Jim Dabrowski

Let’s start this off right from the top: Hate to say it, I don’t see the Bears winning this game. The Bears defense isn’t going to dominate as everyone seems to expect and the offense for the first time in recent years will be stymied by the Lions defense.

Mitch Trubisky has played some of his best games vs. the Lions. According to most people who know way more about this than me, this is because under head coach Matt Patricia, the Lions tend not to disguise their coverage or use many stunts when rushing the QB. As a result, what Trubisky sees pre-snap is what he encounters after the play starts. However, this is Patricia’s third year with Detroit and the general consensus is if they don’t improve and make the playoffs this year, both he and their General Manager will be out. Accordingly, Detroit brought in a new Defensive Coordinator and, if everyone I’ve read recognizes the reason Trubisky has been so successful against the Lions is because of how they play their defense, I have to believe the Lions know this too and will finally be prepared for him. I expect them to do things on defense designed to confuse Trubisky and he’ll regress to his 2019 self of stupid indecision and leave the offense struggling.

On the defensive side of the ball for some reason most people I read seem to be discounting the fact that both their edge rushers, Khalil Mack and Robert Quinn are injured with Quinn listed as doubtful. In the first half of last season, Matt Stafford was playing some of the best football of his career before he got injured. Word is this season he’s looking even better and people are expecting him to pick up right where he left off last year. Without Quinn and Mack putting pressure on Stafford, he will have plenty of time to pick apart the Bears defense.

With the offense struggling and the defense unable to pressure Stafford consistently, I see the Bears struggling and eventually losing this game. I hope I’m wrong.

Final score
Bears 17
Lions 24

LOL, learning something every time I post here. I just assumed my “replies” would be threaded somehow. :) It’s kinda fun feeling like a newbie again.

Guess I should have looked at my timeline before I posted! I’ll be honest, I’m not used to being part of an online community. Just a long time lurker on many places. I think I’ll reply to people individually.

Well, lookit that! I can now publish to micro.blog straight from iA Writer. Nice.

Day 2 of microblogging. Next step, figure out how to connect this to jimdab.com, my “real” blog that I almost never use.

Hello world!

My first micro.blog post.

Finally

OK, I’ll be honest, it’s been done for a few weeks now, I’m just finally getting around to writing about it. I won’t bore you with all the details of getting the “final” bill only to have items we had to haggle over. I just want to say when your contractor won’t give you credit for unused material they purchased because it’s open and you ask for the material back since you paid for it, and when you get it back from them, you see the “opened” part consists of them having pulled open 1 of the four flaps on the cover, but none of the material is actually used, you know your contractor is trying to screw you over.

But it’s done. We won’t ever do business with Property Revival again. The final payment was made on September 18, 140 days after the “9 week” project started May 1.

Enough bitching. As promised, here are some before and after pictures of the whole thing. Sit back and enjoy the carousel. We actually like our kitchen a lot and can’t wait to host our big family Thanksgiving dinner.

JIm

I finally get my boring game

I recently said to my wife, I wanted to watch a boring Bears game. By that I meant I wanted to see the Bears score quickly, take charge of the game and cruise to an easy victory with the end never in any doubt.

Today, I got that game.

I could not have been more wrong in my prediction earlier today when I said I doubted Trubisky would make the plays downfield he would need to make to win this game. He made those plays all game long. This is the kind of offensive performance most fans have been hoping the Bears would have all season and today they delivered.

Off to a bye-week and then they go to Miami. I’m excited to see what changes the Bears make and how they perform after the bye.

Bear down!

JIm

Can they move to 3-1?

The Bears started a somewhat surprising 2-1 this season. Most of that on the back of the defense which is unsurprising given the addition of Khalil Mack. This week they face another surprisingly good team, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Can the Bears beat them and move to 3-1 on the season? I won’t be surprised if they don’t.

So far this season, the Bucs back-up quarterback, Ryan Fitzpatrick has been surprisingly good. Over 400 yards passing per game and 11 touchdowns. That’s impressive. From what I’ve read though, he hasn’t been pressured and he doesn’t do well under pressure. This favors the Bears who have one of the best, if not the best, front 7 in the NFL. I expect them to get to Fitzpatrick and force him to make a number of mistakes. That’s the good news.

On the other side, Tampa Bay has a pretty good run defense which will force the Bears to rely on Trubisky to make plays downfield. From what we’ve seen so far, that probably won’t happen. Eventually Trubisky is going to get comfortable in the pocket and make those plays, I’m just not sure that will happen this week.

In the end, I expect the Bears offense will be effectively stymied and the defense will be mostly effective but still have a couple of blown plays resulting in scores.

Prediction: Bears 10, Buccaneers 17

Go Bears!

JIm

No. They’re Still. Not. Done.

We’re giving up. Coming up on day 100 of the Great Kitchen Remodel and they still aren’t done. Though I think I’m done blogging about it until they are.

It hasn’t been totally silent. Last week Monday they installed the pop-up outlet. That’s pretty cool. Of course, that was the only thing that happened last week. Today they came in a cleaned up a few odds and ends, but that was it. Who knows what else will be done or when it will be done. They don’t really talk to us much any more other than tell us they have to get the plumber back in, they have to get the tile guy back in, they have to get the electrician back in…sigh.

At this point, I’m just hoping they’re done by Thanksgiving. But until then, I’m done writing about this fiasco. Next post will be when it’s all done and I hope to have some before and after pics to sum it all up.

Stay tuned!

JIm