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Sports Quote of the Day:
“Success is determined not by whether or not you face obstacles, but by your reaction to them. And if you look at these obstacles as a containing fence, they become your excuse for failure. If you look at them as a hurdle, each one strengthens you for the next.” ~ Ben Carson, Author and Retired Neurosurgeon
Bear Down Chicago Bears!!! Tannehill stars as Dolphins knock off sloppy Bears.
What the Heck????? This performance was totally UNACCEPTABLE!!!!!
By Mike Wilkening
The Bears’ inability to win at home is imperiling their season.
For the third time in as many games, the Bears couldn’t get the job done at Soldier Field, falling 27-14 to Miami on Sunday. The Dolphins, meanwhile, turned in a splendid performance one week after falling just short against Green Bay.
In victory, Miami (3-3) was in control from start to finish. Dolphins quarterback Ryan Tannehill was sharp, completing 25-of-32 passes for 277 yards with two TDs and no turnovers. The Dolphins also were able to establish the run, gaining 137 yards on 33 carries. Overall, Miami held the ball for 37 minutes.
Three turnovers leading to 13 Miami points helped seal Chicago’s fate. Quarterback Jay Cutler was picked once, leading to a Mike Wallace second-quarter TD catch. Later, he would lose a fumble after being sacked by Cameron Wake, setting up a Miami field goal. Then, on the next series, tight end Dante Rosario would fumble, and the Dolphins would cash that in for three more points, giving the Dolphins a 24-7 lead with 13:32 left in regulation.
The Bears would cut the lead to 24-14 with 7:38 left on a Matt Forte one-yard TD run, but Miami would then put together a 12-play, 65-yard drive taking 5:25 off the clock, icing the game with a third Caleb Sturgis field goal.
The loss drops the Bears (3-4) two games behind the Packers (5-2) in the NFC North. The teams play in Chicago in two weeks. But before that, the Bears have the tall order of facing the Patriots in New England.
The good news? The Bears are 3-1 on the road. But if their problems holding serve at home continue, they will have plenty to lament in the weeks and months ahead.
Bears' frustration, rage boils over after loss to Dolphins.
By John Mullin
Losing rarely builds character. It usually does, however, reveal it. The Bears are losing, their third straight at home with Sunday’s 27-14 loss to the Miami Dolphins, and the fury was evident in a player yelling, “It’s SUPPOSED to hurt!” heard through closed locker room doors.
Had the Bears directed that much emotion toward the Dolphins, Sunday’s outcome might have been different, but it wasn’t and the cracks were starting to show.
“Anytime you have a loss like this, and let’s face it, with all the outside pressure at home, there will be frustration,” said defensive tackle Jeremiah Ratliff, one of the few Bears to play a strong game, with 3.5 sacks in the first half. “We just have to move forward from that and stay together. Staying together and chemistry is a big part of that.”
Wide receiver Brandon Marshall, believed to be the voice of “hurt,” was blunter.
“You should hear frustration,” Marshall said, his voice rising. “We’re 3-4. It means everything to a lot of guys in this locker room. It means a lot.
“We’re 3-4. That’s unacceptable. Unacceptable. Unacceptable. We shouldn’t have lost today, shouldn’t be 3-4. All of us gotta play better — simple as that.”
It is not turning out to be anything simple, however. The Bears lose when they give the football away in turnovers, yet they did precisely that on Sunday, with an interception of Jay Cutler, sack and strip of Cutler and fumble by tight end Dante Rosario — leading to 10 Miami points and a blocked field-goal try.
“Same mistakes. Same mistakes. Same mistakes,” Marshall said. “We’ve gotta protect the football. Gotta execute the game plan. Gotta execute when things don’t go as we saw them.
Alshon Jeffery, Martellus Bennett, Matt Forte, myself, the offensive line we’ve got — we’ve got a great, great group of guys and this is unacceptable.
“We’ve been playing football all our lives. That’s the amazing thing about football, that it is a volatile sport and you have the ability, when you get frustrated, to go out there and take it out on the field. ... You have to be able to play with an edge on your shoulder, and it has to mean something to you.”
The defense was trampled for 393 yards, the second-most the Bears have surrendered this season only to the New York Jets’ 414, and three scoring drives of 75 yards or longer. But the Dolphins also got a touchdown on a 28-yard drive following the interception of Cutler, which was followed by some of the poorest tackling efforts by members of the offense.
So Marshall kept the blame on the side of the ball where the Bears have poured the greatest amount of money:
“It starts on the offensive side of the ball,” Marshall declared.
The team that left Atlanta was brimming with confidence on all sides of the football. But do the Bears still have confidence as a team?
“I don’t know,” Marshall said. “I don’t know. My confidence is there. Alshon Jeffery’s confidence is there. Martellus Bennett’s confidence is there. Yeah. Jay’s a gunslinger. Jay’s our guy. Jay’s our leader.
“We’ve got to do a better job. It’s unacceptable. Unacceptable. Unacceptable. I’m not going to name anywhere else, but this is a special ballclub, a special organization, a special city. You gotta love what you do, playing for this ballclub. You gotta leave it out on the field.”
Marshall said he was not implying that anyone wasn’t.
“This is a great group of guys, tightest locker room I’ve ever been a part of. Tightest. Tighest. Tightest.”
That tightness might be tested soon, and often.
How 'bout them Chicago Blackhawks? Toews scores in OT as Blackhawks top Predators. By Tracey Myers
For a while, it was looking like Wednesday night all over again.
The Chicago Blackhawks had a ton of shots on Saturday, this time against the Nashville Predators, but not much to show for it. They had a lot of power plays for the second consecutive game — five, after seven on Wednesday — and once again came up empty on all of them.
There was a difference between Wednesday and Saturday, however. It came in the form of a timely short-handed goal.
Jonathan Toews scored the short-handed, game-winning goal 3:26 into overtime as the Blackhawks beat the Nashville Predators 2-1 at the United Center. It was a game that looked eerily similar to the Blackhawks’ 2-1 overtime loss to the Calgary Flames on Wednesday. Well, similar except for the finale.
“I liked our start. But after 40 minutes, here we are again,” coach Joel Quenneville said. “At least we weren’t behind. But I didn’t like our third. (Corey Crawford) was excellent, kept us in it, preserved the point. That was a big-league play by Johnny shorthanded to win it, but we were fortunate to get out of the third period tied.”
Indeed, it was if the Blackhawks took Wednesday’s outing, rinsed and repeated. Crawford was strong in the third, when he made 12 of his 19 stops on the evening. The Blackhawks went on the kill early in overtime after Patrick Sharp’s tripping penalty. Toews read right at the blue line, stealing the puck from Predators defenseman Roman Josi and breaking free the other way. Former Blackhawks goaltender Carter Hutton stopped Toews’ first attempt, but Toews punched it in on the rebound.
“Just a lucky break,” Toews said. “I try to jump on their guy when they come into the zone, just try to pressure the puck area with speed. I got my stick on it. I was just lucky to get a second effort because the first one didn’t go in.”
Crawford spent a lot of this game like he did vs. the Flames: waiting for shots to come his way. He only faced seven through the first two periods vs. Nashville.
“Yeah, it did (feel like the last game) and it’s going to happen again,” Crawford said. “We have really good puck possession a lot of the times, so there will be times when we go 10 minutes without a shot. I just have to be ready.”
Crawford was ready in the third period, when the Predators made a strong push. Then came Toews’ breakaway.
It wasn’t the prettiest of Blackhawks win. They are still struggling mightily on that power play. They’re still not getting enough traffic in front of the net on all those shots they are taking. They’ll keep working on improving all of that, and they’ll take the different ending from Saturday night.
“It would’ve been nice to capitalize on the power play. It wasn’t our best, and we know that. But we stuck with it, didn’t let it frustrate us,” Duncan Keith said. “I think we can learn from this type of game where we just don’t (need to) take too many risks to push the issue when it’s tied like that. It’s a close game, they’re on the road and on a back-to-back: keep it simple, and eventually we got our chance in overtime.”
How Shaw's street-hockey upbringing pays off for Blackhawks.
By Tracey Myers
Andrew Shaw was a young lad when he first started providing a net-front presence, just part of his street-hockey upbringing.
“Me and my brothers played. They always shot pucks,” he said. “Instead of me shooting, I would always just be in front, just trying to tip them in.”
That work is still coming in handy.
Shaw has become a permanent fixture at the net for the Chicago Blackhawks, and he earned another goal that way in the team’s 2-1 overtime loss to the Calgary Flames on Wednesday. Shaw has emerged as a guy willing to do that often, especially on the power play where it’s key. And you have to have a certain mentality to do that gig.
“There’s a mentality, there’s an art and there’s some skill to it,” coach Joel Quenneville said. “A lot of it is will, knowing the level of punishment that can be provided. He knows how to take it, absorb it, roll with it, give it back without crossing the line.”
If you’re an NHL defenseman, you’re used to the net-front life. You take those blocks, whacks and shoves on a nightly basis. When you’re a 5-foot-11, 179-pound forward, you’re usually not playing that part. Unless you’re a player trying to find your own niche, something that makes you stand out on a team; that was Shaw a few years ago.
“It started back in juniors. I needed something in my game that other people wouldn’t have,” Shaw said. “Every team I went to, I felt the net-front presence would be where I earned my buck, got my opportunities.”
So what about a smaller player taking all that punishment in front?
“To be honest, I think he likes it. He’s a different bird like that,” Brent Seabrook said with a grin. “He’s a wiry little guy and takes abuse night after night in front of the net. You notice it in the playoffs, when the media magnifies it and how important we see it with winning games, being able to put up goals and stuff. He’s always there.”
Regarding net-front work, Quenneville described former Detroit Red Wings forward Tomas Holmstrom as “doing that job perfectly.” Obviously Holmstrom was bigger than Shaw; he has at least an inch in height and about 20 pounds on the Blackhawks right wing. Still, it’s about the right positioning and taking the punishment, and Shaw’s been willing to do both.
“Hopefully Shawzy can keep getting better at it because he’s doing a lot of good things,” Quenneville said. “He sustains pucks, not just around the net, but in the corners and the puck areas. He’s really progressing in a nice way.”
Shaw wasn’t willing to elaborate on the worst shot he ever took. All he would say was former teammate Brandon Pirri shot it, it was a one-timer and “it hurt a long time.” It’s part of the dues paid standing in front of the net. Much like he did in juniors, Shaw is still carving a nice little niche for himself there. Now, it’s benefiting the Blackhawks.
“Obviously there are a lot of big defensemen in the league, and in front is one of the rougher spots. I like the responsibility of taking the vision away from the goalie, being out there on the power play or even just 5-on-5,” Shaw said. “I work on it every day and I seem to be getting better and better at it.”