Bears: Is it over yet?

I watched the season finales of Californication and Dexter last week (I still want to do a Dexter review) and as much as I didn't want those shows to end, I want the Bears season to end soon. It is very apparent that this team is mostly moving backwards. I just want it to end before too much damage is done. Sunday's game was one of the most painful to watch. There were some good signs. The running game continues to improve which is an extremely good trend. The Bears were also able to contain Ray Rice after the initial bursts. I guess the player I've seen regress most is Cutler. Early on his passes were lightning quick and the interceptions were often half the receivers fault or a tip ball. But recently his passes have been short not on target or intercepted. I hope that off-season workouts with the receivers can improve that. Cutler's troubles are worrisome because this is the player that will most likely outlast the current coaches and GM. With all the speculation and talk about the safety of certain jobs, it is very apparent that everybody is focusing on the next season, which is the same I am doing. I can't wait to see what happens to Hank Moody and Dexter Morgan. As for the Bears, I'll watch with cautious pessimism.

Bears: Again

Well I really want to talk about the Dexter finale (which was much more interesting than the Bears game), but I'll stick to the Monday Morning (or in this case afternoon) Quarterbacking. Well I could probably rip the script from a few of my other posts: Bears down early, make a comeback, lose the lead, failed two minute drill, game. I don't want to sound like a broken record, but once again the Bears were a two minute drill away from at least a tie. I'll also clarify that this doesn't make the Bears a good team, but points to the fact that the parity exists and no team is unbeatable any game. This game was a little different, at least it had a little different feel. Maybe that's just want happens when the Bears and Packers meet for their biannual meeting that only means something to one of the teams.

• Running. I actually thought Forte and the run game looked decent this game Forte only got 51 yards, but averaged 4.3 a carry. It's been slightly under the radar, but the run game has gotten better even if underused.
• Penalties. Killer. Too many line penalties. 13 for 109 yards. Yikes.
• Challenge. One of the worst coaching decisions I've seen. Using two timeouts (one timeout and 1 challenge) and not effectively using either. If you were going to challenge, should've just thrown the flag to begin with and if you had a timeout to watch it you should have gotten it right. Although I thought the challenge could have gone either way.
• Defense. The Defense played well after a few lapses early on. There some definite bend not break moments, but for the most part the D played well.
• The Cutler Connection. Killer again. Turnovers and penalties killed the Bears. Those under throws were deadly. This is actually the 1st game where I clearly saw what practically everyone else has been saying about the weak receiving corp. If Cutler had more trust and more experienced receivers would he have 20+ interceptions, probably not. I still think its not a offseason priority. I think you allow the receivers to grow into that role.

Bulls

I've avoided talking about the Bulls so far this season. I wish I would have wrote something sooner because early on I was about to write a glowing review. How things change after the circus trip. To briefly summarize the season, the Bulls started out well with big victories against the Spurs and Cavs in Cleveland. Things were looking up before the road trip out west. The Bulls had a sputtering offense but a much improved defense. Ben Gordon gone = sputtering offense and better defense. The world made sense. Luol and Noah also looked to be much improved with Rose struggling early on.

The Circus trip even started out well with a victory over the Kings who had had a 4 game winning streak. Then, the Bulls played the Lakers, Blazers, and Nuggets and have never looked the same. I don't think anyone was surprised that they lost those 3. Without Tyrus, the Bulls were forced into a short lineup depthwise and heightwise. However ever since then, the early season strong defensive effort has disappeared. Kirk Hinrich missed games, which probably hurt the defensive effort. But recent blowout losses and a loss to the at the time 1-18 Nets, have me yearning for the Skiles days. At least in those days the team seemed to be more than the sum of their parts. There was a good effort every game. So I'll try and breakdown the ups and downs thus far.

• Ups. Taj Gibson looks like a veteran. He played 4 years in college and it shows. I don't remember the last time I saw a rookie as composed as he is. He plays with a lot of energy and under control. He also has a nice mid-range jumper. Derrick Rose has bounced back from a slow start with a bad ankle to look impressive in recent games. Noah and Deng look like they can be locks for a double double nearly every game. Deng has bulked up and is a stronger presence when battling for rebounds.
• Downs. Well, I'll be brief since there's a lot. I agree with Stacy King, they need to reduce the screen roll and let Rose navigate the floor free of other players. Also, we need a more complicated offense. If I were an opponent, they basically have to be ready for the high screen roll and thats about it. The high screen roll doesn't work when the do a hard show on Rose and Noah gets the ball 17 feet from the basket. Salmons needs to go harder to the hoop. I like it when he drives, but he often fades away from contact which he needs to go after to get some foul calls. James Johnson looks very raw. I hope someday he looks smoother. But it looks like he is forcing things on offense and lost on defense. Pargo looks like Ben Gordon lite and has been forced to play longer with Hinrich out. I think the plan was use him as a spark off the bench. While he has done that in some games, he seems more like a defense liability.
• The Worst. It seems that the team suffers from a lack of concentration and effort often. It seems that the other team just wants it more. I've already seen in the Nets game some of the players playing for themselves and attempting to make their own shot instead of find something through the offense. I saw Johnson, Deng, Salmons, and Noah all do this. Nothing speaks to this whole situation more than the Bulls final possession against the Nets. The Bulls were unable to inbound to Rose so Salmons got it. Salmons made a move and launched a 3 point shot with 7 seconds left when we were down 1 point. While its already bad that the Bulls couldn't get it to Rose, Salmons made it worse by throwing up the 3 with 7 seconds left. Down 1 point he could have tried to draw a foul or taken more time to find something. 7 seconds is a lot of time.

Bears: Better than 1-10

What can you say after a victory like that? Well we're better than the worst. Let's face it losing yesterday's game would have been a disaster and made this a disastrous season. Right now were at a disappointing season. The game overall reminded me of the last Bulls win (1-7 since the Sacramento win) against the very depleted Pistons (no Rip, Prince, Villanueva, and an hobbled Gordon). In the game, the Bulls were clearly the better team, but could not break free of the Pistons. Even when the Pistons came close you never really thought they would win it. I had the same feeling yesterday. Even when the Rams could have tied it at the end, I never really felt that they would.

• Give the D credit. The defense had a solid game yesterday only allowing 9 points and playing most of the game with the Rams having a short field. Jamar Williams was a monster with 18 tackles and the Bears were able to create pressure on Boller. On the other hand, the Rams have the lowest scoring offense in the NFL. It's nice to see a team with more problems than ours. There offense would have looked completely inept without Steven Jackson.
• We are a running Team? The difference yesterday was a conservative game plan with the 38 rushes and 18 passes. Forte had 24 carries and Bell had 11. The game plan looked similar to year's past: let the defense win the game and score just enough points on offense to squeak by. I think the emergence of Bell is good, because Forte seems to be running harder. Maybe a little competition from behind provided a little fire. What Forte seems to be missing this year is that little spurt from the crowd. What I mean is those plays where he would spurt through a gap and stumble a head for 3 to 5 more yards. This year he has looked more hesitant and running into a brick wall on most plays.
• Please no more wide receiver screen. Please. Another disappointment was not seeing Aromashodu do too when he received significant time. It would have been nice to see more of what he can do. All I remember is a dropped screen pass and a pass catch out of bounds. Also, I noticed a lot more writers wanting the Bears to test out young backups like Gaines Adams, Jarron Gilbert, and DJ Moore.
• Special Teams. The special teams played uncharacteristically bad allowing Amendola too many good returns. Punt returns were an adventure after Hester left. There was the timeout before a Maynard punt when there were too few men on the field. There was also the unsuccessful fake FG. To be clear though, I thought the fake was a good idea. Why not mix things up? It's not like the season is on the line anymore. I'm not sure of Olsen would have made it anyways, but it was good recognition by the defender.

Stargate Universe

Stargate Universe is the 3rd TV series based on the 1994 movie Stargate. I was a fan of the original show Stargate SG-1 because the story initial interested me, but it kind of lost me in the later episodes. For those of you who have never seen the movie or the original series, the movie's premise is that an archaeological dig in Egypt found an artifact which turns out to be a "stargate" a gateway to another world. A military team is sent through the gate and finds that the ancient rebelled against an alien being posing as the Egyptian god Ra.

The series SG-1 built upon that concept by introducing the possibilty of an infinite amount of gates to other worlds with other Goa'uld (the alien race posing as gods). A rivalry was set up between the Goa'uld and Earth. The show evolved to include other threats I also thought the show was too formulaic, one world one show. Everything seemed neatly cleaned up every episode. Additionally, the SG-1 and the whole operation seemed too idealistic. They would do things that were ethically the best without considering the inherent danger in the situation. I'm pretty sure earth should have been destroyed many, many times.

I started watching Stargate Universe just because it peaked my interest. I didn't watch Stargate Atlantis because I premiered when I was still turned off by many of the later plot lines. The premise of the show is that the Ancients, the builders of the stargate system, have a ship named "Destiny" to explore gates that had been deployed by another ship. In the first episode, Stargate personnel come under attack during an gate experiment. The personnel flee through the gate to "Destiny". Destiny at this point is millions of years old and millions of light years away from Earth. Much of the early show involved surviving on the ship. If your thinking of a comparison, its kind of a combination of Lost and Stargate.

The cast is an ensemble with many characters, but a group of regulars. Interesting developments include:

• A power struggle and distrust between Dr. Rush (Robert Carlyle) and Col. Young (Justin Louis),
• A power/personal dispute between Col. Young and Col. Telford (Lou Diamond Phillips)
• The social and psychological aspect of trying to survive.
• The opening of new sections of Destiny.
• The grumblings of the lower level crew who wonder about the decisions of leadership.

The Good.

• I'm fairly exciting about this show because it is a good concept and there is plenty of space for this show to grow. The communication stones, which link them to Earth, are a good idea and allow us to return to Earth as viewers so that we are reminded of more familiar settings. The amount of unknown passengers on Destiny also allow the writers to easily introduce new characters.
• I like that, at least early into the series, plot lines seem to be running through the season rather than only through episodes.
• Also it is nice to see significant conflict between the main characters which builds better natural drama in leiu of action in which drama is often forced.
• I especially like that this show seemed to better explore the darker side of human behavior and our weaknesses.
• I liked the idea that a disease is infecting everybody. The episode gave a weak out, but it is something that really bothered me about SG-1. You'd think that diseases from foreign planets would be a major problem. Just think about when Europeans came over to North America, the Native Americans mostly died of diseases.

Weaknesses.

• They seem to be falling into the trap of one planet, one episode a few times. There's nothing wrong with it, I just hope they don't get lazy and continue to do it.
• As I mentioned before, there seem to be a few weak outs so far. Don't get me wrong characters have been killed off, but it would be nicer to see things just magically get better.
• With many characters, it is easy to forget some and focus to strongly on others giving away the rest of the show. If the story is spread too thin, its hard to truly develop any of the characters.
• The show has lost the humor of the original SG-1 series. Eli (David Blue) is inserted for humor and balance, but it would be nice to see some humor from the other characters who generally seem depressed.
• The logistics seem to be mostly taken care of but... (1)Those clothes have got to be getting old, (2) why is there multiple rooms and life support facilities on an abandoned ship, (3) is there really a bathroom with toliet paper and stuff like toothbrushes and combs. I know that it is TV but some of the actors looked too well put together.

Overall, this is a step towards Stargate being a legitimate drama. The show has some depth and but has not really fully explored it thus far. The show seems to be what is on the surface, but is still in the development of characters and conflicts. However, the premise of the show gives the writers endless directions and conflicts to explore and has tremendous potential.