Fox told Pace that since he only plans on scoring TDs and won;t have to punt this year, we really didn't need him any more. Fox has a lot of confidence!
I heard your avatar girl is our new kicker. She's got great extension.
I am guessing you have never been to Colorado between October and April. Denver is the extact opposite of a low wind, warm weather city.
Mike I hate to be the bearer of bad news here buddy or try to embarrass you because that's not my intent at all. But I actually live in Denver which makes me a virtual expert on the weather here in October, November, and December and the nine other months as well. On average it is much warmer and far less windy than the Chicago lakefront at that time of the year. It's one of the main reasons I moved here from the Midwest to begin with over 30 years ago so I have a whole lot of years to compare both climates as well.
Mile High Stadium is also a huge bowl and the field sits deep within that bowl so winds seldom have much of an effect on the kicking game like they do at Soldier Field. It's a very different environment both weather wise and the X factor of the field itself.
I've also seen Connor Barth kick here and despite our altitude and thin air his KO distance and net return yardage was much worse in 2014 than Robbie Gould's and Robbie was injured that year. Barth only kicked in 5 games in 2014 and he's no prize. He's a very average PK both in accuracy and leg strength which is why he was replaced even after he made 15 of his 16 (93.8%) attempts. He spent 2015 with warm weather Tampa Bay where his 82.1 % accuracy was lower than Gould's 84.6% and both missed one XP attempt.
All I'm saying is we didn't actually improve our PK and KO with this move. That's it.
Ok this is getting pretty far off topic, but I spent 15 years in Colorado Springs and a few years ago moved to Virginia. Factually the highest average wind in Chicago area is 19 mph to Denvers 21 mph, the daily average for both cities is 12 mph. The Average lows are almost identical with Denver peaking in late December and Chicago in mid January. -I have zero ability to comment on stadium design.
Mike I hate to be the bearer of bad news here buddy or try to embarrass you because that's not my intent at all. But I actually live in Denver which makes me a virtual expert on the weather here in October, November, and December and the nine other months as well. On average it is much warmer and far less windy than the Chicago lakefront at that time of the year. It's one of the main reasons I moved here from the Midwest to begin with over 30 years ago so I have a whole lot of years to compare both climates as well.
Mile High Stadium is also a huge bowl and the field sits deep within that bowl so winds seldom have much of an effect on the kicking game like they do at Soldier Field. It's a very different environment both weather wise and the X factor of the field itself.
I've also seen Connor Barth kick here and despite our altitude and thin air his KO distance and net return yardage was much worse in 2014 than Robbie Gould's and Robbie was injured that year. Barth only kicked in 5 games in 2014 and he's no prize. He's a very average PK both in accuracy and leg strength which is why he was replaced even after he made 15 of his 16 (93.8%) attempts. He spent 2015 with warm weather Tampa Bay where his 82.1 % accuracy was lower than Gould's 84.6% and both missed one XP attempt.
All I'm saying is we didn't actually improve our PK and KO with this move. That's it.
Ok this is getting pretty far off topic, but I spent 15 years in Colorado Springs and a few years ago moved to Virginia. Factually the highest average wind in Chicago area is 19 mph to Denvers 21 mph, the daily average for both cities is 12 mph. The Average lows are almost identical with Denver peaking in late December and Chicago in mid January. -I have zero ability to comment on stadium design.
I was only talking about the winds on the lakefront and how they impact kicking at SF. It can be wicked some days. We both know that and have seen it happen when FG kicks have been blown nearly sideways at one end of the field. Back in 1985 the Giants punter had a wind gust blow the ball off line so badly he whiffed the punt completely. It can be a bitch to kick there some days.
How the national weather service report averages doesn't mean much in this case IMHO. I I've yet to hear PKs or Punters ever talk much about the challenges of kicking at Mile High but it's always a topic of conversation when Soldier Field comes up and that's all I'm referring to here. Robbie Gould has kicked under those condition his entire career whereas Barth has not. Come late fall that could make a big difference and that concerns me especially when I know Barth has no more power in his leg than Robbie has shown in the past. Now whether Robbie is injured now or having other issues I can't say but despite that I still have more trust in him to work those out than I do in Barth. Of course that may change.
Yes we got off topic but I wanted to point out that I wasn't just guessing about the weather in Denver as you assumed I might be or in Chicago either for that matter. I don't usually make strong comments about something I don't know about for certain. But having lived both places for extended periods of time and having been to football games in both cities and Green Bay as well I felt I knew enough from those experience to comment on the differences. I spent the first half of my life living in Chicago and Northern and Southern Wisconsin. I would swear under oath the late fall and winter months are very different here than back there no matter what the stats say about average temps.
I've never strung Christmas lights the second weekend in December wearing shorts and a t-shirt back there or cooked Christmas dinner on the grill when it was 75 degrees outside on Christmas Day. Of course we've also had 3 feet of snow on Thanksgiving and Christmas too but those are pretty rare compared to the warmer drier falls we get quite often. If it wasn't so much different I might still be living in Madison or Chicago Mike.
Many of us complained when Angelo/Lovie held on to players too long and we had mediocre teams. Sure, it sucks to lose a player you've enjoyed watching play for the Bears over a solid career. But this isn't a charity here. Every player eventually gets old and can't get it done anymore. When your kicker is struggling to make extra points - that is a problem. And no, this isn't some "surprise" thing that happened in the last pre-season game. Robbie has been deteriorating as a kicker for 2 or 3 years now. I posted an article a year ago on Dabears about this. Maybe age caught up with him. Or maybe the injuries. I don't know.
All I know is that he's a guy who will cost us wins.
I have a problem with that. Pace is here to bring us something better than Jerry Angelo could. Should we keep a player around "for old times sake" and feel good about taking care of an old player due to his past seasons here? No. That attitude keeps us floating in the NFCN toilet bowl. Not winning Super Bowls.
Robbie Gould was well compensated for his time here.
And he deserved that. But I have a problem with keeping players here beyond their shelf life. If we want to build a team that can win Super Bowls again, we'd best hope Pace has the ability to move on from players when we need to. Otherwise we should have kept Angelo and Lovie around.
I also have a problem with being sloppy with our cap money. To say it's "only" 3 or 4 million dollars doesn't resonate with me very well. I hope they make every penny of cap space count - as well as they can. This isn't an old folks retirement home. People need to earn the money and deliver on the field.
Regarding the replacement guy. I trust Pace here. Period.
Many of us complained when Angelo/Lovie held on to players too long and we had mediocre teams. Sure, it sucks to lose a player you've enjoyed watching play for the Bears over a solid career. But this isn't a charity here. Every player eventually gets old and can't get it done anymore. When your kicker is struggling to make extra points - that is a problem. And no, this isn't some "surprise" thing that happened in the last pre-season game. Robbie has been deteriorating as a kicker for 2 or 3 years now. I posted an article a year ago on Dabears about this. Maybe age caught up with him. Or maybe the injuries. I don't know.
All I know is that he's a guy who will cost us wins.
I have a problem with that. Pace is here to bring us something better than Jerry Angelo could. Should we keep a player around "for old times sake" and feel good about taking care of an old player due to his past seasons here? No. That attitude keeps us floating in the NFCN toilet bowl. Not winning Super Bowls.
I don't think so. The guy was well compensated for his time here. And he deserved that. But I have a problem with keeping players here beyond their shelf life. If we want to build a team that can win Super Bowls again, we'd best hope Pace has the ability to move on from players when we need to. Otherwise we should have kept Angelo and Lovie around.
I also have a problem with being sloppy with our cap money. To say it's "only" 3 or 4 million dollars doesn't resonate with me very well. I hope they make every penny of cap space count - as well as they can. This isn't an old folks retirement home. People need to earn the money and deliver on the field.
Regarding the replacement guy. I trust Pace here. Period.
Well said, sometimes its not easy to have a replacement lined-up, things happen. Farewell to Gould, I really started to watch Da Bears the season he joined us, so this will be a whole new experience for me, but thats life
Many of us complained when Angelo/Lovie held on to players too long and we had mediocre teams. Sure, it sucks to lose a player you've enjoyed watching play for the Bears over a solid career. But this isn't a charity here. Every player eventually gets old and can't get it done anymore. When your kicker is struggling to make extra points - that is a problem. And no, this isn't some "surprise" thing that happened in the last pre-season game. Robbie has been deteriorating as a kicker for 2 or 3 years now. I posted an article a year ago on Dabears about this. Maybe age caught up with him. Or maybe the injuries. I don't know.
All I know is that he's a guy who will cost us wins.
I have a problem with that. Pace is here to bring us something better than Jerry Angelo could. Should we keep a player around "for old times sake" and feel good about taking care of an old player due to his past seasons here? No. That attitude keeps us floating in the NFCN toilet bowl. Not winning Super Bowls.
I don't think so. The guy was well compensated for his time here. And he deserved that. But I have a problem with keeping players here beyond their shelf life. If we want to build a team that can win Super Bowls again, we'd best hope Pace has the ability to move on from players when we need to. Otherwise we should have kept Angelo and Lovie around.
I also have a problem with being sloppy with our cap money. To say it's "only" 3 or 4 million dollars doesn't resonate with me very well. I hope they make every penny of cap space count - as well as they can. This isn't an old folks retirement home. People need to earn the money and deliver on the field.
Regarding the replacement guy. I trust Pace here. Period.
Well said, sometimes its not easy to have a replacement lined-up, things happen. Farewell to Gould, I really started to watch Da Bears the season he joined us, so this will be a whole new experience for me, but thats life
+1 And if Pace doesn't get it done here, I'll be wanting him gone too. I'm not into the "Kumbaya" feel good stuff if we are a franchise that stinks - which we have been for awhile now. I just want us to be winners. I'm tired of being a crap franchise looking up at the backsides of Green Bay, Vikings and (shudder) even the lowly Detroit Lions. It's getting old. Pace better be the guy who is ruthless getting this franchise back on track winning championships again. If that means letting a kicker go who struggles to make extra points - well - I'm okay with that. It's not an old-folks retirement home here.
Well said, sometimes its not easy to have a replacement lined-up, things happen. Farewell to Gould, I really started to watch Da Bears the season he joined us, so this will be a whole new experience for me, but thats life
+1 And if Pace doesn't get it done here, I'll be wanting him gone too. I'm not into the "Kumbaya" feel good stuff if we are a franchise that stinks - which we have been for awhile now. I just want us to be winners. I'm tired of being a crap franchise looking up at the backsides of Green Bay, Vikings and (shudder) even the lowly Detroit Lions. It's getting old. Pace better be the guy who is ruthless getting this franchise back on track winning championships again. If that means letting a kicker go who struggles to make extra points - well - I'm okay with that. It's not an old-folks retirement home here.
Well it used to be, last season with Lovie our players average age was 66.8
+1 And if Pace doesn't get it done here, I'll be wanting him gone too. I'm not into the "Kumbaya" feel good stuff if we are a franchise that stinks - which we have been for awhile now. I just want us to be winners. I'm tired of being a crap franchise looking up at the backsides of Green Bay, Vikings and (shudder) even the lowly Detroit Lions. It's getting old. Pace better be the guy who is ruthless getting this franchise back on track winning championships again. If that means letting a kicker go who struggles to make extra points - well - I'm okay with that. It's not an old-folks retirement home here.
Well it used to be, last season with Lovie our players average age was 66.8
That made my day ^^^^^ Still laughing. Thanks.
For what it's worth, I liked (and still like) Lovie Smith a lot. As a person he must be a really good guy. He was loyal to a fault to his players. I'm not much of a college football fan, but I am really pulling for him now at the U of I job. I watched his team play this past weekend and it looked like a solid start to their year. Granted, it was against a much lessor opponent, but the team executed well. Anyway, when I say something negative about the way Lovie coached here for the Bears, it's not that I hate the guy. I don't. We had some fantastic wins under his tenure. But it's similar (in some respects) to letting old players go - in the sense that if the goal is to win championships here - then hard choices have to be made. Fans want it both ways. They get upset if you let old favored players go, yet they want to win championships. But Pace has the job to make the hard decisions in order that we may achieve better than mediocrity here in Chicago. I am 100% behind him at this point. We will probably draft a kicker next year, or sign a solid FA. The sky isn't falling just because we let a kicker go who is struggling to make extra points now.
