The Chicago Bears are behind the New York Giants 10 to 0 with 13:50 as of this writing and Bears Quarterback Jay Cutler is out of the game with a concussion. The result of being sacked a record nine times in the first half.
This blogger is not surprised.
Bears fans were warned about Bears Offensive Coordinator Mike Martz and his offensive scheme. They were warned in this space, with a blog post titled Chicago Bears Offense Protection Problems Due To Martz Design.
Given current events, the blog post is worth repeating:
Mike Martz offensive design got 49ers Alex Smith injured
Is Bears Jay Cutler next?
The Chicago Bears lost to the Oakland Raiders 32 to 17 and while it was a preseason game, its still important from the perspective of evaluating players and schemes. The Chicago Bears Offense under Offensive Coordinator Mike Martz can move the ball, but it comes with the protection problems that have always plagued Martz offenses.
According to ProFootballTalk.com, Bears Quarterback Jay Cutler claimed the team "had a few protection issues." Bears Head Coach Lovie Smith said that Left Tackle Chris Williams performance was "Not good enough," and added, "It's as simple as that. Whenever you give up a couple of sacks as an offensive lineman, that is not good. Chris is a better player than that."
Exactly.
But it's hard to be a good offensive tackle when your offensive coordinator has you retreat-blocking, rather than fight-blocking. The signature problem with the Mike Martz Offense is the offensive line pass pocket retreats faster than is necessary to run the patterns Mike installs.
Mike, for some weird reason, has never corrected that problem.
And it is the same problem that had Detroit Lions Quarterback J.T. O'Sullivan taste Ford Field turf over 50 times in 2007. But guess what? When Martz came over from the Lions, where he lasted for two years, and to the 49ers, he brought J.T. with him and the same offensive line blocking problem.
Martz lasted one year in San Francisco.
If Mike Martz wants to last longer than the 2010 Season with the Chicago Bears, he needs to correct his design problem. And the NFL must stop giving Martz a pass by continuously hiring him and calling him a genius. Martz will be a genius in this space after he fixes the O-line blocking problem.
Otherwise, Jay Cutler may become another Alex Smith of 2008.
So who's going to send another ridiculous email now? Martz has paid no attention to my constant criticism of his system. Now, Jay Cutler's on the bench with mixed up marbles.
This week the 99er Nation launches a “White Ribbon Campaign” for all 99ers and those who support the passage of a Tier 5, for all long term unemployed Americans.
The hope is that any and all who support the plight of the 99ers will wear a simple white ribbon to show their commitment to the cause, including news media members, celebrities, politicians and of course the 99er Nation themselves.
The campaign was contrived by leaders within the 99er Nation like: Cindy Paoletti, Connie Kaplan, Rob Curtis, PalTalk participants of “Tier 5 to Survive - Unemployed” chat room and dedicated members within the 99er cause.
Ed Schultz has also been contacted and invited to wear the “99er white ribbon” to show his support. No response has yet been received from the Schultz camp on if he will do so.
By all accounts, the One Nation rallies held yesterday from Washington DC to Los Angeles were a resounding success, even as the right wing nuts have already begun to trash the marchers as "communists and socialists". Right wing blogs using pictures of trash left behind in the DC mall and depicting the crowds only after the huge crowd had dispursed, claim that the march was a bust.
No matter how "Fox psuedo News" and the right wing nuts may want to spin the impact of the unity march, the real proof will come on election day, when the true impact of the political ramifications of either side will be felt.
According to Fox Sports' Pam Oliver, Philadelphia Eagles Quarterback Michael Vick is out for the game against the Washington Redskins called the McNabb Bowl. The Redskins are ahead 17 to 6 with 3:28 in the 3rd Quarter.
Vick was injured after he was hit by two Redskins defenders just one yard from the end zone in the 2nd quarter. He's injured his rib and his chest. More details to come.
Now, Kevin Kolb is in for Vick.
Kevin Kolb is obviously not Michael Vick; he's completed passes when the receiver was obviously open, and is not the runner. Kolb can't capitalize on opportunities like the giant hole Vick would have ran into to get a first down on the third down in the 3rd Quarter with 11:34 remaining.
McNabb's Game So Far
With the exception of one glaring passing error, missing a wide-open Fred Davis on a bootleg pass in the 1st Quarter, Donovan McNabb has played so-so. He's 6 of 13 for 115 yards. Kolb is 9 of 15 for 104 yards. Off all QB's to this writing, Vick's 90 is the highest rating according to ESPN.com
Big sports day: SF Giants 2, San Diego Padres 0,4th inning. One win and the San Francisco Giants are in the MLB Playoffs. At the time of this writing, the Giants got to their current lead when Johnny Sanchez' triple ignited a two-run rally.
Jose Guillen Gets The Start
Giants manager Bruce Bochy started Jose Guillen in Right Field for todays game, and according to The SF Giants website, Bochy said the reason was that the team performed better with him in the lineup.
So far, he's right. In the 5th inning, the Giants are still ahead 2 to zip. Now, according to Twitter, Sanchez is done for the game.
TheNaturalHobbs Dustin Hobbs
Sanchez done - five solid and a shaky sixth...might be good enough if 'pen hangs on. #sfgiants
If the Giants win today's game, they're the National League West Champions and are in the MLB Playoffs.
Indianapolis, Indiana, home of the Indianapolis Colts, is America's most "sexually satisfied" city, according to a survey released in Men's Heath's Magazine. Using a criteria that includes condom purchases, sex toy sales from Pure Romance and Babeland, and birth rates, Indy came up the winner, with Chicago ranked number 10.
In between, six of the ten city listed are in America's midwest:
1. Indianapolis, Ind.
2. Columbus, Ohio
3. Fort Wayne, Ind.
4. Cincinnati, Ohio
5. Salt Lake City, Utah
6. San Antonio, Texas
7. Denver, Colo.
8. Austin, Texas
9. Boise City, Idaho
10. Chicago, Ill.
What's interesting is that none of the cities are listed in the Top 10 are California cities. The reason, may be that it's due to the fact that birth rates are considered. There's a known indirect correlation between birth rates and education rates. The higher the rate of education, the lower the birth rate. Or, as a 1997 study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports, "birth rates are highest for women with the least education."
It doesn't mean that sex isn't happening, just that the people doing it are making sure they don't produce kids. So the value of this survey diminishes a bit because it fails to adjust for that issue of birth rates versus education.
Moreover, it can be said, unfortunately, that the cities listed have problems with levels of education. That's the flip side of the results in the Men's Health Sex Survey.
In the Oakland Mayors Race, no one person brings out more passions than Former State Senator Don Perata. Everyone has some kind of opinion about Perata. Everytime the subject of the Oakland Mayor's Race comes up, someone says to this blogger "Perata's going to win," as if they're watching a horse race, rather than participating in an election.
But for those who have seen Oakland's mayoral future, and it's Perata, there seem to be many more who are set to attack him or just proclaim their hatred for him. It's a level of dislike that has led to the creation of one website and two Twitter accounts, all against him.
For example, there's the website Anybody But Perata, which reads as follows:
The purpose of this website is very simple: to present reasons why former State Senator Don Perata should not be elected mayor of the City of Oakland, California.
While the election of Don Perata as Oakland mayor would probably be very good for Mr. Perata and his friends and family and a few of his associates, we believe that it would be very bad for most of the residents of the City of Oakland.
The website is a collection, mostly, of articles from The East Bay Express, where Robert Gammon has paid his bills writing about Perata, and largely in the negative. As befits it's title, you're not going to find fair and balanced coverage of Perata.
Even more negative are the twin Twitter pages The REAL Don Perata and Fake Don Perata. Their tweets were the stuff of another World during the Kaiser Center Forum of two weeks ago. Here's a sample of their tweets, some of them to me as I was tweeting about the forum:
RealDonPerata The REAL Don Perata
#oaklandforum @fakedonperata You may have won this one but I WILL HAVE ReVENgE!!!!!!!!!!!!
23 Sep
RealDonPerata The REAL Don Perata
@zennie62 #oaklandforum @fakedonperata STFU!!! You fat bald bastard! I am the only Fake Real Don! There can only be ONE!
23 Sep
RealDonPerata The REAL Don Perata
#oaklandforum WTF! @fakedonperata is stealing my style! Dawg! You should know nots ta mess with da REAL!
23 Sep
RealDonPerata The REAL Don Perata
#oaklandforum @zennie62 MY budget experience includes going over the campaign spending limit with 2 months left in the race.
23 Sep
RealDonPerata The REAL Don Perata
@JeanQuan you call that a video? I just hired Spike Jonez! Sending limit, shmending shmimmit!
23 Sep
RealDonPerata The REAL Don Perata
@fakejeanquan Damn right we've got your precious microfilm! And if you want it back it will cost you dearly. Muhahahahahaha!
20 Sep
East Bay Express Helps Perata
Why does Don Perata have so much Internet exposure relative to his Oakland Mayor's Race competitors? The East Bay Express. Proving once again that Old Media people just don't get New Media, Robert Gammon has generated or caused the generation of 17,000 items of content regarding Don Perata. In shaping Perata's current image, that of a behind-the-scenes power broker who helps his friends at the expense of the public, Gammon has single-handedly formed the foundation for Senator Perata's neme recognition.
The good news for Perata is he didn't have to spend a dime. Because Gammon's view is so unbalanced, it causes some to think about Perata and consider that the Express could be wrong. Robert's material has also made Perata look like an operative who can get things done.
So, contrary to my initial take, Robert Gammon has been Don Perata's best friend. Gammon's almost psychotic-level of attention to Perata hs caused him to ignore the other candidates beyond those in the Oakland City Council, and even then they're not mentioned so much.
Robert Gammon has caused or catalyzed or been associated with more generated online content about Perata than even current Mayor Ron Dellums: 13,000 for Dellums versus 15,300 results for Perata. (And 11,000 for Kaplan and for Quan each, 2,770 for Terrance Candell, 2,570 for Joe Tuman, 2,260 results for Don Macleay, 1,550 for Greg Harland, 673 results for Marcie Hodge, 89 for Larry Lionel Young, and 72 results for Arnie Fields.)
If Perata should win the Oakland Mayor's Race, his first course of action should be to thank Robert Gammon.
The Oakland Raiders play The Houston Texans, who find themselves looking at a possible two-game loss pattern. But that may not be at the Raiders Wide Receiver Louis Murphy has a clavicle injury.
The find is causing a dramatic shift in fantasy football rosters today. This because while Murphy is set to play, he's not expected to be at full speed. But here's the issue for the Raiders: both wide receivers, Murphy and Darrius Heyward-Bey are listed as "questionable" for the Texans game.
As of this writing, Louis Murphy has 15 receptions for 238 yards and one touchdown.
Ironically, Michael Oher and Leigh Anne Tuohy, who's adopted son and parent relationship make up the story and movie called The Blind Side are making news at the same time, but for different reasons.
Reportedly, Smith had pushed Baltimore Ravens tight end Todd Heap after a play had been whistled dead.
Michael Oher rushed to his defense by attacking Smith, stating that Heap's his teammate, and given the same set of circumstances, he'd do it again.
Leigh Anne Tuohy Gives Message
Meanwhile, Leigh Anne Tuohy was in Savannah, Georgia, giving a message that everyone should hear, explaining that "We devalue people too quickly." Tuohy was telling the story of how she and her husband Sean gave the then homeless Michael Oher a home. Oher was eventually admitted to Ole Miss, Tuohy's alma mater (which was controversial in itself), and then was drafted by The Ravens in 2009.
CNN's Abbie Boudreau has a documentary on now that, to this blogger, is totally annoying. It's supposed to be a kind of expose against young conservative activists.
But on its surface it seems like an excuse for Abbie Boudreau, who's described as one of the "hottest reporters" on CNN to be around young attractive white guys.
Oh, and to talk about escaping the production of a sex tape with her in it.
Abbie Boudreau And The Sex Tape Caper
That's the big news we get out of this? This CNN Documentary called Right On The Edge? That Abbie Boudreau 'escaped" the obtuse Anti-ACORN James O'Keefe's "sex den" boat called "Cinco" where he planned to seduce her on camera and make a sex tape from it? Oh boy. Fire up the Feminist bloggers!
So what? So we need this episode to be reminded of how creepy this group is? That's not news! And what's more idiotic is how the blogs just pick up the story without questioning how they're being manipulated into paying attention to this crap without a critical eye.
Even Cord Jefferson at the black-oriented news website The Rootfell for this, accusing O'Keefe of exhibiting white privilege, but failing to note that Abbie, who's white, was trusting enough of O'Keefe to drive to the boat by herself to board it, rather than refuse his invitation altogether. In other words, she trusted an attractive young conservative white guy enough to consider meeting him on his boat alone.
If it were not for O'Keefe's assistant in the sex tape prank coming forward to warn Abbie beforehand, there would have been another sex tape for Harvey Levin at TMZ to get a hold of.
As Abbie stated herself, Izzy Santa essentially saved Abbie from the trip to the boat. Had she not done so, Abbie was prepared to go along with James. The point here is that it should not have taken Izzy Santa's intervention. The assertion is that Abbie was too trusting of James because he fits all of the cues that for Abbie would cause her to trust him: young, attractive, and white.
And the reason for her story in the first place.
Just Wants To Be With The White Guys
Moreover, in the documentary, CNN's Abbie Boudreau prances around in skin tights and generally arousing dress, while the guys she talks to are all clean-cut, white, young, athletic types. Get the image?
I'd have far more respect for Abbie Boudreau's work, and would be a fan of her work, if she, as a white reporter, produced a documentary on black political activists in Washington DC.
This blogger doesn't buy the idea that a black person should do that story because that idea is segregationist. Doing it would show that Boudreau has a real curiousity that extends beyond her skin, and bring a new, untold story to America's view.
Yes, Abbie Boudreau has done good, award-winning, journalistic work - but not great. Much of it cements stereotypes about myopic and ineffective government and questionable military policies hampering soldiers.
What Right On The Edge does is just serve as an echo chamber to show us white young conservatives that people who pay attention to politics have already known about. And what this blogger is tired of is how these people are being turned into household names by CNN, and by reporters like Abbie.
It's socially irresponsible to use media communication to reenforce, rather than change, social patterns. Abbie's work only serves to make young conservatives look cool and sexy. That James O'Keefe may have some sexual fetishism is not likely to diminish how attractive his overall approach may be to a conservative sympathizer in the television audience.
Who may have their own fetishisms.
Toward Good, Revealing News
Meanwhile, the story of reporting what happens to Democrats in Congress and why it can't get out its message to the public, suffers. Problems of how the Democratic message to African American and to the public isn't getting out there. A problem that Rep. James Clyburn talked about at length in a meeting with black bloggers, and ignored by CNN and undoubtedly not known to Abbie Boudreau.
If she were curious, she would have known about it.
In fact, Abbie should have been the only white person in the Clyburn meeting, if only to see another side of America that this blogger bets she routinely ignores.
Oregon destroys Stanford 52 to 31, USC loses to Washington 32 to 31, welcome to the new Pac-10, the last year we can effectively call it that.
The Stanford Oregon game was one The Cardinal would like to have back. While Oregon would roll up 626 yards of total offense, their inability to hold on to the ball, coupled with Stanford's early ability to score on turnovers, saw the Ducks in a 21 to 3 hole they had to climb out of.
In the post-Super Bowl XL era, where New Orleans Saints Coach Sean Peyton called for an onsides kick to start the second half of the NFL Championship against the Indy Colts, coaches should know to look for the use of the kick when they're behind and to establish a sudden change.
From that view, Oregon's Chip Kelly out-coached Cardinal Coach Jim Harbaugh, who's team was surprised by the call. Kelly told Oregon Live it was planned.
The kick changed the game and the Ducks has a 49 to 10 scoring run afterward. Well, that and Stanford failing to score twice in the red zone in the 4th quarter. And yes, there was the hit on Stanford Wide Receiver Chris Owusu by Oregon's Jason Lewis, who went strutting around the sidelines in a very classless way afterward. A behavior that made you just hate Oregon after all.
Call it swagger. I call it dirty. Even at its best USC was never like that.
USC Falls To Washington
For the second straight year, USC lost to Washington, meaning that Huskies Coach Steve Sarkisian has The Trojans number, and that USC's looking at quickly posting two losses as Stanford, which it also lost to in 2009 comes to town next week. And the Cardinal's not going to like losing to Oregon the way it did.
Now, USC officially looks beatable. It's no wonder Pete Carroll headed for the relative shelter of Seattle and the Seattle Seahawks. For the always positive Carroll, this year would have been a test like no other.
Now, the headache falls to Lane Kiffin. Can he deal with it? We'll see.
Cal v. UCLA
On the note of headaches, we have Cal hosting the suddenly hot UCLA Bruins and their "Pistol" offense next Saturday. This space wonders if Cal will learn to take away the inside running of that offense, force their corners, and funnel plays to the outside. In other words, don't try to defense every aspect of the offense; take one part of it away.
