I’ve been out of the loop since last night due to my very own series of unfortunate events, that started with leaving my wallet at my office and not realizing it until late last night. (I’m not smart.) That put me behind on my weekend, which today featured a visit to the mall with the fiancée (as crowded and chaotic as could be expected for a December Saturday) followed by a visit to Home Depot (lights) and Whole Foods (small Christmas tree/stand). This was all mitigated by a trip to Five Guys, so I can’t complain too much.
Your (apologetically) late roundup:
I first saw this on Yahoo’s Shutdown Corner blog, but it’s originally from Mandatory.com, and in case you haven’t noticed, they show us bald quarterbacks. Ten of them, in fact, and all hilarious. Bald Cutler is solid, but I’d argue he’s actually one of the more normal looking choices. As for my favorites, I’m partial to Stafford, Peyton, and Big Ben, but there are no wrong answers. (My least favorite bald quarterback? Terry Bradshaw doing halftime highlights.)
The Texans lost to the Jaguars (and their awful two-tone helmets) on Thursday night, and by Friday rumors were already swirling that Kubiak would be fired. They proved true, as Texans owner Bob McNair announced in a press conference on Friday that Kubiak would no longer coach the team. Kubiak had been one of the longest-tenured NFL coaches, having debuted in 2006, and he finishes with a career record of 61-64. Kubiak was at the center of one of the stranger (and scarier) incidents this season, when he collapsed on the field after suffering a mini-stroke. Obviously it’s unfortunate that he lost his job after the health scare, but I guess business is business.
Relating this to the Bears, McNair actually mentioned Lovie Smith as someone the Texans would be considering for the opening. I never felt Lovie was incompetent, and he certainly seemed like a good guy (not that I ever met him, but this Andrew Lawrence profile for MMQB reinforced my opinion) and a fairly talented roster in Houston (Smith is a Texas native) might be the perfect fit for him.
Even though Jay Cutler won’t play this weekend, the Bears still have hope he could return this season. The news that Cutler was held out of Saturday’s practice may have worried some folks, but apparently it was strictly a rest issue. As Marc Trestman noted, Cutler practiced both Thursday and Friday without residual soreness, which bodes well for his chances of starting next weekend at Cleveland. In fact, CSN Chicago’s John Mullin goes as far as to say that the Bears are hopeful that he’ll be ready.
From the same Mullin piece, Major Wright is back at practice and will start at strong safety against the Cowboys. Fill-in Craig Steltz will return to full-time special teams duties. In a comical aside, Mullin notes that Major Wright is third among safeties in Pro Bowl fan-voting. They have chosen…poorly.
Going back to the Cutler injury, CBS Chicago’s Adam Hoge wrote an interesting piece that brings up a point I’d speculated on previously: did the Bears leave Cutler in too long against Detroit, to the point that he exacerbated his ankle injury? According to Hoge, the team’s doctors and trainers told Trestman at halftime that he couldn’t worsen the injury by playing on it, but Hoge notes (and I agree with him) that it seems very plausible that he did make it worse, considering his high-ankle sprain has lingered for much longer than they originally expected it would. There’s no blame to be assigned, it’s just an unfortunate situation.
I’ll be back tomorrow morning with an NFL Sunday preview; the Bears are obviously off until Monday night, but there are a few enticing match-ups, including the Detroit-Philadelphia game that is crucial for the Bears playoff hopes.
Brett Taylor is the Lead Cubs Writer at Bleacher Nation, and you can find him on Twitter at @BleacherNation and on LinkedIn here.
Brett is also the founder of Bleacher Nation, which opened up shop in 2008 as an independent blog about the Chicago Cubs. Later growing to incorporate coverage of other Chicago sports, Bleacher Nation is now one of the largest regional sports blogs on the web.
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