Weeky Football Thoughts

I'll have some thoughts on shopping for Organics next week, I promise, but let's throw some football things out there.

Marc Trestman to the Bears
As someone who is a CFL fan, though not of Montreal, and who follows it with a rooting interest, here's my $.02 on Trestman.

My span of observing the NFL more or less dovetails with his NFL career. While I think he did a great job with tutoring QBs, I was never a fan of his offensive play calling overall. Looking back, particularly on his work in San Francisco and in Detroit, the fog of time may make my opinion of his NFL work appear worse than it actually was, but as a game manager I didn't think much of his play calling.

From an offensive game design standpoint, however, his work in Montreal did impress me. He took full advantage of the rules differences and very quickly designed an offense that did a terrific job of using the motion rules, did a terrific job of disguising pass patterns pre-snap, making it difficult for defenses to anticipate patterns pre-snap, and made great use of smaller, more versatile running backs both in the pass and the run game. Smarter CFL offensive coordinators were able to look at what he was doing and evolve one of the two standard CFL offenses to incorporate some of what he brought to the game.

A cynic can look at his CFL career and say the following: He had superior talent, including a Hall of Fame Quarterback, in a weak division, so an average coach should have accomplished what he accomplished in Montreal. And you could argue that there is something to that.

He is not a rah rah guy. Never was, and in the wrong situation that could have worked against him. (Cleveland comes to mind.) He was a bad fit for those circumstances with a young roster where Jim Popp wasn't coming with him to rebuild a program under a patient owner (Carolina comes to mind as a place where both would have worked well - they both live in North Carolina in the offseason.)

But I think Chicago can work. It is a veteran group where he can get the most out of Cutler, Jeffery, Marshall and particularly Forte (who I think will have a terrific fantasy season). He also has the good sense, apparently, to leave the defensive coaching staff alone to do their job. Considering the Bears offensive line consists of Roberto Garza and four guys with capes who yell ole at the snap of the ball, I think Aaron Kromer was a good get. Between the two, they should be able to make the most of what the Bears have on offense.

It's what they have on defense that I think will ultimately be the achillies heel. Age is catching up to that defense, and it's that age that may keep the Bears from improving on Lovie's last season in Chicago. The difference between a 10-6 2012 and a 10-6 2013 season is likely to be more significant than people who will likely criticize Trestman after it by saying "they're no better" realize.

In the end, I think Trestman was probably the best hire for the Bears at this point in time. I see him as a bridge coach, someone who can prop up a roster by getting the most out of the offense while the front office attempts to rebuild the roster. They aren't going to win a Super Bowl with him. But they weren't going to win a Super Bowl with Lovie (who I would have loved to see in Buffalo) and Trestman can stem the downward trajectory long enough so that the coach that follows him can take the foundation he lays to a more competitive level.

Championship Sunday

The last three football games of the year are upon us, let the sadness begin, I suppose.

San Francisco @ Atlanta(+4) - I don't love the Falcons, I really don't. They can't stop the run effectively up the middle, and offensively the game planning in the second half of the season has gone south. That said, their defensive ends and secondary exhibit considerably better discipline than most other NFC teams, and I think that makes the difference here. Even better, I don't have to pick them to win. Atlanta(+4), Over 47

Baltimore @ New England (-10), 50 - I'm not a fan of Baltimore's wing and a prayer offense, which I think comes up short here. Can we take a moment to mention how awesome Ray Lewis' facemask is? I hope more players adopt that. I don't think Baltimore wins this game, but I'm not confident enough to lay the points Baltimore (+10) Over 50

Other Items

It's been an incredibly good run of Starbucks lately. Although I will say that the Starbucks in the McNamara Terminal at Detroit Metro Airport specializes in having five people behind the counter who are quite adept at letting one customer stand there and wait for five minutes while doing nothing other than catching up on the news of the day. That said, when I ordered my usual drink and asked for extra Sugar Free Vanilla, extra apparently mean 13 pumps of Sugar Free Vanilla instead of 7 which, for my sweet tooth, was phenomenal. I won't lie. Three Starbucks in the Denver area, three perfect drinks.