HOW ABOUT DA BEARS 2010 VERSION?!?

What a GREAT weekend for Chicago sports fans, huh? The Bulls took both of their weekend games plus today's matinee too. The Hawks earned 3 points with a somewhat painful shootout loss on Sat night, but a 4-goal barrage in the 3rd period finished off the Nashville Predators on the second of a home-and-away (actually away-and-home for the Hawks) last night.

Of course, the biggest Chi-Town W over the weekend was the Bears big playoff win at home over the surprising Seattle Seahawks...surprising in that they were actually still alive in the playoffs after a shocking W against the defending Super Bowl champion Saints. They dominated from start to finish which was fantastic to see. Other than a lucky TD "look what I found" catch by a pretty well shutdown Mike Williams when Peanut Tillman not only dropped, but conveniently tipped up would-be pick right into Williams' hands. The extra point made the score 35-17 Bears with just over 2 minutes left and the Bears slacked off a bit on D but still covered the spread with an 11-point W most predicted but others still did not.

How many of the so-called experts were calling for a trade of Greg Olsen before the season saying he had no place in the Mike Martz offense. Well, he came up pretty HUGE against the Seahawks yesterday, wouldn't you say? His blocking has come a LONG, LONG way too so they can keep him on the field more often and keep the defenses guessing more too. Of course, Kellen Davis and Brandon Manumaleuna (and I spelled that on my own although I did check it) also had some big plays on the day...Davis had the "nail in the coffin" TD from Cutler making it 35-10 and Manumaleuna had a NICE block on the Chester Taylor TD run that made it 14-0 in the 1st quarter.

The Bears advanced to the NFC Championship Game for the second time in 4 years and they'll be hosting this one too. But this time...drum roll please...THIS TIME THEY HOST THE PACKERS! This is the 182nd time they've faced off with the Packers in their 90-year history but the first ever NFC Championship game between the two fierce rivals. That's a bit shocking to me...the first time these two teams have faced off in the NFC Championship Game...WOW! I guess thinking back, it is quite a rare feat when both of these teams are good at the same time so it shouldn't be that surprising as it sure isn't easy to make it this far. However, this is also the first time in nearly 70 years since they've faced each other AT ALL in the playoffs too...not even once during this wild card era. Kinda crazy!

How nuts is it going to be at Soldier Field on Sunday afternoon? Every time these two teams face each other, there are still plenty of the visiting teams' fans in the stands regardless of win-loss records or situation. With the two teams going up against each other with the chance to move on to Dallas (hey, how about those Cowboys? Sorry, couldn't resist) to face the AFC Champ in Super Bowl XLV, it should be even more nuts. Add in the fact that this is the 25th anniversary of the Bears first Super Bowl victorious team - the storied 1985 Bears who are STILL celebrated in this town as if this happened yesterday.

A very minor question came up...if these Bears win the Super Bowl this year, will we finally be rid of the 1985 Bears? Personally, I just don't think so. Can you seriously compare Da Coach to Lovie? Forget coaching...personality is what sells in this town and Lovie just doesn't seem to have...well...ANY. Cutler vs. Punky QB Jim McMahon...Forte vs. Sweetness Payton...WR Devin Hester and Johnny Knox (go to the ball!) vs. Willie Gault and Dennis McKinnon. Heck even LB Briggs and Urlacher (who I LOVE) vs. Otis Wilson, Samurai Mike Singletary and Wilbur Marshall...those are NOT good personality match-ups. What about DT Tommie Harris vs. Steve McMichael and William "The Refrigerator" Perry? Peppers vs. Richard Dent or Idonije vs. Danimal Hampton? Anyone remember The Black-N-Blues Brothers? These were the O-lineman for that 1985 Bears team...this team was all characters!
 
I'm sorry, but there's just not a lot of personality on this version of 2010 Bears. Of course, the skill level and utter dominance isn't remotely comparable either as the 1985 Bears are typically in discussions as one of the top 3 or 4 teams in the history of the NFL while this year's version lost some pretty silly games. Let's all hope that the result at the end of the season matches up though and then we can "worry" about this other stuff which really just doesn't matter anyway.

DA BEARS!!!

What Do the Haters Have to Say Now?

Well, what do you haters have to say now? Well, I'll tell you because I was one of the haters...notice I said "was" because this was a HUGE win for this franchise, this coach (actually all three of our head coaches), and this QB. I still HATE the Bears GM Jerry Angelo as this team is put together with duct tape and paper clips, but this coaching staff put together a pretty amazing game plan to take advantage of the tools and players currently at their disposal. The downside for me of the 8-3 record to date is that the status quo will remain...and while Lovie and Martz and Marinelli (those are the 3 head coaches on the staff) have pulled this thing together, I believe this is happening despite what Jerry Angelo has done to this roster not thanks to his efforts but now is not the time to spotlight this major deficiency.

Let's face some facts though...the Bears did face one of the easiest schedules to date as their opponents had a combined winning percentage of .370 going into today's game...that's really pretty pathetic. And the only team with a winning record they had beaten before today was the Packers on Monday Night Football. The Packers probably played one of their worst games of the season with a TON of really stupid penalties and practically gave the game to the Bears, but it was still a win; a divisional win; a BIG win against their #1 arch rival too.

But that was really it as far as Ws against good teams...you can say "what about Dallas?" but they were a TOTAL mess when they played...you can say "what about the Vikings?" but they were even more of a mess. If not for a just terrible rule forcing receivers to "complete the process", they would have lost their home opener against the lowly Lions. You have to wonder what might have happened had they lost that game...actually, you don't "have to wonder" as we're way past that game now.  When they lost the game against the Giants most people (again, myself included) wrote them off for the season as they fell to 3-1. They only lost 17-3 although Cutler would tell you (if he remembered any of it) it seemed much worse that that and showed how seemingly flawed this team really was.

They came right back the next week to demolish a HORRID Carolina Panthers team with their backup QB Todd Collins throwing 4 picks and only 6 receptions to his own guys. But the next two games really turned the tide against them with home losses to so-so teams Washington and Seattle back-to-back. Brutal!

The bye week seemed to come at the perfect time so the Bears coaching staff could regroup. They were 4-3 going into the bye and not at all firing on all cylinders. The big question on everyone's mind...could these pretty arrogant coaches REALLY take a look at their personnel and REALLY put together a game plan that "gives them the best chance to win". How many times have we heard this from Lovie over the years about his head-scratching personnel decisions?

But then came another terrible team in winless Buffalo and they barely eeked out a W up in Toronto in front of a bipartisan crowd (not fair to the Bills who were supposed to be the home team) with a BIG pick late in the game turning a sure game-clinching TD on a slightly underthrown pass into the game-winning drive for the Bears...another W and they were now at 5-3.

Next up were the reeling Vikings that were imploding at the time but that was still Brett Favre and Adrian Peterson and a division rival. They took pretty good care of them with a nice game plan and they totally shut down Favre (4 turnovers) and AP (averaged 3 ypc and no TDs). Nice W, but the 5-3 Bears were actually slight underdogs AT HOME against the 3-5 Vikings...so I wasn't the only hater out there; it seems not many people in the entire country believed in them.

Next up was a trip to Miami. The Dolphins were 5-4 but their 4 losses came to the Jets, Patriots, Pittsburgh and Baltimore while the Bears at 6-3 had lost to the Redskins, Seahawks, and Giants. So again the team with the better record was an underdog and again the underdog Bears won the ballgame. But the breaks continued to fall the Bears' ways (I'm referring to their easy starting schedule and the Packers' play in their first game) when all three of the Miami QBs were knocked out in their previous game (a W at home against the Titans) leaving 3rd string Tyler Thigpen as the starter against the Bears. He was WAY out manned by one of the NFL's best defenses and the Bears had their first shutout and a tie atop the NFC North at 7-3.

Surely now they'd be favored at home...I mean they were 7-3 and playing at home although they were playing the red-hot Philly Eagles and no, they were not the favorite AGAIN as a 3-point underdog. I had heard the Bears were 3-0 against Michael Vick (or is it Mike Vick now?)...well, after a nearly perfect game by the hometown Bears, they are now 4-0 against Vick and even more importantly 8-3 and ALONE at the top of the NFC North as the Packers were losing in Atlanta on a last second field goal.

Do I wish we had a better offensive line? HECK YA! Cutler was sacked 4 times in that first half (none in the second half!) with a couple of them happening without an interior D-lineman getting a finger laid on them by our O-line. But with this newly transformed Mike Martz O, they mix things up enough to keep the defenses way off balance. They had huge play after huge play this afternoon in the Fox game of the day with two first place teams facing off. Cutler has been pretty close to amazing as of late making many, many, many more good decisions than bad since the bye week and is now actually taking advantage of his amazing athletic skills by running for big chunks of yardage when flushed out of the pocket...this instead of forcing the ball into a tight spot for a pick or holding onto the ball for a sack and maybe a fumble. The D and the newly ball secure conscious Jay Cutler along with the new run-oriented (ya, I said it!) offense are the keys to the turn-around.

So in my opinion, EVERYTHING is clicking MUCH better now with this team. Are they world beaters? No, but they don't have to be...they don't have to beat the world; they just have to win the majority of their remaining games to get into the playoffs and see what happens. Certainly teams that have looked worse than these Bears have gone to the playoffs in the past and have done some serious damage when they got there so all you can really do now is continue to learn and get better and try to be peaking come playoff time.

GO BEARS!