[BU54]

Lions get bulletin board material from Bears' Harris
October 23, 2007

BY NICHOLAS J. COTSONIKA

FREE PRESS SPORTS WRITER

It was literally pinned to a bulletin board Monday. It was also displayed on a door and taped inside the lockers of offensive linemen Dominic Raiola and Stephen Peterman.

It was an item from freep.com with the headline: "Bears' DT Harris tells Lions they shouldn't plan on leaving Chicago with a win next week."

It wasn't quite like Lions wide receiver Roy Williams guaranteeing a victory over the Bears last year or Williams going back and forth with Bears linebacker Brian Urlacher.

But it was a little something to get the Lions' minds off Sunday's 23-16 victory over Tampa Bay and right onto next Sunday's game at Soldier Field.

The item relayed something defensive tackle Tommie Harris said Sunday after the Bears' 19-16 victory at Philadelphia.

"Detroit don't come into Chicago and win in our stadium," Harris said, according to the Chicago Tribune. "We have to be 4-4 going into our (week off). We have to be ... I'm going to do whatever I have to do for us to be 4-4."

The quote itself didn't really fire up Raiola.

"That's fine," Raiola said. "People are going to talk all week. ... That goes out the window on Sunday. I don't think I'm going to block him any harder than I'm going to try to block him anyway, you know what I mean? So I don't think it's that serious."

So why put it up, then? Why leave it up?

To Raiola, it's a reminder to get ready.

"I just thought it was kind of neat to start looking at Chicago already on Monday instead of coming back Wednesday and getting the game plan and start looking at them," Raiola said.

The Lions have been blown out in their last two trips to Soldier Field. They have been blown out in their last two road games. They are 7-44 on the road since Matt Millen became team president in 2001.


FULL STORY
Lions get bulletin board material from Bears' Harris

[Zane Rollins]

The fact is, this game could go either way, but although the Lions are inconsistent from one play to the next, they still put together a much better game than the Bears. The Bears fans need to wake up and realize that their team is drowning...Greise is not doing great and is not a long term answer, but the two main things is that this defense of theirs is no longer scary, and Cedric Benson is another Bears bust. I heard Benson and Jones did not get along in the locker room so they went with whiny Benson. Benson is not as good as a limping Kevin Jones, the Bears front office was stupid to think they could repeat last years success by getting rid of Thomas Jones, who clearly was better than Benson.

Mushin can still make some big plays, but so can Roy Williams for the Lions. The game just might come down to turnovers, but it would not surprise me to see Detroit come away with another win. The bucs were picked to beat them and did nothing spectacular.

[Professor]

Berrian is a bust as well, he just is not a consistent separator at WR

[BU54]

I think you guys are forgetting the most important issue. The coaching staff/Lovie are just bull headed. They have that "he's just in a slump" mentality or "he's due for a good game" BS. The Bears never have and never will persue a good QB. There's just not many "Bradys/Mannings" around anyway, and if ones team doesn't have a Brady or Manning they will be forever labeled lame.

[Zane Rollins]

Good points BU54, I think I brought this up a few months ago when I was here...do you remember runningback Brock Forsey? Forsey was running circles around defenders and making the A-train look awfully comfy on the bench. Then there was the sudden media frenzy around him being a "White" runningback, in which Kordell Stewart (QB at the time) had the perfect answer: "If he's got game, it doesn't matter".

I think this enraged Lovie Smith, now say I'm crazy or a conspiracy theorist but Lovie seems like he is behind Al Sharpton in the crying department. I won't come out and say he plays the race card, but during the Bears/Colts media storm last year before the superbowl, Dungy seemed to have more of an attitude like "It will be great" no matter who wins, while Lovie was always smug and taut, acting like he was owed something. The immediate dismissal of Brock Forsey did not help the cause, as A-train never could really prove he was anything more than an overweight, overpaid, overrated slug who could not keep the starting job in Chicago.

Now before the season all I heard about was Cedric Benson, how he was going to do this and that, how the Bears would have won the Superbowl had he not been hurt. This player has had the opportunity to be the no. 1 back on the team and has done absolutely nothing with it. He is in all sense of the word, another bust. With that said, even Rashaan Salaam (sp) will end up with better career stats and tenure than Benson. Benson will be out of the league by 2009, or perhaps not, perhaps he will be a Ron Dayne, just rolling like a bowling ball from team to team and occasionally getting a fifty yard game every six games before continuing to roll out of the league for good.

The Bears need to get rid of Benson and try to pick up someone else that is proven, and they need to get rid of Lovie and go get Bill Cowher. Until then, sit back and watch this team, which just last year represented the NFC in the superbowl, fall apart at the seams. It is already happening, some just haven't noticed quite yet. They still have hope in Lovie, they still think Benson will pan out, and they still think Greise can up his game and take them to the promise land.

[Zane Rollins]

You are correct about the QB part, there was a great article in SI about the QB situation around the league. How the tiers are so thin, you have Brady, Manning, Romo, and Palmer and then you have what I myself call "journeyman" like Rattay, Rosenfels, and many more. Then you have the "vets" who can be thrown in for a game but could probably not, in 10-16 games, be consistent or healthy enough to take a team all the way, like Garcia (hang in there Garcia, you are doing okay) Dilfer, Testeverde, Frerotte, Brad Johnson, and Warner.

I feel bad for the Bears, they have picked up a lot of top QB's out of college over the years, but McKown (McKnown whoever however you spell it) never could get off the ground and now Grossman seems to be on his way out as well.

[Dawardoe]

Remember what happened last time a team talked pre game trash to the Lion cough cough Raider...

Tatered Bell ended up over by the "Black Hole" Talking the Talk after he walked the walk and all the fans could do was stand there digusted and throw beer at him.

[BU54]

Originally Posted by Zane Rollins

You are correct about the QB part, there was a great article in SI about the QB situation around the league. How the tiers are so thin, you have Brady, Manning, Romo, and Palmer and then you have what I myself call "journeyman" like Rattay, Rosenfels, and many more. Then you have the "vets" who can be thrown in for a game but could probably not, in 10-16 games, be consistent or healthy enough to take a team all the way, like Garcia (hang in there Garcia, you are doing okay) Dilfer, Testeverde, Frerotte, Brad Johnson, and Warner.

I feel bad for the Bears, they have picked up a lot of top QB's out of college over the years, but McKown (McKnown whoever however you spell it) never could get off the ground and now Grossman seems to be on his way out as well.

Yes it'a truly a shame with the Bears QB ambition. Grossman was a great college QB and showed some signs of being a good NFL QB, then became over confident(IMO)and thought he could do no wrong. It take's constant effort/concentration on and off the field to become good/great, reviewing each teams strenghts/weaknesses each week of the season. And Grossman doesn't have what it takes to accomplish that. Sure you could give him the best OL in the league and he would perform somewhat better, but any QB would. Reading defenses/lineups is a must. The only Chicago QB that I remember that was great at that was Jim McMahon, but he got injured in that Packer game on a flagrant foul by Harold Martin(I think)and that IMO he never came back from.

[Zane Rollins]

I remember when that happened, remember watching the game! Quite a game, and throwing him on his bad shoulder like that was one of the most flagrant things I've ever seen someone do...I mean it was like, seemed like it happened a long ways away from the play, like McMahon was just standing watching his guy go downfield or whatever and then the Packer just picked him up and slammed him.

Lions had a GREAT QB in Erik Kramer, but then they shuttled him off to Chicago where he had a few good years with the team. Lions shucked him, Peete and Heisman? Bust Andre Ware and went and got Scott Mitchell.

Yeah it is kind of like luck of the draw with QB's, I think sometime the Bears WILL pick up a guy that is good, or even perhaps get a young journeyman who could flourish there, it is just hard to say. Derek Anderson is doing pretty good in Cleveland, but with Quinn waiting in the wings I doubt he will be the starter next season. Didn't the Bears have a guy named Joe Walsh? or was it Steve...guy was playing around 94-96, around that time that Erik Kramer was with them. Seemed like he was an up and coming QB but then just kind of faded out.

Hey it could have been worse, the Bears could have gotten Ryan Leaf.

[Zane Rollins]

Well tomorrow's game should be interesting...I still don't see the Lions putting together a full four quarters of football, but a win is a win and the fact that this year they are able to FINISH in the fourth and pull out a "W" has me pretty pumped about this season.

Okay what is going on, I don't see a single avatar that shows Matt Millen on a chopping block, in a jail cell or best of all, in the unemployment line.

My thoughts: This team (Lions go lions baby win win win!) needs to beef it up at the DB position, what do you all think? We've got some killer linebackers and a decent line that has a great player in Shaun Rogers, but our defensive backfield cannot keep looking this way. Why do they keep holding on to Fernando Bryant? Shaun Alexander has been doing well as a sub at safety, I just hated seeing Bly go to Denver. We could use some good free agent pickups at CB or maybe the draft will have some good ones, not that from the looks of things so far (crosses fingers) we are going to finish that terrible to get a very high pick.