Bears Recap: NOW We're Talking!

Okay, so after a bad sports weekend and a horrible loss for the Hawks last night, I FINALLY get a good result for my team, and that's... Da Bearsss. The Bears beat the New York Football Giants 27-21 in a fairly well-executed game for a Thursday Night Football national audience. The Giants came into the game with an 0-5 record.

Okay, the defense could have been better, but the offense really stepped up tonight. "Good Jay" was in the building tonight, as he threw for 262 yards, completing a total of 24 out of 36 pass attempts, had a passer rating of 106.5 and connected with Brandon Marshall in the end zone twice. As for the defense, well, it could have been better. Now granted, they were missing Stephen Paea, Henry Melton and Charles Tillman, but SIU grand Brandon Jacobs ran for 106 yards and two TDs.

But, the Bears intercepted a struggling Eli Manning three times, including a Pick-Six by Tim Jennings. So I guess there's a silver lining in that cloud. Jennings' second interception sealed the win with 1:54 left in the game. At one point the Bears were up by 13, but a Brandon Jacobs touchdown cut that lead to 6.

Eli himself threw for 239 yards, completing 14 of 26 passes and a touchdown, as well as those previously-mentioned interceptions. He was intercepted 44 seconds into the game and then on the Giants' second drive, on Jennings' pick-6. Brandon Jacobs then scored on a 4-yard run to tie the game.

But the Bears responded, and Jay and Brandon connected on their first touchdown pass to put them up. But then Rueben Randle caught a 37 yard pass from Eli to tie the game. But the Bears took control, and Cutler and Marshall connected again on a 3-yard pass. Robbie Gould kicked two field goals that in the end, put the game out of reach for the G-Men.

Okay, defense aside (which is admittedly struggling and banged up), this was a good game for the Bears. I always like seeing Good Jay showing up, but I would appreciate it if he consistently showed up. That being said, I thought Cutler did an excellent job after two very bad outings in the previous two weeks. As for Brandon Marshall, those green shoes he wore did the trick. I think he should wear them more often, NFL fines be damned.

It's also pretty surprising these Giants are 0-6. They could have easily won this game, but the Bears definitely took them seriously. It's a step in the right direction for the Bears, and hopefully they'll use the extra three days to figure things out before they take on RGIII and the struggling Washington team.

Blackhawks vs Blues Recap: Oh, Jeez.

The Hawks had a chance to take control of the new NHL Central Division tonight. Instead, they ended up the victims of St. Louis's biggest sports night of the year, losing 3-2 to the Blues on the night the Cardinals clinched a spot in the NLCS. And while it's still only the third game of an 82-game season, this still should have been better.

First, let's start off with the good parts: The Hawks are very dangerous on the Power Play. Both goals came seconds after the Blues scored, and during the Power Play. Also, Corey Crawford, was exceptional, making 31 saves against the Blues. The game itself was a good back-and-forth battle between two very good teams and involved a lot of physical play.

But sadly, the Hawks gave up 3 goals, the last of which they'll want back.

Make no mistake the Blues came to play tonight. They've had to watch the Hawks while they've won the Cup twice in four years and they were no doubt envious of the Hawks' success. They made damn sure every goal the Hawks scored, they earned it.

The Blues opened the scoring on a Vladimir Tarasenko goal on an odd-man rush that beat Corey Crawford. Patrick Kane answered 77 seconds later on the Power Play, which was a dumb penalty given up by the Blues. Then David Backes deflected a Steven Pierangelo shot, which was answered by Toews about 39 second later.

The third period itself was scoreless until 21 second left. The Hawks were going for the jugular against the Blues and looked as if they were about to put the Blues on the brink before a bad Brent Seabrook hit allowed the Blues to go in transition on a 3-on-1 and race up the ice for the score. The Hawks pulled Crawford to no avail and the Blues took the first meeting between the two teams.

Just like with the Lightning game, I'm beginning to wonder if the Stanley Cup Hangover is affecting these players this year. This team has been picked to repeat as champs, yet they keep letting teams get to them easily. If they can't put away opponents, I have a very bad feeling for the rest of the season. The good thing is, it's only the beginning. The bad part is, I want to see them storm out of the gate. Only time will tell, but they had better get their act together, or it's good-bye Lord Stanley.

Blackhawks vs Blues Preview

NBC has been pushing the Blackhawks-Blues rivalry, although it's not without reason or history. With the Red Wings moving to the Eastern Conference, the Hawks won't have chants of "DEE-TROIT SUCKS!" raining down from the rafters as much and they'll need a new rival. That rival is the St. Louis Blues, which essentially makes this the Cardinals-Cubs rivalry with the colors switched.

The Hawks and Blues were big rivals in the old Norris AKA "Black and Blue" Division in the late '80s and early '90s. Their playoff series were tough, physical and heated, their rivalry culminating in a massive series of brawls on St. Patrick's Day, 1991, an event popularly known as the St Patrick's Day Massacre. Six players on each team, which added up to a total of twelve, were ejected. A video of the incident is available on YouTube.

Of course now, the Hawks-Blues rivalry is starting to heat up and tomorrow, the two teams play in their first game of the year. The Hawks are built on speed, quickness, the Blues on big bodies and bruising hits. It looks to be an old Norris Division match-up transplanted into the modern age.

One member of the Hawks who has an interest in this match-up is Brandon Bollig, a St. Louis native himself. He's said that this is one of the games the Hawks have circled on their calenders, and they should come out swinging against the Blues. They'll need to.

The Blues as a whole have only allowed a total of two goals the entire season. The Hawks will have to get past Jaroslav Halak, who looks to be the Blues' starting goalie on Wednesday. The Blues also added top defensemen Jay Bouwmeester and Jordan Leopold, so expect the Blues to be pretty defensive. But they also inked forwards Brenden Morrow and Derek Roy for some offensive firepower.

Experts have been picking the Blues to be a challenge for the Hawks, so don't expect an easy victory. The two teams will be very evenly matched. The new alignment also adds weight to this match-up, as the top 3 teams in each division move onto the playoffs, and there's the possibility the Hawks and Blues will meet in the playoffs. I expect the Hawks to win, but it will not be easy at all. In fact, it should be fun.

What Are Republicans Doing?

First the government shutdown and now this? Boehner's willing to put the debt ceiling on the line just to deal with Obamacare? Oy vey, this is getting crazy. I thought Republicans were crazy two years ago. Now, I'm beginning to wonder of they're down right insane. This is not a game. They're playing with the economic health and vitality of the United States of America here.

Republicans played this game two years ago during the whole debt ceiling debate. They're pretending that defaulting on our loans won't be too bad. Um, didn't they see what happened when Greece went through a similar crisis? I can't believe how crazy they're getting when it comes to our debt.

The Republicans keep on talking aboutr how they want to reduce the deficit and Obama's the worst thing to happen to it. Here's the thing: I KNOW we have a huge deficit, but it's because the last guy caused it!

When George W. Bush came into office, the US had a $280 billion dollar surplus. Eight years of George W. Bush being George W. Bush gave us the deficit we had today. And while Democrats like President Obama did vote against raising the debt ceiling from time to time, they weren't so stupid as to make a big show out of it just because of one law they didn't like. Yes, that's what all this is about, this is about Obamacare! The Republicans don't want to give Obama a legacy, so they're throwing a fit to get rid of it and this tantrum is economically disastrous.

But getting back to the debt ceiling, you know their antics are getting old when the Chamber of Commerce is telling them to knock it off. That's right, the US Chamber of Commerce, the epitome of evil (sorry, humorous hyperbole) told the GOP to knock it off! If you're thinking about the needs of business and the largest business lobbying group tells you to stop, it's probably a good idea.

Honestly, this whole government shutdown thing was doomed to fail for the Republicans. A PPP poll has already shown that voters are thinking about punishing the Republicans for their behavior. But, given that many of these Republicans come from "safe" districts, don't get your hopes up. And if you can, call your congressman and get them to do something about this, because we're playing with the economic health of our country for crying out loud!

Sunday Night Quarterbacking: Are You Serious?

Sigh... this hasn't been a good sports weekend for me. The Hawks somehow lost, Northwestern (I didn't go there, but I happen to like them) couldn't keep up with Ohio State and now this. The Bears turned into turkeys today against the New Orleans Saints.

The Saints showed they're one of the best offensive teams in the NFL today. And the Bears, well, they still need some work done. They suffered from multiple pass protection breakdowns and were flagged for 6 penalties while only accumulating a grand total of 12 minutes of possession time.

The offense wasn't real bad, though. Alshon Jeffery had over 200 yards of receiving, a personal record for him, and Jay Cutler was able to protect the ball a lot better. But the Saints defense and big mistakes by the Bears offense combined with Saints defensive coordinator Rob Ryan's schemes, the Saints stopped most of the Bears' drives. Jimmy Graham had 10 receptions for 135 yards, shredding the Bears offense.

The offense only gained two first downs in their first five series, a product of miscues and the Saints defense. The Saints quickly jumped out to a 13-0 lead, helped in part by the Saints blitz play. It took some time before the Bears could finally get on the board, but they had to play from behind the whole game while the Saints offense get having their way with the defense.

Thankfully, they were able to make the necessary adjustments, but by then it was too late. The mistakes that cost the Bears included a fumble by Matt Forte, three sacks on Jay Cutler and Earl Bennett dropping an easy pass on a 4th down situation with just over two minutes left.

I had hoped the Bears could recover from the beating they took last week against the Lions. In a way they did, but the Saints forced them to make the mistakes I keep talking about. When you only have 12 minutes of possession, there's something wrong. Coach Trestman will have to figure out just what happened and make the necessary adjustments.

He's only got until Thursday when the Bears welcome the New York Giants for a Thursday night game. These mistakes cannot be repeated against the Giants, or else this will be a long season with way too many growing pangs.

NHL: Game 2: What Was That?

I'm beginning to wonder if these Hawks really are suffering from Stanley Cup Hangover, or maybe I'm just overreacting. Either way, I am not happy with that third period against the Tampa Bay Lightning. Or that performance, for that matter. At the same time, you may just have to give the Lightning credit.

The first period between the Hawks and Lightning went completely scoreless, even though the Hawks completely outshot the Bolts 11-0 in that first period. Lightning goalie Ben Bishop kept the Hawks off the score sheet rather well.

But come the second period, the Hawks seemed to find their offense. Patrick Kane jumped on a loose puck about a minute into the period and flipped it into the goal mouth to give the Hawks a 1-0 lead. About ten minutes later, the Hawks went on the Power Play for hooking. Nick Leddy tried to get the puck on goal with Bishop out of the net, but Brandon Saad took advantage of the empty net to knock it in from the left side.

But the Tampa Bay defense and Bishop ended up tightening their grip after that. Despite a horrid offensive performance, Tampa Bay were able to stay in the game and eventually, Tampa Bay captain Martin St. Louis beat Corey Crawford with a backhander with 9:52 left in the game on a Power Play... seems to be familiar. Then Teddy Purcell scored almost 2 minutes later to tie the game.

The Hawks could not find a way past Bishop and a late rush on goal turned up empty for the Hawks. They could not break through in overtime and in a horrid show, did not score once on Bishop in the shoot-out. The only goal in that shootout came from a former enemy in Valterri Filppula.

Honestly, I'm not sure what happened here. I understand that in a long season, losses are inevitable. Still, if you're gonna lose, I'd rather it be because the opponent were simply better that night instead of you just being bad. The Hawks gave up both goals on the power play and then failed to score in the shoot-out. Look, I know there will be losses, but come on. I'm holding this team to a fairly high standard and the penalty kill needs to be improved and fast.

Of course, on the other hand, I do have to give credit to Tampa Bay. They have a good defensive team and even though they were 0-1-0 coming into this game, they didn't play like a bad team. I expect them to be contenders in the new Atlantic Division in the NHL.

So tonight it was a combination of bad play by the Hawks and good play by the Lightning. The Hawks will need to fix the penalty kill soon, otherwise defending that Stanley Cup will be hard. The Hawks next game is this coming Wednesday at the St. Louis Blues.

Native Bechdel Test: Brilliant!

Okay, first off, for those who don't know, the Bechdel Test is a test, thought up by Alison Bechdel in the comic strip Dykes to Watch Out For. In it, one character comes up with their criteria for watching a movie: 1. It must have two or more female characters, 2. who have at least one conversation, 3. about something other than a man or men. While not the end-all-be-all of strong female character litmus tests, it is a good way of ensuring that your women characters are independent and well-represented.

Now then, on to the focus of this blog post. I was on the website Tumblr recently and I came across this post by a user called wolfpangs, who's come up with that they refer to as the "NDN Bechdel Test". It goes like this: "1. Is there an NDN (Native American) in this work of fiction? 2. Is this set in the 20th or 21st century? 3. Is the NDN character just a regular person livin' life (as opposed to serving the protagonist as a spiritual advisor)?"

I gotta say, I loved it immediately. There could probably be a couple changes (like if there is no Native character), but other than that, I think this might be a great idea to ending common cliches when it comes to depiction of Native Americans.

If you've read my blog you've probably noticed my review of "People of the Longhouse" by the Gear family, where I praise them for their (violently) accurate depiction of Native tribal life. I have also written short stories about the Native character Ritchie Metoxen, whose main focus in life is to be a hockey player.

Now, like the original Bechdel Test, this is likely not the end-all-be-all of depictions of Native Americans. But, it's a great start. If you look at a lot of depictions of Native characters (outside of Native-produced media) they usually fall under the "mystical" Indian or "noble savage". Think Pocahontas.

I hate those depictions.

In their attempts to positively portray Native Americans, writers end up perpetrating another stereotype. If you're going to positively portray a Native character, do like I did and just show them to be a normal, every day average Joe more worried about their grades than whether or not their spirit advisee is succeeding.

So, props to wolfpangs for coming up with this idea. I think more authors and scriptwriters should take this into account when writing Native characters--or any other ethnic character, too! The best way to write any character is just to show them living life as we all do! What's so hard about that?