This won't be easy for me to write. I'm still trying to pick up the pieces of my Bears heart.
I am man enough to admit this and as my partner said "The better team won."
The game lived up the the hype. Isn't that all we could ask for as fans? A hard fought battle between two bitter rivals. Two of the proudest organizations in all of sports. Two fan bases who live and breathe for their team while hating the other just as much. The game was played outdoors, on grass, in the cold on a beautiful winter day in Chicago. This is what football is all about...but of course, there's no way a game like this could be drama free.
Jay Cutler injured his knee in the first half, walked off the field at half time, came back out for the opening series of the second half and after the drive ended, he was done for the game. Right then and there something happened I will never forget. My Facebook News Feed absolutely went bananas! Us Chicago fans can be a little too dramatic, but I saw people who never put up anything on Facebook putting up statuses saying "Jay just quit on us!" or "Jay is a baby!" Those are the G rated ones. I can't put up what majority of them were. It was honestly astounding seeing this happen by the second. I was hitting refresh on my Facebook every 10 seconds and I would see more and more new statuses. I would be interested in knowing all the Bears tweets and facebooks happened during the third quarter.
The next sequence of events is going to be questioned by Bears fans until Lovie is either no longer the Bears head coach or if he wins the Super Bowl with the Bears. Todd Collins who is 39 years old and had proven that he no longer can play in the NFL anymore in his showing against the Panthers in week 5, comes into the game to try to lead the Bears back into the game. If there's anyone out there who had strong belief that Todd had the capabilities to pull a mini "Frank Reich" they'd be lying to you. Todd Collins threw 4 passes and went 0/4. Alright then. Lets go with Caleb Hanie!
Here's my question to this, Why wasn't Hanie second string? With Hanie coming in as third string, that instantly eliminates any chance for Cutler to come back (if he all of a sudden felt like he could) or if Hanie ended up getting hurt, Collins wouldn't of been able to come back in due to the NFL rule regarding quarterbacks. Did Lovie and Martz truly believe that Collins can support the offense if Cutler went down? Does Hanie not know the Martz playbook? Hanie came in and gave a boost to the team. The defense pitched a shut out in the second half and the offense was moving the ball, but the deadly interception Hanie threw to Raji that he returned for a touchdown to make the game 21-7, all was just about lost. I give Hanie a ton of credit though. He went right back in there and led a quick touchdown drive with a 35 yard TD pass to Earl Bennett and even marched the Bears into Packers territory, but a 3rd and 3 reverse call (will be questioned forever) that backfired and timeout issues (another issue of Lovie) led to a 4th and 5 fatal interception. No matter how you want to spin it, Hanie threw two costly and game changing interceptions. For once, you can't blame Cutler for that!
As for Cutler, the early word on his knee is an MCL sprain. He will be getting an MRI tomorrow so we will know more details then, but the way things unfolded have left millions (yes millions) of Bears fans with a bad taste in their mouth. We can't deny the fact that he's tough and we can't deny the fact that he is the best QB the Bears have had in a while, but with his lack of personality and his negative looking demeanor, people are going to assume the worst in him. Whether it is fair or not, this is the NFL and in a market like Chicago, everything that you do is under the microscope.
The Packers will be a great representative for the NFC in the Super Bowl. Many had them at this point in preseason picks. Aaron Rodgers is carving his bust on the "Mount Rushmore" of current NFL quarterbacks. I give them all the credit in the world. They had many key or star players on IR, but they never used it as an excuse, they just filled the holes and kept the machine going. Mike McCarthy has proven to be a great coach in this league. He kept this team together and he should be strongly considered as "Coach of the year." Dom Capers, the Defensive Coordinator, should considered for future head coaching jobs and in my opinion, is the Coordinator of the Year in the league. His 3-4 defense caused havoc on the league all year allowing an average total of 309.1 yards a game ranking them 5th in the league (NFL.com).
It was a fun ride. No one expected anything out of the Bears and they defied the odds all year. It was great seeing the defense get that nastiness back with the addition of Peppers and Urlacher being healthy. The offense led by Cutler at times was very exciting to watch. Knox, Bennett, Olson, and Hester at times showed flashes of brilliance. Matt Forte got stronger as the season wore on as the offensive line improved it's play as a collective unit. Devin Hester got his swagger back returning 3 punts for touchdowns and in the process setting the career NFL record with 14 total punt/kick returns for touchdowns (and they don't even count the Super Bowl return or the 108 yard FG return against the Giants in 2006). The Bears also got 4 guys to the Pro Bowl (Hester, Briggs, Peppers and Urlacher).
The Bears have a fair amount of issues to address in the off season, but we will save that for another day.
As time passes on, maybe we will be able to look back at this season with a more positive view, but this will always be remembered as the season that the Packers went to the Super Bowl on our field.
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