Ins”). Who was the last NL Triple Crown winner?

a. Jimmie Foxx

b. Frank Robinson

c. Joe Medwick

d. Chipper Jones

ANSWERS

1. The Cubs reached and won the World Series in 2016. The White Sox reached and won the World Series in 2005. However, the Sox also reached but lost the Series to the Dodgers in 1959. The answer is three, but as Meat Loaf sang, “Two out of three ain’t bad.”

2. President George H.W. Bush and First Lady Barbara Bush.

3. Prince Fielder hit 22 homers against the Cubs and seven against the White Sox for a total of 29. Cecil hit 34 against the Sox and never played the Cubs, which means the elder Fielder is king and the younger remains Prince.

4. Jose’s son Robinson never played for Chicago. Tito’s son Terry played for the Cubs in 1986. Dave LaRoche had two sons in the majors. Adam ended his career in 2015 with the White Sox, but Andy never played in Chicago. Steve Swisher was a catcher for four seasons with the Cubs, and, yes, his son Nick Swisher played for the White Sox in 2008.

5. Now, I know you think the quizmaster loves it when the total is the same, but that’s not the answer. I loved this question because, with the White Sox, Thome hit three homers against King Felix and struck out only twice. That’s why the guy is in the Hall.

6. In 1979, Dave Winfield led the NL with 118 RBI, the most of his career and the only time he led the league in any major batting category.

7. Pete LaCock (son of Peter Marshall, famed host of Hollywood Squares) played his entire career with the Royals and the Cubs. The other three played for all three teams.

8. “The Maharajah of Mash” and the “King of Swing” were real.

9. It’s been awhile since Joe Medwick won the crown with the Cardinals in 1937 with a .374 batting average, 31 HR and 154 RBI. That season, “Ducky” also led with 156 games played, 111 runs scored, 237 hits, 56 doubles, slugging, OPS, OPS+ and total bases.

See you next week, and don’t forget to write. It looks like we will have a great end to the regular season.

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Even the benefit of the doubt has its statute of limitations.

The Bulls’ front office is about to find out exactly when that runs out.

Hint: The honeymoon is just about over.

This will be the third season for executive vice president of basketball operations Arturas Karnisovas and general manager Marc Eversley, and, on the surface, it should bring about even more excitement to an NBA scene that hasn’t been relevant since the former r?gime made the embarrassing mistake of thinking it was smarter than former coach Tom Thibodeau.

And by the time John Paxson and Gar Forman made the erroneous decision to trade Jimmy Butler, trusting in their ability to undertake a rebuild in 2017, their job graves already were dug.

RIP, Gar/Pax.

To Karnisovas’ credit, he inherited a mess but showed an ability for a quick cleanup. By the end of their first season, Karnisovas and Eversley had acquired a second All-Star in Nikola Vucevic, had a coach in Billy Donovan who was respected by the players and the league and had guard Zach LaVine playing like a top-25 player.

Then in Year 2, the DeMar DeRozan sign-and-trade was one of the best moves of the 2021 offseason, Ayo Dosunmu was a second-round steal and, more important, the Bulls were a playoff team for the first time since Butler was sent out.

In markets such as Denver, Cleveland or Detroit, that would be quite a story.

But this is Chicago. The Bulls are a global brand. A statue in the atrium of the United Center serves as a reminder.

Karnisovas and Eversley have done a solid job of flipping the house for a lot of happy customers, but a closer inspection shows some defects and shortcuts that could be exposed this season.

First and foremost is the decision to focus on “continuity.”

That was the buzzword the day after the Bucks sent the Bulls home in five games in the first round of the playoffs and remained the buzzword all offseason.

It was almost unavoidable as a result of all the injuries but also because the front office sort of painted itself into a roster corner by sending out key draft assets for Vucevic. Either way, there was no straying from that blueprint.

Andre Drummond and Goran Dragic were added for depth, but the big move was maxing LaVine for $215 million over the next five years. And the Bulls must hope the training room will be less crowded.

The problem with that plan is that there are 14 other teams in the Eastern Conference, and five of them already were better than the Bulls last season, and nothing has changed there.

The Heat, Bucks and Raptors stayed the course, the Celtics added Malcolm Brogdon and the 76ers picked up P.J. Tucker.

Then there are the teams that reside in the same area code as the Bulls.

The Nets are poised to jump to the top of the East by keeping Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving and Ben Simmons after a turbulent summer, the Hawks added All-Star Dejounte Murray and the Cavaliers acquired Donovan Mitchell to go along with an up-and-coming roster that has arrived.

There’s a good chance the Bulls could win close to 50 games and still be battling for a play-in spot.

The second concern is the idea that a suddenly healthy Lonzo Ball (knee) and Alex Caruso catapult the Bulls to contender status.

In five seasons, Ball has missed an average of 32 games per year. And while Caruso has been more available, his playing style is better suited for Sundays wearing a helmet and shoulder pads.

Finally, there are the two elephants in the room.

LaVine is being paid like a top-20 player, and that means he should play like a top-20 player at both ends. Patrick Williams was a No. 4 overall pick, and that means playing like a top pick. If either comes up short, the failure gets filed under big misses by this front office.

Karnisovas was hired to be an organizational-changer. He has done that so far.

But rebuilding back toward mediocrity never should’ve been the job description.

This season will tell a lot. Karnisovas & Co. are about to find out just how much.

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Key matchup

A seasonlong quest to establish a running game to facilitate the development of Justin Fields continues against a Packers defense that might be better than the 49ers’ defense the Bears struggled against last week.

Running backs David Montgomery (17 carries, 26 yards, 1.5 average) and Khalil Herbert (9-45, 5.0, one touchdown) combined for 26 carries for 71 yards (2.7 average) against the 49ers. They’ll likely have to be more productive against the Packers to pull off another upset.

The onus is on the Bears’ interior line of center Sam Mustipher and guards Cody Whitehair and Teven Jenkins/Lucas Patrick to be better in Week 2. The Packers counter with run-stopping nose tackle Kenny Clark and linebacker De’Vondre Campbell, who had 146 tackles last year and 11 last week against the Vikings.

The Bears didn’t give up on the run and still ended up with 99 rushing yards against the 49ers. The perseverance was as encouraging to players as much as anything. Now they have to take a step forward against another quality defense.

Trending

The Packers, who lost their opener 23-7 to the Vikings on the road, have never lost consecutive regular-season games in three seasons under Matt LaFleur. They’re 9-0 in games after a loss, averaging 31.9 points and winning by an average of two touchdowns.

Player to watch

Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers is 23-4 with a 109.2 passer rating (61 touchdown passes, 12 interceptions) in the 27 games he has started and finished against the Bears. He’s 10-1 against the Bears since 2016.

But Rodgers has been even better recently, going 4-0 with a 141.5 rating (14 touchdown passes, no interceptions) the last two seasons. The last Bear to intercept Rodgers was safety Eddie Jackson in a 24-17 Bears victory in 2018.

“You’re facing one of the best in history,” Bears defensive coordinator Alan Williams said. “That’s a guy that has a ton of experience. You’re not going to trick him. You’re not going to fool him. He’s super-accurate. Can throw from different angles. One of the best ‘B’-gap escape guys in football. You have to play a complete football game”

X-factor

Can Matt Eberflus give the Bears a game-day coaching advantage? The win over the 49ers was marked by second-half adjustments — they outscored the Niners 19-3 in the second half.

Maybe that was just a one-off, but this game will be a good test of that. The Bears have been consistently outfoxed by the Packers in the Rodgers era on both sides of the ball. The Packers outscored them 121-54 in the second half in eight games under Matt Nagy — and 25 of the Bears’ points came after they fell behind 41-10 in 2020 and 21-3 in the fourth quarter in 2019.

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