"...And The Poor Get Poorer: Bears/Chiefs Analysis and The Road Ahead"

The Bad News Bears, indeed. If my article were to contain a caption for the above photo, it would most likely say: "Rex Grossman reacts to news of left tackle's surgery..." or "What do you mean I have to play with the same crappy offensive line as last year??"  No doubt, my Chicago Bears are in a bad situation with first rounder Chris Williams out for an indefinite amount of time.  The Chicago front office feels confident enough about his recovery to leave him on the roster, and Jeff Joniak of WBBM repeatedly claimed during the Bears/Chiefs webcast that it was an essential procedure that would leave him stronger than ever.  Stronger than ever...a year from now. 

Even if Chris Williams is game ready sometime this season, he would not have played a snap since the first day of training camp.  Face it Bears fans: the man that Chicago felt was so essential in repairing the offense for 2008 is now out of the fold.  You can find many articles on this website calling for Jerry Angelo's head, but his head is too busy calling Fred Miller.

Last night's game began with a fairly uneventful first half. KC had a two solid TDs, and Kyle Orton fumbled/recovered to set up a Robbie Gould 42 yard field goal.  The defense didn't look pretty in the first half, either.  The Bears D looked like a team in the trenches of the off season, and at one point allowed KC to convert five third downs (this was the first team D, by the way). 

Rex Grossman and Kyle Orton played decent football, but neither put together drives longer than 37 yards.  Matt Forte appeared in his first NFL outing, and performed well. 

Second half showed some promise as the Bears took the field, down 14-3.  Garret Wolfe was the halfback here, and in the second Bears series of the third quarter, Wolfe cranked out a 42-yard run.  However, Chicago failed to convert and had to punt.  Rod Wilson then picked off a Tyler Thigpin pass that sets up a 25 yard strike from Grossman to Wolfe.

Did you happen to catch the pattern in that last paragraph?  Yup, Garret Wolfe played great football last night.  A 42-yard run is incredible, but what I didn't say was that the TD pass was all on Wolfe, not Grossman.  The completion only netted 4-5 yards, but a Chicago receiver actually picked up some serious yardage after the catch. Throughout the rest of his playing time, Wolfe continued to impress with big gains on the ground.  I'm not saying that he's the next biggest thing, but Garret Wolfe played well last night and now has me paying attention to his performance the rest of this preseason.

Brandon Rideau and Caleb Hanie both impressed as well.  Hanie came in the game with a few minutes remaining in the third and looked solid for a first timer.  Hanie put together a TD drive his first outing, striking Bradon Rideau in a leaping catch.  The Chiefs scored a FG on their next series, knotting the game up at 17-17.  In his next drive, Hanie scrambled for an impressive 18 yards and well over a first down.  The Bears played it safe, settling for a field goal to make it 20-17.  A horrible Robbie Gould kickoff starts the Chiefs at the 40, and they then score to make wrap up the game, 24-20. 

Many recap/ analysis articles on the 'net will all carry a different tone, but none can argue with the performances of Wolfe and Hanie. Some speak of ho-hum playing by Grossman and Orton, and they all will most likely call for Angelo's resignation.  It's still only one game into the preseason, but many fans still felt that cold sweat when Grossman stepped on the field, or tried to fight that sinking feeling after yet another three and out.   I still expect Chicago, through some miracle, to at least break even this year.  The odds are they might not, and it may indeed be a year to try the fan's soul (again). 

In sort of a post script, I mentioned above how Fred Miller would be getting calls from the front office.  I've read rumours where he has, and I can't help but feel you may see him pick up a Bears uniform again. 

I also can't shake the feeling that Chad Pennington may find a home in Chicago.  Talk about Grossman and Orton all you want, but the front office claimed to be happy with the run game, and then signed Kevin Jones.  Lightning may strike the offense twice.

Both predictions could be bogus, but I figured it was worth sharing.

I'm Spencer Taylor.