5 Things We Learned From the NFC Championship

1. Caleb Hanie is the future

After Cutler was knocked out with a sprained MCL (as far as we know), the bears put in Todd Collins, and after seeing that fail, they put in Hanie. Hanie, undrafted out of Colorado State, didn't have the best stats, but threw pretty well. Excluding the 2 picks (B.J. Raji = the freezer), his passes were accurate and fast, hitting his spots and escaping blitzes. The bears haven't seen that in a while.

2. Greg Jennings is an Elite Receiver

After racking up 130 yards, Jennings has really come together. Sure he has had his bad moments, like fumbles and dropping a sure catch that lost us the game against the Lions, but he is really playing at a top level.

3. The Refs are Hypocrites
 Julius Peppers had a 15 yard penalty for a head-head hit on rodgers. I am sorry for not mentioning this in the last post, Peppers is excellent, but this hit should have gotten him ejected, like the refs and NFL said they would do to those hits. 


4. Tim Mathsay is a Great Punter
He pinned so many people inside the 10 yard line. He kept Hester to a 2.5 yard return average. People don't love him but he was great.


5. The Packers are Much Better than the Bears Historical and Today


'nuff said.

2011 NFC Championship Preview - Who has the edge?

It is one of the most intense rivalries of all time, in any sport.  The best team in Football history, the GREEN BAY PACKERS!!!!!!!! is playing their rival the Chicago Bears. Here is the first edition of JakeSteinSports: Who Has the Edge?

Offense:

I'm going to try not to be biased, but the Green Bay Packers offense is undoubtedly the best in the NFL. Starks has been fantastic in his last two games, and Rodgers has become one of the (or in my opinion THE) best quarterback in the NFL. His QB rating in the playoffs is currently 130. The Bears have Matt Forte, who after a down 2009 has really come together to form a solid back. Jay Cutler is very, very inconsistent. We could expect 5 INT or 3 TD. But all we know is that it won't be as good as rodgers.

EDGE: Packers

Defense:

These are two great defenses, but only one is elite. Jay Cutler know which one that is. You could make a case that Charles Woodson and Clay Matthews are the 2 best defensive players in the league. Tramon Williams had 2 picks vs Atlanta, and Desmond Bishop has been one of many filling in for 9 injured defense players very well. The bears have Urlacher, who is not nearly as good as Clay, Tillman, who is not nearly as good as williams or Woodson, and really no other big players.

Edge: Packers

Special Teams:

Oy. This may not be as fun to blog about. Why, because the Pack has a weak kick return coverage team, and Devin Hester is one of the best returners ever. Though Masthay has become a semi-decent punter, he must punt it out of bounds. Robbie Gould is about as good of a kicker as Crosby, and he has no Packers returners to fear.

Edge: Bears

OVERALL EDGE: PACKERS

"It's going to be a good game" says various sources, but they are wrong. The Packers are a far better team as I have talked about above. Home field and cold don't matter when you're Aaron Rodgers.

The Pick:

Packers: 31

Bears:17

2011 MLB Early Pretictions

As I ride to Milwaukee, home of the future 2011 NL Central champs, I got an idea - an early prediction blog. Not the big long one that I will post during spring training, but just some early predictions.
 

1. Big Teams

In my opinion there are 2 baseball superpowers right now, and the Yankees are not one. The Boston Red Sox have a legit rotation, but the hitting is what we need to look out for. The Red Sox had one of the best offenses in the bigs, and after adding Carl Crawford and Adrian Gonzalez, they have the best lineup in the league. Adrian Gonzalez is a 40-Homer hitter, and he played in Petco Park (pitchers park). He generally hits to left, so I expect him to add at least 10 homers to his total, for fenway is shallow in left. The other major superpower is the Phillies. They have arguably the best rotation EVER and a very good offense. The Braves are their only threat in the NL East, and the Braves aren't that good. Halladay is the best pitcher alive (there, I said it), Cliff Lee is a superstar, Hamels is a young ace, and Oswalt is old but still a legit pitcher. It doesn't really matter who pitches #5, because the 2011 phillies could be one of the best teams of all time. The Yankees are a very good team, but they gave me another reason to dislike them a couple days ago. They spent 35 million on a reliever! That's pretty much the Florida Marlins payroll. Expect them to be a wild card threat. The Brewers now have one of the best offenses and rotations in the bigs. Grienke is an ace, and Marcum is a 3.40 ERA pitcher in the AL east, so he should also be very good.

2. Busts

The Rays. Goodbye playoffs. Goodbye over .500 record. The Rays are going to be one of the worst teams in Baseball, for they have lost Carl Crawford and Rafeal Soriano to teams in their division. Maybe Joe Madden could save them, but probably not.

Stay tuned for the official preview coming in March

 

Welcome to Jake Stein Sports.

• There is no more jgecko61
• There is no more GeckoBaseballBlog
• I am no longer gecko dude.
• I am a man.
• Geckos are gone. Real sports is here.

Welcome to Jake Stein Sports. My name is Jacob. After coming home from the holy land and now that I am a man, I have decided to phase geckos out. The adress is jakesteinsports.blogspot.com and this will be where my posts will be made for now on. Thanks to the passionate six blog viewers I have.