Derek Monk

I’ve been pretty quiet the last few weeks since the end of the Bears NFL season and leading up to the Super Bowl.  And lately, WoW has been pretty uninteresting, so I decided to dust off the old consoles and finish off a game that has been sitting at the end for nearly a month now.  Tonight, I completed Skyward Sword for the Wii.  I did a partial review back about two months ago, which you can find here.  What did I think of the game?  Well, I’m glad you asked!!

Game Play: Every time I play a Zelda game, I always have in the back of my head: “Can this game compete with Ocarina of Time?”  Majora’s mask was fun and innovative, but it wasn’t OOT.  Windwaker was a completely different game.  Good, yet it is hard to compare them.  I wasn’t a fan of Twilight Princess.  It just missed the mark.  So I am pleased to see that Skyward Sword felt more like OOT than any game before it.  The flow of the game just seemed more fluid.  The dungeons were good, and although a few of the dungeons were reused near the end, it didn’t bother me as it seemed like you were going in there for something completely different than before.  The method of bug catching, where it doesn’t appeal that much to me, was a nice new way of upgrading your items.  I skipped most of this once I got a couple of big upgrades out of the way.  I didn’t even bother hunting down the bugs to make stronger potions.  The items and weapons that you loved were all there, although some were completely new items with a twist.  The puzzles weren’t difficult to figure out, but they really shouldn’t be.  In fact, my favorite puzzle in the whole game was at the end with the movable dungeons.  The element of “time bubbles” was a nice little addition too.  They took the best parts out of what we knew and loved about Zelda and added some new innovative things.  The challenge was there, but it wasn’t based solely on the game play, it had a lot to do with the controls, which I’ll talk about later.

Graphics/Sound: As I said in my partial review, the graphics here struggle when compared to other games on other systems, but it is what you would expect on the Wii.  I am hopeful that Nintendo realizes that the looks and sounds of a game are important, even if they aren’t the most important, and their new console will be much sharper.  But on my 46″ LCD, even with the proper component cables, it just didn’t look good.  Very blocky, very grainy, and the resolution just wasn’t there.  The sound was good, although not great.  The same basic sounds that we’ve heard for the past ten years were there and gives you a level of nostalgia that makes you comfortable.  It is what you would expect, nothing more and nothing less.

Controls: If only the centering wouldn’t keep moving, I’d say that the controls are good.  But how incredibly annoying is it when you try to get a Skyward Strike and you hold the controller high over your head and it simply DOESN’T GO UP!  This game is completely driven on the controls, which is why they use the Wii MotionPlus.  The angle of your attacks, the motions that you use, are insanely important, especially at the end of the game.  And sometimes they just do not work.  It is just very frustrating.  When the controls are accurate and working, then it makes for a very fun experience.  When they are not working, it makes for a very frustrating experience.  Sadly, I think it was about 50/50 on the controls doing what you wanted.  With the Wii about to be replaced in the next year, I doubt they’ll do much to change the method of the Wii MotionPlus.  I just wish it worked better for this game.

Story: The story was good.  It’s the same as every Zelda game, with a couple of twists.  The main characters since OOT are all in there.  I understand the continued storyline in different time periods in the Zelda series, where it is seemingly a repeating story in the future or the past, reliving what has been done by previous and future “Heroes”.  But to me, there are three main elements that you NEED to have a successful Zelda game: Link, Zelda, and Ganon.  Spoiler here, but you’re missing one of those, and I’ll give you a hint: Link and Zelda play a big part in this game.  Demise isn’t Ganon.  I know that you can’t recreate Ganon in every game…or can you?  Link is always there.  Zelda is always there.  Why not Ganon?  You can tell that they used Demise as Ganon-Like, but he just isn’t Ganon.  I was playing through, just waiting for his appearance, but as I got near the end and I knew I was nearly done, I was just disappointed that he didn’t show up.  Other than that, I thought the story was good.  All of the other major elements were present and it played well.  And just a side note, I thought the way that they showed what happened to Zelda during the time that you didn’t see her in the credits was a GREAT way to show that.  It actually had me sit through all of the credits without walking away.  It was such a minor piece, but I thought it was completely well done.

(EDIT: I just read up on the recently released revised time flow chart.  Unknown to me at the time, this game in the storyline is actually the earliest of all of the games.  Ganon is basically the reborn incarnate of Demise.  Now, knowing that, I feel like kind of a douche and it does make some sense.  So effectively, Ganon IS in this game, in his earliest form.)

Overall: This is a good game.  Much better than Twilight Princess, but still falls short of OOT or Link to the Past.  It really is the controls that does it for me.  This game focuses SO much on your sword and your movements, that it just has to work flawlessly and it falls well short of that.  You take that out, and other than the graphics, this is a very solid game.  It took me a few weeks to finish playing it because I had gotten busy with other things, but it surely wasn’t because I didn’t want to finish playing it.  This ranks in the upper half of the best Zelda games out there, probably on par with Majora’s Mask for overall enjoyment.

Now, I just need to sit down and finally finish Final Fantasy XIII before XIII-2 gets released next week.  Unlike Zelda, that is a game that I feel I should finish, but really don’t want to.  It just isn’t near as fun.

What a painful season that was.  I guess it should be no surprise to Bears fans, or Chicago sports fans in general, of the ups and downs that occurred this year.  Starting out slow and then took off with a bang…only to taper off until the abysmal finish that was the 2011 season.  With this season dead and buried, it is time to do the time honored tradition for Chicago sports fans: Look back at the season that could have been.

Looking at the schedule in the pre-season, it was clear that this season could be broken up into four pieces, of which I am naming: The Tough Start, The Balancing, The AFC West, and The Home Stretch.  The schedule makers seemed to want to make Chicago’s schedule insanely hard, but then realized they had to balance it with something.  The sad thing is, what you would think would be the easiest part of the schedule is what broke (thumb pun intended) the season.

The Tough Start:

Atlanta, New Orleans, and Green Bay.  Wow.  That’s a hell of a start.  And even now knowing that all three of those teams made the playoffs, you knew those were going to be tough games.  Getting out of there at 2-1 would be a huge success, but even 1-2 would be acceptable for a team that most people didn’t give much of a chance.  And everything started out great!  Atlanta was not only beaten, but really was broken down in the season home opener.  And as a Bears fan, you had to wonder…maybe we underestimated this team?  And then they went to New Orleans, one of the toughest places to play, and wow, what a beating that was.  This is when Chicago’s weaknesses were truly exposed.  And then back home for Green Bay, and to a game that wasn’t really as close as the 10 point loss, and that is when you thought that maybe we OVERESTIMATED this team.  At 1-2 at the start, you can’t be completely upset, but it seemed more of the same old.  Cutler getting sacked, the offense sputtering, and for the first time in a while, the defense giving up big plays.

The Balancing:

This is the biggest chunk of the schedule with two games against Detroit, Minnesota, Carolina, Tampa, and Philly.  Everybody knew Detroit was going to be better this year.  And everybody knew Minnesota and Carolina weren’t going to be.  And everybody THOUGHT that Philly was going to be tough.  A nice pat on the back win against Carolina got Chicago back to 2-2 in a game they absolutely had to win.  The moment in the season though, where you had to question this team, was the Monday nighter in Detroit.

Losing by 11 isn’t the end of the world, but again, it wasn’t that close.  Detroit dominated Chicago in that messy Monday night game.  They once again gave up some really big plays that they so rarely gave up in the past.  With a closer than comfortable game the week before to Carolina, at 2-3, you can’t feel comfortable knowing that Philly, Tampa (who knew they were THAT bad?), and Detroit were still to come.  I guess the only thing that helps boost your morale is a game against Minnesota.  And this is when the streak began.

A huge dominating win against Minnesota, traveling over the pond to London and beating Tampa, and then coming home and beating the “Dream Team” Eagles.  Those three games shaped what this team could potentially do.  Great showings by both the offense and defense.  I recall the Philly game being close and a little sloppy, but they still got the job done against a team with a ton of talent.  You have a team that is 5-3, feeling good, and now on the rise.  And that is when Detroit comes to town.  They had looked good up to this point, but you expected a close game.  What you didn’t expect was a blowout mid-way through the 3rd quarter.  Finishing that game with a pounding of Detroit, the question wasn’t “Will they make the playoffs?”, it was “How far through the playoffs will they get?”.  This team looked great.  A contender to maybe dethrone Green Bay in the playoffs?  Maybe!

The AFC West:

Four games in a row to what could be the 2nd worst division in the league.  Sitting pretty at 6-3, as a Bears fan, you are licking your chops.  Being 10-3 was seriously on the table.  First was San Diego, who I still think regardless of how the division shaped out was the best team in that division.  Everything was going great.  Big lead in the 4th quarter, on their way to 7-3.  And then the play happened.

Cutler back to pass.  Throw to Knox.  Knox slips, interception.  Cutler runs down the field and helps make the tackle, preventing a touchdown.  Nobody thought anything about it at the time except for “Wow, way to go Cutler!!”  Little did we all know that play was the play that turned the entire season around.  At 7-3, nothing in the post-game about Cutler’s injury…and then the reports came out about his thumb.  Then the words “broken” and “surgery” were spoken and everybody panicked.  But hey, we all saw Caleb Hanie against Green Bay in the NFC Title game, he can surely get Chicago to 10 wins, right?

Right?

Oakland, a decent team.  Three interceptions and a ton of long field goals later, they came out with a victory.  7-4.  Hanie looked bad, but certainly that was the rust, right?  And Oakland isn’t that bad of a team, right?

Kansas City, a bad team.  A team that Chicago should beat, especially in Chicago.  Forte goes down.  A hail mary to end the first half.  Williams dropping a tying touchdown.  And three more interceptions.  7-5.  Oh shit.  You can’t be serious.  Hanie can’t be THAT bad, can he?  We all start checking to see if we have any favors to cash in with any god or unholy deity to heal Cutler’s thumb.

Denver, a good defensive team, overshadowed by Tim Tebow.

PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT: I’d like to take a moment here and talk to everybody about Tim Tebow.  Tim Tebow is a bad quarterback.  He has enough emotion and spirit to win games, but he’s a bad quarterback.  In fact, I’d go as far to say that he is an awful quarterback.  He can run the ball, but I’ve never seen such an awful ball come out of somebody’s hand, especially throwing across his body.  I was rooting for Oakland, a team I can’t stand because of their fans, to win the last week to knock Denver out of the playoffs.  That is how I feel about Tebow.  May Pittsburgh destroy him this weekend.  Anyway….

Chicago goes to Denver.  Such an awful offensive game, neither quarterback can do anything.  We all check the record books to see when the last 0-0 tie game was.  Chicago gets a 10 point lead, which seemed like 100 in any other game.  Then the prevent defense comes into play, which only prevents you from winning the game.  (I have a very big issue with the prevent defense)  A touchdown, but a failed onside kick.  All is well, even running the ball with a 3 and out, the clock will be ran down to nearly nothing.  All is well….wait.  Did Barber just go out of bounds?  He seriously couldn’t have gone out of bounds.  Well, that’s okay, they don’t have much time, they still need to take it down the field….Well shit.  It is tied up, but Chicago gets the ball to start overtime.

And then Barber fumbles…and it was at that moment that I knew this season was over.  Even before it was official that Denver recovered.  It was like when the Cubs lost game 6 of the NLCS in 2003.  They could have won game 7, but everybody knew they wouldn’t.  Kerry Wood hits a tying 3 run home run early in that game, but you knew that Florida was going to win that game.  That is the same thing that went through your head when Barber fumbled that ball in overtime.  The Bears COULD have stopped them and gotten the ball back and won that game, went to 8-5 and still had a shot at the playoffs.  But everybody knew they wouldn’t.  Every Bears fan knew two things: Denver was going to win this game; And Chicago would be watching the playoffs from their couch.  Another long field goal later, Denver wins, and everything crumbles.  With what should have been the easiest part of their schedule, Chicago was 7-6, all but officially eliminated from the playoffs.  And all you could think in your head was “With Jay Cutler, Chicago is 10-3″.

The Home Stretch:

Seattle was the first game that with Cutler, maybe they still didn’t win.  Green Bay was a joke.  And Minnesota, you almost wanted them to lose just to get a better draft pick.  The entire season was ruined the moment that Johnny Knox fell down.  We just didn’t know it at the time.  The end of the season didn’t matter.  Nothing mattered from that point on except counting how many days were left until the Cubs pitchers and catchers were due to report.  The season ended at 7-3.  I would have bet the house, the car, the cat, the family jewelry, even Boba Fett during the 4th quarter of the San Diego game if you told me that Chicago would end up 8-8.  That wasn’t possible.  Except that it was possible.  And it happened.

In the end, Jerry Angelo got fired.  Mike Martz was fired.  Jay Cutler and Matt Forte should hopefully be back next year, although who knows with Forte’s contract, but in what shape is this team going to be?  Whatever that is, it will be something completely different from what the 2011 Chicago Bears ended up being.  The only real big question remaining is:

Is that a good thing?

I’m back from my holiday vacation, ready to wrap this season up.  A bitter sweet victory…at least I was drinking for this one.  Because of that, my memory may be a little…fuzzy.

Offense: Pretty bad, but just enough to beat a bad Minnesota team.  I still don’t understand why McCown was in there.  He will not be in a Bears uniform next year, why not see what the rookie has?  Cutler is going to need to have a #2 back there that can at least beat a bad team when needed.  The running game wasn’t that strong, although Minnesota’s run defense is one of the few strong points of that team, so that doesn’t really shock me.  It was a 10 point offensive showing with the pick-six, just not very good overall.

Defense: Minnesota is a bad team, no question about it.  A nice pick-six by Tillman and they did hold Minnesota to a pretty lackluster game.  They weren’t bad.  The front pressure wasn’t really there, in fact I don’t recall many sacks.  And when the heavy pressure did get there, god damn, they just couldn’t get the bastard down!  Both Ponder and Webb were pretty elusive.  With that being said, they played a fairly solid game.  Running game didn’t get going and the pass defense was controlled pretty well.

Special Teams: Peppers with ANOTHER blocked field goal.  I mean, seriously, how good is this guy at blocking kicks?  I think I saw that is his 11th overall in his career.  God damn NUTS!!!  Hester was shut down again.  He just wasn’t the same the last few weeks of the season with that bum wheel of his.  Other than that, not much else on special teams to really talk about.

Coaching: The only real complaint about the coaching was playing McCown.  With that being said, I do agree that he was the “best option to win” and I can understand why he was in there.  The part of me who just wants to see who is going to be on the team next year wants the rookies in.  The (small) part of me that wants a win wants the best people in.  It’s a fine line that as fans, we can cross, but the coaches can’t.

The Good: Stopping Jared Allen.  There came a point in the game where it was less and less about winning the game and more about stopping Jared Allen from getting the all-time sack record.  I can’t stand him.  I don’t know if it is his annoying as hell sack dance with the hog tie or what, but I simply wretch when I see him.

The Bad: Watching a game and not caring about the outcome.  I was more interested in the other teams fighting for playoff spots.  I really honestly did not care who won this game.  And that is just sad.

The Ugly: Urlacher doing the splits.  At least it gets him out of the Pro Bowl with a valid injury!!

I’ll be doing a postmortem later this week.  Go Bears in 2012!

It actually went better than I thought!  I figured it to be a 30+ point blow out, but it was actually a game for about a half.

Offense: The offense actually played pretty well with McCown and Bell.  I was expecting Bell to play pretty well as Green Bay’s run defense isn’t that great and Chicago was going to be running the ball a lot.  But for a guy who was on the sidelines of a high school football field a few weeks ago, McCown actually managed the game pretty well.  I wouldn’t be shocked to see him back under center next week against Minnesota as Chicago fights for a 8-8 record.  The offensive line played pretty well, getting some holes for Bell to run though.

Defense: It was going to be really tough for this defense to shut down Rodgers and the Green Bay offense.  They did well for a little while, but in the end, they got picked apart by precision passing and a receiving core that is just outstanding.  They did a solid job at stopping the run, which should be expected, but if this Green Bay team is on, they are insanely tough to stop, which was shown tonight.  You can’t say giving up thirty-five is a good showing, but a lot of that was on a couple of big plays and screw-ups by a secondary which is certainly the weak link.

Special Teams: Shut down Hester.  It is obvious he doesn’t have it in him right now.  Shut him down, it doesn’t matter anyways!  Gould missed a pretty long one early on that hurt.  That’s about it.  Once again, the special teams doesn’t change field position successfully and the team struggled.

Coaching: I mentioned it last week and I’ll say it again.  It wasn’t this game that the coaching was off on.  I liked the play calling.  But it shows that again that this team isn’t capable of evaluating talent.  McCown appeared so much better than Hanie.  Just like last year when having Collins in over Hanie for a few drives against Green Bay may have cost them a chance in the NFC Title game.

The Good: Bell.  I’m hopeful that he sticks around.  I’ve always had my eye on him, especially with his first ever run in the NFL was that huge 70+ yarder last year.  The only issue is that Forte is going to be your normal down back and if they keep Barber, he’s your 3rd and short back.  Bell can’t be the 3rd and short power back and he won’t start ahead of Forte.  Where do you put him?  He played a solid game tonight, just needs to hold onto the ball and protect it better.

The Bad: The secondary.  Once again, they were exposed for being the weak link in this defense.  Tillman didn’t look sharp tonight either and he’s usually the strength of the secondary.  They’ve been rotating out all year and they better figure out what to do going into next year.  They simply got lit up, not only tonight, but a huge part of the year.  They didn’t have many good games.

The Ugly: Urlacher’s 2nd Juke.  This is the 2nd time that Urlacher has been juked by a quarterback and looked like the fool.  Remember Tom Brady back in 2006?  Rodgers got not only Urlacher tonight, but Briggs as well.  I’m sorry, that’s just embarrassing.

The Big View: Chicago has now been officially eliminated from the playoffs.  Sigh.

Next Week: The final game of the season up in Minnesota.  If they play like they did tonight, at least they can beat the Vikings.

Go Bears

I haven’t talked about the AFC in a while, and their playoff race is just as good as the NFCs!  New England and Houston have already won their divisions, leaving two close races still to determine.

AFC North

Teams remaining in contention: Baltimore (10-4), Pittsburgh (10-4)

Baltimore already owns the head to head, so they really do have a one game lead over Pittsburgh.  Pitt only wins the North with two wins and a Baltimore loss or a 1-1 split with Baltimore losing both games.  Cincinnati is two games back with two to play, but can’t win the division over Pittsburgh.  Also to note, both Baltimore and Pittsburgh are in the playoffs with either the division or the wild card.

AFC West

Teams remaining in contention: Denver (8-6), Oakland (7-7), San Diego (7-7), Kansas City (6-8)

Yes, all four teams can still win the West.  Strange, bad division….  Starting at the bottom, Kansas City needs to win both of their games, Denver needs to lose both (They play each other week 17), San Diego to lose either of their last two games, and Oakland to lose week 17 (they play each other this week).  Technically, it’s possible!  San Diego needs to win both games and Denver to lose to Kansas City, or a whacked out 1-1 split with Denver losing both games, Kansas City losing a game, and Oakland losing week 16.  I’m not 100% sure about the full ramifications of that scenario, the tie breakers get really messed up at 8-8.  Oakland needs to win both games and have Denver lose one game (strange tie breakers involved there too), or Oakland going 1-1 with the same strange tie breakers with San Diego with Denver losing both games.  I guess the easiest way to put it, if Denver wins both games, or if they win one game and Oakland and San Diego both lose a game, they win the West. Confusing damn division.

AFC Wild Card

Teams remaining in contention: Baltimore (10-4), Pittsburgh (10-4), Denver (8-6), New York (8-6), Cincinnati (8-6), Tennessee (7-7), Oakland (7-7), San Diego (7-7)

Gotta start this out with saying that either Baltimore or Pittsburgh will have a wild card, either the 5 or 6 seed, so really, the other six teams are competing for one spot.  The breakdown:

Denver: This only happens if they don’t win the West, which means they’d have to lose at least one game and New York and Cincy would both have to lose at least one game.  Denver owns the head to head over both New York and Cincy.  So they can clinch a playoff birth with a win and a New York and Cincy loss this week.  They would also need a loss from Tennessee if they were to go 1-1 and Tennessee to go 2-0 as they lost that head to head.  A 2-0 record simply gives them the West.

New York: I think if they go 2-0, they win the wild card based off like the 3rd or 4th tie breaker over Cincy, even if they both go 2-0.  If they lose a game, Cincy will have to follow suit and lose a game as well and have Oakland and Tennessee lose one game.  They have the tie breaker over San Diego.

Cincinnati: They need to be one game over New York, which means they need to go 2-0 and have New York lose a game, or go 1-1 and have New York lose both games and have Oakland and San Diego both lose one game.  They own the head to head over Tennessee.

Tennessee: They need to go 2-0 and have Cincy lose both games, paired with one New York loss in week 17 to give them the conference tie breaker.  I believe, if New York wins week 17, regardless of what Tennessee does, they can’t beat either Cincy or New York if they all end up 9-7.

Oakland: Oakland needs two wins and a loss from New York as they own the head to head and two losses from Cincy.  Cincy owns the tie breakers so they need to be one up.  They also need Tennessee to lose a game.

San Diego: Same scenario for San Diego except they need New York to lose both games as they lost the head to head and Cincy to lose one game, along with Tennessee and Oakland to both lose a game.

With one seed already taken, it’s going to be a mad dash for the 6th spot.  New York is really the only team that controls their own destiny, so I’m going to give them the nod, but it could be anybody’s game.  How I see things playing out:

1) New England (13-3)

2) Baltimore (12-4)

3) Houston (11-5)

4) Denver (10-6)

5) Pittsburgh (12-4)

6) New York (10-6)

Should be good going into the playoffs!