Living in the Chicago area all of my life has opened me up to some of life's cruel and unfortunate truths, especially when it comes to sports. For such a great city with such storied franchises, Chicago sports fans have been wallowing in mediocrity for almost a decade now, and even then, those six Bulls championships, which were beacons of light in Chicago's cave of mediocrity, were not the same.
The Bears, White Sox, Cubs, and Blackhawks are original franchises. They each have a laundry list of legendary players and a fan base as devout as sports fans get. Unfortunately, ownership has used and abused the fans of these franchises for far too long, and it's something that wears on the city year in and year out. The Bulls were great, but even with the greatest basketball player of all time running the show, the Bulls never resonated with fans the way beloved Bears/Hawks/Cubs/Sox teams do. There's just no real history there, for lack of a better way to put it.
At the start of the season, Bears had new hope for the first time in years. With Lovie Smith running things and a potential franchise quarterback looking to have his breakout year, there was actually a reason to be optimistic about this team. Then the injuries started coming...and coming...and coming. The Bears entire starting secondary was out with injuries by the time Week 4 came around. Then their quarterback, Rex Grossman, went down for the entire season without even being hit. And we were fucked.
Now with Grossman injured and the Bears backup quarterback situation in turmoil, a Superman has emerged from the shadows, or more accurately the third spot on the QB depth chart, to right the Bears' nearly capsized ship - Ohio State alum Craig "Kreggers" Krenzel. This past Sunday night against the woeful San Francisco 49ers was Krenzel's first chance to start a game, and for better or for worse, I think Bears fans got exactly what they expected from him.
Perhaps I am delusional, but I believe Krenzel's got some potential. The TD pass to Berrian last Sunday night was great, and it set the tone for the whole game. He had to hit one of those deep routes, so the 49ers defense couldn’t stack the line and focus on Thomas Jones. Of course, Jones ended up getting injured on the first play of the game anyway. The A-Train did an adequate job filling in, but losing Jones was still a big blow to the offense. Krenzel emerged with the victory though, buoyed mostly by the great play on defense and special teams, but this was his first start and there is potential for improvement.
Really, the only time Krenzel looked bad was when he got blitzed and had no time at all to get rid of the ball. On his big fumble, he was basically mauled by 3 different 49ers at the same time, and it doesn’t seem like offensive coordinator Terry Shea is calling plays with hot route options or backs running routes to the flat (unless it’s a designed screen) to help avoid the blitzes. The pass blocking has been horrible too. Krenzel’s biggest problem is still confidence though; he’s still too afraid to tuck the ball away and run. Even though I hated him for it, at Ohio State that fucker could scramble as if his life depended on it. Seriously, people always talk about OSU running back Maurice Clarett, but almost every play that really mattered that year was made by Krenzel, more often than not with his legs. In Sunday’s game he forced two throws on the run that should have been intercepted, but he easily could have scrambled for solid gains on those plays had he just decided to run with it.
Baby steps, Kreggers. No one's going to tear you a new asshole so long as you continue to show a modicum of improvement, and if you somehow make a pact another with the devil (seriously, how else did you lead that terrible Ohio State team to a National Championship?) and turn into the Bears' version of Tom Brady, I will be able to die a happy man. The Giants are due for a brainfart game, so maybe the Bears can get an upset in New York. Krenzel makes the games exciting to watch at least, and that's something Bears fans haven't had since their fluke 13-3 season in 2000.
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