Well, I’m here to try and make a post about the 2008 Senior Bowl and the resulting performances of our Bears. 

Because I don’t have NFL Network, and thus couldn’t watch the game, I give you my thoughts from mere stats and a brief TIVOing of the SportsCenter highlights.

First off, the stats.

Lavelle "The Hawk" Hawkins had 63 yards on 3 catches and 1 touchdown (21 yards per catch).  He also had a 33 yard kickoff return.

Justin "Tex" Forsett ran for 27 yards on 9 carries (3 yards per rush).

Thomas Decoud had 4 tackles. 

Okay, obviously Hawkins had a great game.  In case you didn’t watch the game or see the Sportscenter highlights, I’ll try and summarize the touchdown play.  North has the ball (meaning Hawk is on offense) on the South’s 36 yardline.  The North offense is going from right to left.  21 personnel is in on the play.  The tight end is left of the OL and Hawk is playing flanker split to the offense’s left and at the bottom of your imaginary TV screen.  The play is a pass play with Hawk running a go-route (runs straight up the sidelines).  Michigan’s Chad Henne is the QB and drops back.  He chucks a deep 52 yard pass (true distance estimated via Pythagorean Theorem) into the left endzone.  The ball is badly under thrown.  The CB covering Hawk turns to the interior of the field to locate the ball, but doesn’t do so in time, and thus doesn’t see that the ball is badly under thrown and overruns the pass.  Hawk had already located the ball, realized it was under thrown, puts on the brakes and body catches the ball in the bread-basket.  Touchdown!

While Hawk’s catch was definitely great, Chad Henne’s pass sucked.  Although, had the ball been thrown further down the field, the CB covering Hawk would have been in prime position to swat/intercept the ball.  Furthermore, the CB covering Hawk might have actually been able to defend the play by not looking for the ball, and face guarding Hawkins.  But what do I know?  DBs are always supposed to turn and find the ball (sarcasm).  [The notion of face guarding in the Senior Bowl brings up the interesting question of whether they play with college rules or NFL rules in the game]

Now, Forsett had an okay day.  Three yards per rush is just okay in the NFL.  Of course, a RB’s production is highly dependent on his OL.  Speaking of which, Forsett was stopped on a critical 4th and 1 play.  Now I’m sure many fans are probably thinking something along the lines of "see, this is exactly why a 196 pound runningback shouldn’t be in on short yardage plays!"  Wrong, wrong, wrong.  In case you didn’t see the failed 4th and 1 conversion, I shall illustrate it for you again.  Once again, North is on offense going from right to left.  They are on the South’s 13 yardline (yes, South’s 13 yardline and going for it on 4th and 1 instead of kicking a field goal).  It’s 21 personnel in I-Formation.  Tight end left of the OL.  Forsett is in the backfield with his FB in front of him.  It’s a straight iso play up the middle.  But the TE does his best "I suck at blocking and thus will let my defender by and then fall on my butt" impression.  Quite literally, he does exactly that.  He sort of blocks his defender, but it looks more like a love tap and a slight caress of the buttox.  Then he allows the defender into the backfield who is able to get his left arm on Forsett and spin Forsett around and stop his forward momentum.  And then then TE quite literally does a spin himself and falls on his butt.  No lie.  Craptacular blocking, buddy.  Good job.   By no fault of Tex’s, he’s stopped on the 4th and 1.  Everyone else on the OL blocked out their dudes, but the TE whiffed his block and thus led to Tex getting stopped too.  So no, getting stopped on 4th and 1 has nothing to do with Tex’s size or weight as it does with his TE’s and OL’s blocking ability. 

As for Decoud’s sort of quiet day of four tackles.  Um, not much to be said here.  Obviously it’s tough learning a new system so quickly.  And maybe the plays called put Decoud away from the ball.  I really don’t think you can interpret much about only having four tackles.  Or at least, no real conclusion can be inferred from merely four tackles.  Obviously the more tackles, the better.  But having so few doesn’t mean Decoud had a bad game.  

Anyways, that’s that. 

Most people seem to think that Hawk and Tex made the most out of the senior bowl.  The Chicago Tribune says: 

The best wide receiver in the game probably was Lavelle Hawkins from Cal. In addition to showing good speed, Hawkins appeared to have a complete game… Two running backs who helped themselves were Matt Forte from Tulane and Justin Forsett from California. Forsett is only 5 feet 8 inches, but he showed quickness, toughness and the ability to read defenses.

Todd McShay of ESPN, even wrote a semi non-idiotic post for once (ESPN Insider Account needed for full article).  He lists Forsett as the #4 RB at the Senior Bowl, Hawkins as the #2 WR at the Senior Bowl, and Decoud as the #1 safety at the Senior Bowl.  Here are a few excerpts:

"Forsett and Washington were the other three standouts during the week. Choice is the best pure runner, Forsett is the shiftiest and Washington displays the most complete set of skills. However, all three lack elite speed and come with durability baggage…"

"Hawkins was solid early in the week and had a phenomenal showing during Wednesday full-pad practice. He is in position to compete for a spot in the first two rounds…"

"Of the pure safeties, DeCoud had the most complete skills and Griffin looked more athletic than his size would indicate. Additionally, Zibikowski showed he can be a valuable special teams player and adequate reserve on defense. That said, it’s unlikely any of these safeties will come off the board in the first two rounds."

Well, not the most flattering reviews of our Golden Bears by Todd McShay but better than his opinion of the Bills’ decision to draft Marshawn "Money" Lynch.