Thread: Bears 'Angry Birds' secondary.

This is good.

LINK to the article

	JOHN "MOON" MULLIN Archive

Members of the Bears’ secondary have created and been the beneficiaries of an NFL-leading run of takeaways: 14 in all, two more than the Atlanta Falcons and including 11 interceptions, equaling the entire total of takeaways by AFC leader New England.

Now those DB’s would like to see a couple of changes.

First, a new statistical category.

Tim Jennings has intercepted four passes and gotten his hand on three other passes for deflections that resulted in picks, one of those for a touchdown for Major Wright in the St. Louis game. Wright collected another interception on a Jennings pass-defense Monday night.

It is the suggestion here that the NFL join basketball and hockey as sports that officially recognize and give credit for “Assists.” Not just assisted tackles; assists.

Forced fumbles are counted (Charles Tillman is the acknowledged NFL’s best) and Jennings has single-handedly (literally and figuratively) pointed to the need for a better scoring of high-impact plays.

“I think they should come up with something like that,” Jennings said, laughing. “In hockey and basketball they count assists so we should come up with that in football.”

Best guess is that there’ll be four automatic “yeah” from Tillman, Wright, Chris Conte and D.J. Moore. “If I’m around Tim,” Tillman said, “I’m looking for those tips.”

Second, this secondary needs a name.

Conte was dubbed “Bird” as a rookie (“Look at him,” defensive tackle Henry Melton says. “Tell me he doesn’t remind you of a bird, a big bird of prey.”). Jennings has been christened “Hawk” by defensive coordinator Rod Marinelli.

One suggestion put to Wright was “Angry Birds,” after the wildly successful video game.

“That works,” Wright said. “That’s what we are.”