7 yr old nephew, “What are you doing uncle?”
Butch, “Going to cut the grass.”
Nephew, “But I like grass.”
Tag: zen
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Zen 15
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Bounceback Bears!
Everyone’s trying to create a great nickname for the ’25 Bears. “Cardiac Cubs” [meh]. “Comeback Kids” [trite]. One I did fancy was “The Cocaine Bears“:
“They’re never dead, and like a cocaine addicted bear, they self-destruct before wreaking havoc around everyone around them…for the win.” [11:08]However, I’ll just go with the Bounceback Bears.
For starters, they have absolutely bouncebacked from that abysmal ’24 season in which Matt Eberflus found innovative ways to snatch losses from the jaws of victory to the point where he became the first HC EVER in Bears’ history to get terminated midseason.
Mind you, the Bears have been around since Coca-Cola laced their drinks with actual coke, the Treaty of Versailles was signed, and Prohibition passed. It’s even more impressive when one recalls the clown-car of HCs in that time span[cough, Trestman].
The disastrous season culminated in THREE different OCs and 68 sacks which ranks 3rd all-time.
In addition, we must remember the infuriating way Flus called defense: rarely blitzing, playing the CBs 5 yards off, essentially gifting every team free crossers, always reactive, soft, and flaccid which no beard makeover could fix.
Who can forget when on a key play Flus made a DT cover an athletic TE, or basically bending over vs Washington leading to that infamous Hail Mary?
Fast forward to now…Enter the 2025 Bears. They already have FIVE comeback victories.
And they’re not your ho-hum, run-of-the-mill, comebacks either.
They’re crazy catches [Loveland], walk off blocked FGs [Raiders], snatched fumbled snaps [Washington], Duvernay KR [Vikings], 26 YD shanked punt [Giants].
I still don’t think my heart has recovered from that Bengals game alone.
How many times did we say to ourselves in the 3rd QTR, “Here we go again. Same ole Bears. It’s over…” Yet it was only beginning.Say what you will about the Bears, but they’re dramatic must-watch TV.
And entertaining!
Sure, they’re about as fun as massive turbulence, learning how to drive in a stick-shift, approaching a hot girl, or surfing a tsunami…
But fun nonetheless!
And in the end, isn’t that the whole point of sports?
I remember playing at the parks, and some chads were just waaaay too competitive. Don’t get me wrong, I was competitive too [no one who plays sports isn’t competitive to some degree], but I wasn’t going to FIGHT over it – or go to my car to dig for weapons.
Mostly though, park-ball was an organic energetic activity with tons of synergistic highs: it was jazz.
Organized sports OTOH was like joining a military marching band. All about winning, structure, PAIN.
I didn’t begin playing sports to suffer. I never had Tiger Woods’ dad brainwashing me since I was 10 months old, dragging me out to golf at 5AM like some Marine Drill Instructor when I should be eating cereal and watching cartoons in my Spider-Man undies [fast forward to what happens to such ppl like Tiger or Michael Jackson].
I admit that PRO athletes are indeed getting paid to win; however, I am not getting paid to watch, nor was I getting paid to play.
I played sports because – it was fun.
As I’m sure most of us did.
Winning came later, and don’t get me wrong, WINNING is great, but it’s more like sex in a marriage: the spice, not the meal.
If I gave it my all, and got beat, well – I got beat. That’s life.
If a 6’4, 220 college power-forward is posting me up, not much a 5’9, 175 point-guard can do about it – even if you’re Allen Iverson.
That’s life.
And because that’s life, many of us turn to watching sports where it’s SUPPOSED to be an even playing field; where players step on the stage to flaunt their athletic prowess and leave us in wonderment and awe.
For 3 brief hours we are transported to the sublime.
All I ask every Bears’ season is for them to be relevant by Thanksgiving. That’s it.
They don’t have to become a juggernaut, go undefeated, or remake the ’85 season [would be awesome!]…
Simply be a viable playoff contender every Thanksgiving instead of the butt of jokes [don’t get me started on the Bear memes] or worse, my friends putting their hands on my shoulder offering condolences for 30 years straight.
The ’25 Bears are relevant in late November.
Bill Parcells used to say that the real season starts after Thanksgiving, but you know, we’ll get to that.
For now, I’m going to take a moment of zen and cherish this wild season. They don’t strike very often [last one may have been the Dick Jauron 13-win season 24 years ago].So let’s all appreciate the 7-3, NFCN leading, Bounce Back Bears!
And pass the statins… -
The Promised Land
“Charlie Wilson’s War” is a criminally underrated movie. It’s about the CIA funding the Mujahideen in Afghanistan; it’s so absurd, it has to be true. Spoiler alert – it didn’t end well!
Well, one scene specifically is cinematic magic in the hands of the late great Phillip Seymour Hoffman.This is how I feel about the Caleb Williams’ journey.
Rookie year was up and down as Caleb definitely held on to the ball for too long resulting in a whopping 68 sacks [3rd most all time], but he did steer Bears to some late-time heroics including defeating GB in the finale.
Nevertheless, the whole fiasco of going through 3 different OCs and Flus mid-season firing made it impossible to objectively evaluate.
Up and down. Up and down.
“We’ll see.”
2025. First game he essentially gets outplayed by a raw JJ McCarthy. Then crushed by the Lions.
He sucks!
“We’ll see.”
Later Caleb goes off on toothless Dallas.
He’s great!
“We’ll see.”
Tyler Huntley comes off the Practice Squad and outduels him.Heck, often this rollercoaster spins us through loops in a single game.
Bear games should come with the same warning: do not ride if you have a heart condition or abnormal blood pressure.
Jaxson Dart, a rook on an awful team with a walking-dead HC, looked better than Caleb. Blame drops, BJ, wind, Tall Whites…don’t matter, Dart still looked sharper passing and running than Caleb [Flacco didn’t look too shabby in comparison either].
Then Comeback Caleb dons his cape, and we know the rest.
So where does that leave us?
“We’ll see.”
One thing is certain: through 10 weeks, the Bears have played some of the softest defenses.Jared@CinnamonJared
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The bears strength of schedule is .351 (next closest is Buffalo at .407) and their strength of victory is .272 (next closest is the jets at .278)Both easiest in the entire league
Our very own Zombie posted this in-depth commentary:
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I know we’re all excited about being relevant this “late” in a season. Perhaps some perspective?Here are the records of Bears opponents thus far, not including the games against the Bears.
The teams that beat the Bears
Detroit: 5-3
Minnesota: 3-5
Baltimore: 3-5
Aggregate: 11-13 (.458)Teams the Bears beat:
Cowboys: 3-4-1
Bengals: 3-5
Commanders: 3-6
Raiders: 2-6
Saints: 2-7
Giants: 2-7
Aggregate: 15-35-1 (.304)Grand aggregate: .353
In other words, bottom feeding. If you add the Bears games, the winning percentage of the opponents is 29-54-1, a mighty .351.
Of course, you can only play who is on the schedule.
But, clearly we ain’t done nothin’ yet.
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Zombie is not alone. Twitter is brimming with [illiterate] doomers:Needless to say, the future SOS doesn’t get easier.
“Front-runners” is a word floating around the Bears like Drakkar Noir at a gaudy discotheque.
The other standard ‘slander’ on Caleb is that he wouldn’t need to be Captain Comeback if he actually played well for the other 3 QTRs.
Or that despite the D spotting him 3 extra possessions, he still barely beats horrendous defenses.
Common counters – Caleb only in his sophomore season, new to BJ-system, LT is some Canadian walk-on, he’s cut down his sack rate from 10.8 to 4.6 , unfair to compare to Maye, ‘this is a hit piece!’…
And round-n-round we go.
A lot of us may live in a Bear echo-chamber, but perhaps the sole good thing about Twitter is that one can see the haters from every echo-chamber!So what does this all mean?
Simple. Caleb must prove the doubters wrong down the stretch.
It won’t be about stats, comp %, EPA, “4K!” or other nerdanomics.
Maybe not even about wins and losses.
Caleb’s rating could hit 158.3 the rest of the way, and it won’t matter in the win column if the defense gets lit up by SB contenders like the Lions, Eagles, 9ers, Pack [2X]…while Specials continue to struggle as flags fly.
Of course, we’re all going to be pulling for Caleb. How awesome would it be for him to rise above the criticism – to grow before our eyes and totally dominate from anthem to fade to black…
To transfigure into that mythical elite QB we’ve all been waiting for so long…
The franchise-messiah to finally lead us to the SB Promised-Land…
Will he deliver?
“We’ll see.” -
Zen 10
After taking the high seat to preach to the assembly, Fa-yen raised his hand and pointed to the bamboo blinds. Two monks went over and rolled them up in the same way.
Fa-yen said, “One gains, one loses.”
– Zen Koan -
Zen 7
“I am going to pose a question,” King Milinda said to the Venerable Nagasena.
“Can you answer?”
Nagasena said, “Please ask your question.”
The king said, “I have already asked.”
Nagasena said, “I have already answered.”
The king said, ‘What did you answer?”
Nagasena said, “What did you ask?”
The king said, “I asked nothing.”
Nagasena said, “I answered nothing.”
– Zen Mondo