11/29/2018 1 Comment Chicago Sports of NovemberThe three big sports in Chicago have been polar opposites and going in completely different directions in the past month. The Chicago Bulls and Chicago Blackhawks are heavily tanking while the Chicago Bears are soaring and at the top of their division. I will be talking about all of these teams, but obviously more favorable towards the Bears.
The first Chicago team I’ll go into, the worst one by far, is the disappointing Chicago Bulls basketball team. As of now, their sitting at a lovely 5-17 record, as one of the worst teams in the league. On some bright side, the Bulls will be more experienced with their young players next year and will get some players back from injury. Another bright spot is that ten of their 17 losses have been within 8 points, so they are keeping games close to the end, and maybe later in the season as they improve they’ll be able to pull out those close games. Now, for the other very disappointing team in Chicago, the NHL Chicago Blackhawks. Losers of 13 of their last 16 this team is the definition of tanking. This team is very far from the early 2010s dynasty they had just a few short years ago winning 3 Stanley Cups. This team is currently sitting at a 9-12-5 record and not sitting too hot. They also on the regular give up 5 goals plus so they’re going to need some work. Now for the real team to talk about in Chicago, DaaaaaaaBears!! The month of November was one to remember for them, going 4-0 and getting to a dominating 8-3 record to lead in their division. First from the Bills to the Lions to the Vikings to the Lions again, on the greatest stage of Thursday morning Thanksgiving football. First game was against the Bills. There isn’t much to say about this one but there is tons to say at the same time. Just getting straight to the point, the Bears destroyed the poor Bills 41-9 to continue their game winning streak to two. They had two defensive touchdowns and dominated the whole game. Next game, at home against the Lions. This was another great game to watch, but became frustrating towards the end. The Bears jumped out to a 26-0 lead in the first half and it was an offensive explosion. The finals scored was 34-22, so the Bears let them back in the game a little, but it was alright to say the least. The only bad spot for the day was the Bears kicker missing two field goals and two extra points. Next game was the biggest test of the year for the people doubting the Bears. Their division rival who supposedly was a lot better than them, and many think that whoever wins this game will win the division. The Bears defense absolutely took over this game and were winning this game 14-0 late in the third. The offense didn’t play too well but the defense made up for it. In the fourth quarter, with a score of 14-6, Bears safety Eddie Jackson picked off Kirk Cousins and returned it to the house to secure the game 21-6, and later went on to win 25-20. Now for an even bigger test that us Bears fans didn’t see coming, against the Lions on the Thanksgiving morning game against the Lions again. This was a bigger test than expected because this was their third DIVISIONAL game in the past 11 days. AND, Mitchell Trubisky got hurt in the last game, so the Bears back up Chase Daniel had to take the starting role. This game was slow and ugly and hard fought. There were no big moments in this game until 6 minutes left in the game and in a 16-16 game with Matt Stafford rolling in to take the lead, on the first play of the drive, Eddie Jackson picks it off and returns it for a touchdown for the second straight week and the Bears ended up winning 23-16, with another interception in the end zone by Kyle Fuller with a minute left in the game. So right about now I’m not caring about any other teams in Chicago except for the Bears. The Blackhawks and Bulls are just too sad for me to watch and commentate on. But this season and the future of the Bears is looking very bright.
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11/2/2018 2 Comments Chicago Sports of OctoberLots of losing. Losing was the theme of October for the sports world in Chicago. In both of the sports seasons that just started, hockey and basketball, the Chicago Bulls and the Chicago Blackhawks have both had slow, unmemorable starts to the season. And in football, the Chicago Bears had a bye one week and had a very mediocre 1-2 record. First off, the Bulls. The most disappointing team out of the three that this blog is about. Even though the Chicago Bulls are one of the youngest teams in the league, it can still sometimes be difficult to watch. This includes a 149-124 loss to the Warriors. Yes, it was to the Warriors who are the best team in the league. But still, 149 POINTS. In fact, the Bulls have given up 100+ points in all eight of their games so far. The Bulls have a 2-6 record and it doesn’t seem like it’s going to get much better, especially since their only two wins are against the Hornets, who have a 4-5 record , and the Hawks, who have a record of 2-6 as well. As this is definitely a rebuilding year for the Chicago Bulls, they definitely weren’t supposed to be doing good this year, but maybe they will be good in a couple years. Now for the second team, the Chicago Blackhawks. With a record of 6-5-3, which puts them in 5th place of their seven-team division. Again, there isn’t much to talk about, it hasn’t been a memorable season as of yet. Their Stanley Cup days of the early 2010s are over and now they are just your average hockey team. The Blackhawks however are a bit unlucky in being in a very talented division, where every single team has a .500 win percentage or better. There have been no memorable games, besides in their latest game getting blown out 4-0 by the Oilers. And even though their record shows they’re a decent team, their stats say otherwise. They are 16th in goals per game, 23rd in goals given up, 29th in power play goal percentage and 19th in penalty kill percentage, out of 30 NHL teams. So yeah, main point here is that the Blackhawks haven’t really been anything to watch so far in this young season. Now for really the only bright spot in Chicago sports at the moment: The Chicago Bears. DaaaaaaBears! They have fallen off a little bit however, but with a 4-3 overall record, they are still winning their division in a tight race with all the other teams within one game of them (Vikings 4-3-1, Packers 3-3-1, Lions 3-4). October wasn’t too good for them as they went 1-2 in the process, but they are still one of the better teams in the league. Let’s go into their first two games, which were both losses. The first game was a little hard to watch. The Bears were 3-1 and so was their opponent, the Miami Dolphins. This game needed extra time, as both teams scored touchdowns back and forth. It was 28-28 into overtime. Kenyan Drake, the Miami runningback, fumbled right on the cusp of scoring the game winning touchdown. The Bears then drove down and missed a 54 yard field goal. Then the next drive the Dolphins drove down and scored a 45 yard field goal in the closing seconds. Then the next week was just flat out frustrating. The Bears were playing one of the best teams in the league, the New England Patriots. The Bears came out to a 17-7 lead. Then one thing led to another, the Patriots scored two special teams touchdowns and the Bears fell ONE YARD short on a hail mary attempt. The Bears fall to 3-3, and last place in their division. The struggling Bears go up against the also struggling Jets. This was actually a pretty boring overall game except for a 70 yard touchdown by Tarik Cohen. The Bears’ defense was an unmovable force in this one, the Jets only got a couple first downs in the first half. The Bears won a solid undoubted game 24-10. This was actually a very important game in that everyone else in the Bears division lost so it moved the Bears from last to first place. So all in all, there is somewhat of a spotlight in Chicago sports, in that the Bears are really the only team worth watching at the moment. The Bulls are clearly a team that will be good in a few years and the Blackhawks are a team that is on the heavy decline. But the Bears have legit playoff hopes for the first time since 2012. Their next game is against the lowly Bills and then they have 3 big divisional games in a row and it is definitely something to look forward to. |
Chicago Sports of September
After such a long time of all Chicago sports being failures, most sports are looking bright for the future, and it's been a crazy month of up and downs in the world of Chicago sports in just baseball and football. I'll be going into these games, the good and the bad, and show how there is so much to look forward to in the near future for us Chicago fans.
The Bears and the Cubs have been two of the most hyped up teams lately and they definitely haven't disappointed. The Cubs had been the best team in the National League for most of the season and everyone was ready for their playoff run. They also had one of the league’s most flashy players in Javier Baez. The Bears on the other hand were one of the teams in the NFL that everyone was excited to watch, especially with the addition of the best defensive player in the entire league in Khalil Mack. They also added some great, much needed additions to the offense such as wide receivers Allen Robinson, Taylor Gabriel, Anthony Miller, and tight end Trey Burton. Let’s start off with the Cubbies. They entered September 1st with a 79-55 record which was top in the NL (National League) and a prime position to make it to the playoffs and possibly home field advantage. They went through September with a 16-12 record which was tied for the best in the NL, finishing at 95-67. This did come with some bad luck however. The team they tied with was the Milwaukee Brewers, a team in their division. So by rule they had to play a one game tie breaker to see who would be the one seed and who would play in the winner-take-all wild card game. The tie breaker game comes along, Brewers vs Cubs. It was a little bit of a boring game. The Brewers scored first in the 3rd inning. Then in the 5th inning Anthony Rizzo hit a solo home run to tie the game. But in the end, the Brewers pulled away with two runs in the eighth inning to win 3-1. But this still meant the Cubs would make the playoffs in the one game wild card against the Rockies. However, the Cubs were completely shut down. The Rockies scored one in the first inning. Javier Baez tied things up in the eighth inning with a double. And after a long game of nothing happening, the Rockies finally won the game in the 14th inning. The Cubs’ season came to an unlucky quick end, and Cubs fans will want to forget about it soon. How about DaaaaaaaaBears!! They’ve had an amazing start to the 2018 season after having 7 straight disappointing seasons. Game 1: Bears @ Packers. Their biggest rival playing on Sunday night on national television. I don’t want to get into this one. The Bears were up 20-0 and ended up losing to Aaron Rodgers and the Packers 24-23 in the final two minutes. Next game. The Bears had another primetime game on Monday night at home against the Seahawks. There wasn’t much to this game, the Bears won 24-17, and in the final quarter, Bears cornerback Prince Amukamara got a pick 6, and the next drive Khalil Mack forced a fumble which sealed the game. The Bears have really got things rolling in the past two weeks. Week 3: Bears @ Cardinals. The Bears were expected to win against the team who scored 6 points total in their first two games. The Bears step onto the field, and right away they’re down 14-0 in the first quarter and 14-3 into halftime. Things turned around in the second half. The Bears defense got three interceptions and also got a strip sack by, who else, Khalil Mack. The sack led to a field goal with 4:31 left in the game to take the lead. The Bears defense held, and they won 16-14. Week 4: Bears vs. Buccaneers. This was their biggest test of the year so far. And was this a great game for Bears fans or what. The struggling Mitchell Trubisky threw for a franchise record six touchdowns. Five different Bears receivers scored touchdowns. The Bears got 4 more sacks, including yet another strip sack by Khalil Mack, and got another three interceptions. The Bears ended up winning 48-10, which is the most points they’ve scored since 2012. The Bears are 3-1, best start since 2010, and have their first division lead since the last week of the 2013 season. Things are only looking up going into an off-week for DaaaaBears. Sadly, the season is over the Cubs, but the season is bright for the Bears as the next game they play is againt the 3-1 Miami Dolphins. The Chicago Blackhawks and Bulls seasons are right around the corner and those seasons are something to look forward to as well. |