On a 2 week vacation folks, 1 week down. New post coming a week after thursday. Broke even in vegas, didn't have to hit the atm once! That's a win in my book

Bears Lose in Victory Over the Bills

Da Bears won a meaningless pre-season game against the Buffalo Bills Saturday 10-3, but they lost the ability to protect the quarterback (if they ever had it in the first place).

We all know that there was a truncated off-season. We know that the newcomers on the offensive side of the ball didn't have enough time to learn Mad Martz's voluminous playbook. But for Bears' quarterbacks to get sacked nine times is inexcusable.

It wasn't ALL against the Bears' first-team O-line, but they were responsible for four of the nine sacks. Inexcusable nonetheless. On the downs he did play, QB Jay Cutler was running for his life. I'm sure most Bears fans are already predisposed to that anyway.

I'm praying that that won't be the starting five O-linemen come Week 1 against the Atlanta Falcons. Hell, I hope that it won't be the starting five come Monday when Da Bears take on the NY Giants. You remember what happened the last time Da Bears played the Giants, right? I know, I'm trying to forget that ever happened myself.

Tight-end turned incompetent Right Guard Lance "Turnstyle" Louis, as he's becoming to be known, said that he played "Below-average" Saturday night. (I smell a snarky understatement comment coming on). But it's not HIS fault people gave him a job.

Let's see, where does the blame land? Well, it begins with General Manager Jerry Angelo who had an opportunity to sign big mamma jamma Willie Colon, who can play either tackle or guard. But Colon decided to re-up with the Steelers because he got a 5/yr $29M deal with a team that actually has a shot at winning the Super Bowl. Swiiiinng and a miss. (It's not like Angelo has a ton of cap-space to make that sort of deal or anything). Then it trickles down to O-linemen coach Mike Tice, then Lovie Smith, then Martz because I like to blame Martz for a lot of things.

"Turnstyle" became ill during Wednesday's practice, so Tice took that opportunity to move up 2nd-string center Chris Spencer to take the 1st-team reps and move current starting center Roberto Garza back to his comfort-zone at Right Guard. (Garza didn't look particularly good at center Saturday).

I really wish they would switch the tackles and move Carimi to the left to protect Cutler's blindside and move J'marcus Webb back to the right. It's not a dream-team O-line, but you play with the cards Angelo deals you, unfortunately. But for some reason, the coaches are set on having Webb being the LT.

You don't hold a full-house in your hands and only show the pair.

Then again, nobody in the Bears organization is playing with a full deck.

Tune in to the Chicago Sports Fix radio show Friday with Josh Catlow and me, Rob Zielinski from 6 to 8pm only on http://www.chicagolandsportsradio.com/ 

Share your thoughts with us by calling 312-564-7375 during show hours or email chicagosportsfix@gmail.com

PREACH

Aroun' Town in August

Two weeks ago I wrote "Martz seemingly has all the control when it comes to deciding whom should be on the roster when it concerns the offensive side of the ball". Some readers wanted to know why. Well, that's what I was wondering. Da Bears will never give us a straight answer. The truth is, I don't think THEY know why their putting all of their offensive eggs into the Mad Martz basket. My best guess is that they trust the fact that with the personnel he has been pining for, along with the growth of the wide-outs and the overall familiarity with his system, that the offense SHOULD be more successful this season. Now the question is, just how successful will it be?

Zach Zaidman, beat reporter for WSCR, believes that even with Martz getting the toys he wants to play with, he will still call a more balanced game to start the season as he did after the bye-week last season when it comes to run to pass play ratio. Good guess, but WRONG. They don't call him Mad Martz for nuttin'. His throbbing ego won't allow him to call a balanced game. He's got his Bible, er, playbook, and visions of X's executing the drawings that are in his Bible. Unless he's told to peel his convoluted system back and to run between the tackles more often, footballs will be filling the air. That is, if Cutler is allowed the time to reach the seventh step on his seven-step drop.

Last week I wrote that the White Sox' season is OVA! Then they went 6-1 on their recent road trip after sweeping the reeling Minnesota Twins (for the first time since 2004) at Target Field and took three of four against the worst team in the AL in the Baltimore Orioles. Key words in that sentence are reeling and worst. Let's say God comes down from heaven, touches Adam Dunn's bat and actually makes him productive to help the White Sox win the AL Central (let's face it, it would take that sort of miracle for them to do so). They obviously don't stand a chance in the postseason against the likes of the Bawstun Red Sawks or the Nu Yawk Yankees aka Los Jankees as evidenced by their last homestand.

Side note: Mark Buehrle has worked at least six innings in his last eight starts and now has at least ten wins in every single season of the eleven years he has been a starter. Praise be to Mark.

I did, in fact, make an emotional detachment from the White Sox. But I still have a minor investment, enough to where I'll tune into a game whenever possible; however, I refuse to go against my better judgement and latch on to false hopes that they'll win the World Series in 2011. Bold, I know.

The Cubs have won three series in a row and fans are back in the stands. Hopefully this doesn't make Ricketts stupid and contemplate bringing back Hendry and Quade. Okay, that's enough of the otherwise irrelevant Cubs.

Tune in to the Chicago Sports Fix radio show with Josh Catlow and me Rob Zielinski this and every Friday evening from 6 to 8pm (although that may change in mid-September to Monday nights) only on http://www.chicagolandsportsradio.com/ 

Chicagonow.com Bears blogger Adam Oestmann will be joining us at the top of the show, you don't want to miss this man's insight! Share your thoughts with us by calling 312-564-7375 during show hours or email chicagosportsfix@gmail.com

PREACH

This Season is OVA!

When this pathetic attempt at being a winning team comes down, this season will be OVA!

As of right now, the White Sox stand at 52-57. They're 6.5 games behind Central Division leading Detroit Tigers headed into the last game of a four game set against Los Jankees (New York Yankees). They have been out-scored 27-9 in the first three games.

That's what happens when a pretender plays a contender, when a little league team plays a big-boy team.

The White Sox have reached .500 three times. The last time they had a winning record was April 7th when they were 7-6. Pathetic.

Its been said a million times: to win the division you have to do it THROUGH the division. The White Sox are 15-20 within the AL Central. Pathetic-er.

Most teams in the MLB, especially the above mentioned big-boy teams, love home-cookin'. Big-boy teams are very tough to beat at home. The White Sox are more like the welcome mat at 24-31 at home. Pathetic-est.

Big-boy teams don't lose many games after taking the lead in a game. The White Sox have lost 23 after leading. If they won half of those games, they would be 6 games over .500 with the lead in the division.

Big-boy teams don't have losing records in extra innings. The White Sox are 5-8 in extra innings.

Big-boy teams still have a chance to come back when trailing late in a ballgame. It's virtually impossible for the White Sox to do so. When trailing after the 6/7/8 innings they're 6-42/5-44/2-45.

Big-boy teams go on winning streaks longer than four games. Something the White Sox have yet to do and it's early August.

If you think the White Sox DO have a winning streak still in them, know this: it won't be in August. They have gone 51-66 (.436) in August since 2007. That's the third lowest winning percentage in the AL. The last winning August they've had was in 2006 when they went 16-13.

Big-boy teams beat other big-boy teams. The White Sox lost the last two games to Boston and the last 3 to the Yankees. Their team ERA during this five game slide is 8.37.

Big-boy teams with a $127M payroll don't wear diapers and poop themselves by the time August 4th rolls around.

Tune in to the Chicago Sports Fix radio show this and every Friday evening with Josh Catlow and me Rob Zielinski from 6 to 8pm only on http://www.chicagolandsportsradio.com/ Share your thoughts with us by calling 312-564-7375 during show hours or email chicagosportsfix@gmail.com