What can we decipher from the past 2 SB winners?

1. Pass rush is king.
More specifically, a FOUR man pass-rush. Lovie got a lot of things wrong, but he was absolutely correct in emphasizing the importance of a 4-man pass rush. Lovie developed them well. T-Harris, ‘Wale, Alex Brown, Izzy, Mark Anderson [briefly]. Worked well with Peppers.
Sure, he was fallible here [heelllo Shea, Flatbread, Jarron Gilbert, Jared Allen…], but Lovie’s instincts were correct:

A dangerous 4-man pass-rush can carry teams.

I won’t present some exhaustive 3-parter proving this as it seems somewhat self-evident, but let’s examine the past two SB winners:

On top of that, SEA also stuffed the run:

Needless to say, a strong front four, especially up the gut, seems almost mandatory to win in the modern NFL. It just makes life way easier for the back seven; a strong front-four allows for some mistakes, more creativity, more disguises, more aggression, and it almost doesn’t matter who the opposing QBs are.

Maye was terrible!

However, Stafford had a legit MVP ’25 Season, and SEA handled him THRICE. Eagles utterly destroyed Mahomes’ Chiefs that went 17-3 that year.

Imagine if Dayo didn’t suck, and if Poles traded for Jeffery Simmons. Just those two factors may have launched the Bears to a true SB run despite all the other deficiencies, injuries and inexperience.

Needless to say, this will be priority #1 for Poles, but building a ferocious four ain’t easy. He’s gotta hit some grandslams like SEA and Philly.

Lesson #2. Don’t pay HBs.

Notice I didn’t say “Ignore HBs.” Philly traded for Barkley, and he carried them to the SB. SEA drafted not one, but TWO HBs in the 2nd round, one of which [Walker] became SB MVP.

However, nearly every SB winning team didn’t PAY HBs much.

Marshawn Lynch seems to be the only one even over 5% of the cap. Many of the others are good trivia questions: Damien Williams, Blount, CJ Anderson, Bradshaw, Starks, Thomas…Pacheco himself is a 7th rounder.

So it appears the way to go for SB winners is to find bargain HBs who basically “over-perform” or – just stay healthy and effective.

Makes one wonder if Poles is thinking the same when calculating Swift’s contract. It’s no secret Poles was eyeing a HB maybe as early as the 1st RD in last year’s draft.

If Poles decides to stick with Swift for one more year, it won’t be catastrophic as the Bears did run well for most of the year, but seemed to struggle more late season. Who can forget all those failed short yard downs in the playoffs?

SB Lesson 3. Health and TOs matter.

Darnold had a good year, but his playoff-run wasn’t exactly Flaccoesque. SEA didn’t want to repeat the mistake the ’24 Vikings made with him down the stretch. It sure helped that he only really had to square-off against one other real QB [Stafford], and that ended up being a 4-point game. The 9ers were a MASH unit, and as such, got destroyed 41-6, while in the AFC the Donks’ season ended when Bo hurt his ankle.

Meanwhile, Maye was such a TO machine that even Smoking Jay had to be like, “Woah, scro, tuck it every once in a while!”

OT.

Maybe Winter Olympics aren’t as boring as I imagined.

Got busy. I’ll have more thoughts on the game later.

Came across “Best ’25 NFL Throws” judged by none other than Tom Terrific.

Thought it was pretty cool.

Edit. Apparently the NFL cracks down on even freaking Tom Brady, so just click here for vid.

Here’s another YT clip discussing non-Crosby Edge options, which will likely be discussed ad nauseum, so may as well

[Reports are that Crosby wants out of Vegas though he may want to play for Vrabel]

I don’t know how to feel about this. On one hand, I’m a little surprised that the Ravens are willing to turn over their Lamar Reclamation Project to a 29 yr old who is his same age. This is why they fired John Harbaugh? If Harbaugh didn’t have the cache to make Lamar a viable Playoff Winner, what are the chances some greenhorn with little experience and light resume will?

OTOH, the NFL is all about fads and trends, and smart OCs get snapped up relatively quickly. I mean, even rumors swirled about Nagy getting another crack at HC – that’s how desperate the NFL is to find the next Shanny, McVay, Ben Johnson…

At first when the Fins fired McDaniels, I was wondering if BJ would reach out to him through the backchannels. Two great offensive minds are better than one.

However, too many cooks in the kitchen comes to mind, and BJ will likely opt for an up-n-comer not a made name. Preferably one who has a TE background as that seems to bode well for OCs.

Technically, this seems like a lateral move, but let’s be honest. Doyle was “OC” only in title while on the Ravens he’ll run the show. I’m more pissed off about the end-a-round ATL/NFL did on Bears in the Ian Cunningham transaction.

Anywho, via con dios, Doyle. We hardly knew you. And to quote the Godfather, ‘It’s best if your interests don’t conflict with ours.’

Well, at least our blood pressure will be better!

What makes it worse is that since Matt Ryan is “technically” the President of Football in ATL, Bears don’t get squat in compensation.

This is some grade-a level BS. I hope someone at Halas has the balls to challenge the NFL on this.

Remember, it was Ian Cunningham who on draft day held Ryan Poles back from trading UP for Rome Odunze, so if you already believed that Poles shoulda traded back to get more value [like moi], it was Ian who prevented an even bigger Poles’ debacle, so this aint’nothing.

I suppose the brain-drain is the price of success. KC already lifted Eric Bieniemy to be their OC.

Baltimore Ravens [and likely others]requested interview with Bears OC Declan Doyle.

I have little doubt that Al Harris will soon become a DC, then HC.

If Dennis Allen hadn’t already had two HC stints, he’d likely be a hot commodity as well.

Dan Roushar [oline coach] may be going under the radar, but holy crap, he may be the best position coach on the Bears given the dramatic 1-yr Oline turnaround while making a UFDA Benedet, a rook Trapilo at LT look good; Rousher also gambled on Thuney at LT and Jordan McFadden at LG in the Divisional round and seemingly paying off. I’m a little surprised he’s not getting more buzz.

Here’s a more in depth take on the move.

OT.

I love martial arts! In some ways I wish I was enrolled in martial arts growing up as opposed to playing football, basketball, baseball, with naturally a side of skateboarding and BMXing. But hey, only so many hours in a kid’s day.

Anyways, I watch a bunch of martial arts stuff – way too much Van Damme and figuring out if Steven Seagal is legit or a poseur!

Anyways, Benny “The Jet” Urquidez most definitely is NOT a phony. Some of you older dudes may remember him, especially if you were one of those kids ordering martial arts magazines or into early Jackie Chan [Supposedly his fight in “Meal on Wheels with Benny is epic];you may know The Jet, but he was before my time, and only recently have I come across him. His feats and stories are insane!

I think he racked up over 200 wins with zero losses. Cited as the creator of “Kick Boxing”. Actually fought in Hong Kong death matches. Got ice-picked in the ass in another street fight. He weighed about 140 going up against true heavy weights around 240 [this was before a lot of the weight classes, kinda like early UFC]. Starred in movies. And of course, still found time to teach.

I don’t know how a movie about him isn’t made since he’s like real Frank Dux, and many [including Bruce Lee’s former students] believe his speed and power rivaled Lee’s.

I know I’m missing out on a lot [like the Gracie controversy], but you can write 3 books on the Jet, and still not get everything in.

So, here’s some stuff on him I came across:

This is him older telling some stories, going over technique.

This is the time he unwittingly fought in a Kumite match for a measly fur coat! Crazy stuff. Notice he never says if he actually killed his opponent! Moral of the story. Never agree to anything in Hong Kong!

This is The Jet relaying the story of being one of the first to go against a Muay Thai fighter, “I didn’t even know what Muay Thai was. I thought that was his name…then he started elbowing me, and I was like, ‘ok, this is a street fight’. I didn’t know!”

You can read the comments to get more of an idea about the man and his legacy; needless to say, he’s a real American bad ass.

_{^{McVay’s face after the Caleb Williams TD throw.}}

Well, I think I was correct 3/4 teams last week, and for many of the reasons I illustrated [take a wild guess which one I got wrong!]

This week seems a bit anticlimactic. I suppose that’s why many argue that Championship Week is the best week of the NFL.

Two reasons for this is that Pats are going to face off against Broncos’ backup QB Jarrett Stidham.

Some [including the man himself] are pointing to Foles as a precedent; however, Foles didn’t just get thrown into the Conference Championship.

Others say, “Hey, Dilfer won it!” but again, at least he started in 8 games, and unless this Broncos’ D can hold the Pats to 13 and under, not much of blueprint.

If Broncos actually pull off the upset, Sean Payton should win COY unanimously.

2nd reason? The later game of Rams@Seahawks might resemble 9er@Seahawks from the previous week. The Seahawks’ D is steamrolling Os, and this protects them from Darnold Darnolding.

Their Specials ain’t shabby either.

In fact, they kinda remind me of the 2006 Bears-lite in that way; except they’re healthy, and don’t have Lovie as HC.

So my prediction: Pats-v-Seahawks SB.

The Evil Empire is back.