Transitions

Now that the baseball season is officially over in Chicago and won’t return again until mid-February (unless you count the winter meetings come December), I can transition over to the Bears.  And hats off to those guys for their 17-3 drubbing of the Carolina Panthers.  Cam Newton couldn’t do a thing against the Chicago defense.  By the end of the game, Newton was sitting alone on the bench doing his best Jay Cutler “what, me care?” impression.

These were the Bears as I’ve always known them.  The defense scored two touchdowns to the offense’s one field goal.  The defense also managed as many sacks of Newton (five) as the offense recorded first downs.  Somewhere, Dick Butkus is nodding his head.

I don’t pretend to know football the way I like to think I know baseball, but that won’t stop me from offering this observation: the coaching staff is coddling rookie quarterback Mitch Trubisky, who threw all of seven (!) times yesterday.  You can’t develop as a passing game if you don’t throw the ball, or so I’ve always been told.  Let Trubisky throw the ball.  The Bears play the Saints next week, which should mean New Orleans will throw the ball a lot—and probably score a lot—with Drew Brees.  Our rookie will have to throw the ball next Sunday whether or not the coaches like it.  Or Coach John Fox can bet on his defense stifling a quarterback for a third straight week.  

Gosh, I wonder which way the Bears will go?