Poll Question: Positivity Heading Into the Bye
Social media was aghast yesterday in the wake of the Bears 37-34 overtime loss to the Detroit Lions. It seemed everybody wanted to assign blame. The truth is everybody on the Bears sideline was somewhat responsible.
But let’s remember. If the Lions don’t fumble two punts, the Bears aren’t even getting this game near overtime. Fans have been fooled by their quarterback’s heroics over the last three weeks into believing this is suddenly a good team. It is not. And we learned that definitively Sunday.
The Bears have a chance to enter their bye week at .500. That thought was unfathomable two weeks ago. Hell, it was unfathomable with six minutes remaining at Arrowhead Sunday. Nevertheless, here we are, daring to dream.
Does anybody really know if the Bears are any good? Honestly, do you?
Sunday will tell us something. If the Bears are a better than average team they will go into Detroit and beat a Lions team on life support. They will embrace the opportunity to rescue what looked like a dying season by beating a team they are better than right now. Good teams beat the teams they should, unapologetically. This is one of those cases.
The Bears haven’t been in this situation. Point spread aside, many will expect them to win this week. How will they handle a bit of success? How will their quarterback handle the abundant praise (deserved) he’s received all week locally? It will be a fascinating game to watch.
DETROIT.
Where once there was a factory
Now sits only stone
And a city once that changed the world
Sits quietly, alone
2-1 last week, only losing because the eventual Super Bowl champion New York Giants had to do it their way Sunday and make the end of the game exciting. 5-1 over my last six and I’m a believer in gambling momentum.
Hot hand. Two straight covers. And I think the Bears are simply better than the Lions right now. (More on this tomorrow.)
First off, I love rooting for overs. It means lots of scoring. Secondly, I’m not sure either of these teams is any good on the defensive side of the ball. I see a 34-24 type game, smoothly sailing past the number.
I don’t think the Seahawks are any good. They have two wins on the year. One against James Clausen and they needed all four quarters to win that. One against a Detroit team that was half a yard from beating them in Seattle. It sometimes takes folks time to move beyond reputation and analyze what’s happening on the field. On the field, Seattle stinks. Their offensive line is putrid. Their secondary collapses in the fourth quarter. Their quarterback is limited in the pocket. (If you don’t follow Pete Prisco’s work on this, you should.)
Ron Rivera is salivating when he watches tape of this OL group. Add Luke Kuechly to the mix and I’m comfortable taking the points.
Season Record: 8-6-1
Dave Birkett sounds the way the man covering the Detroit Lions should: dour. During the conversation he discusses:
(1) Saw no issues w/upper body strength. To contrary he planted defenders into the ground several times. Love how he finishes blocks.
(2) All his mistakes – including Cutler sack/TD – were assignment errors, not physical errors. He AND Slauson both confused on sack.
(3)
Grasu 3. His athleticism is obvious. Tom Thayer did a nice job breaking down how impactful it is in this video: http://t.co/HrqBofWbjY
— DaBearsBlog (@dabearsblog) October 13, 2015
(4) His comfort level and confidence increased every quarter. He was a stone wall on the Bears two touchdown drives.
(5) It is only one game but this kid can play. If this game was an example of his growing pains, the Bears found a good one.
This is the moment Cutler released the game-winning touchdown.
Jay Cutler never asked for approval.
He never attempted to win over the Lovie lobby when arriving in Chicago as Jerry Angelo’s big ticket toy. He didn’t give a shit that Brian Urlacher and Lance Briggs were the big men on campus. He wasn’t going to kiss the fingers where the two keep their imaginary championship rings.
Cutler has never served up the mindless platitudes others do (especially the fella up in Seattle) in a desperate attempt to be media and fan friendly while raking in endorsement money. Cutler doesn’t care what the media and fans think of him. If he wanted to be liked he could spew things like:
My thing is, and I’ve always been this way – to get to know as many people as I possibly can on a personal level, so that way, when you get on the football field, you’ve got your buddy right beside you, and you’re ready to go. – Russell Wilson
When he shoved an offensive lineman for lack of effort or cursed off an offensive coordinator hell bent on getting him killed, he was too emotional. (He’s a brat! That’s not a leader!) When he didn’t scream and yell and throw his helmet after every interception, he wasn’t emotional enough. (He doesn’t care! That’s not a leader!)
I sat in The Billy Goat Tavern with Reverend Dave last December and watched Dave be drank, gargled and spit out by a gentleman bussing tables because Dave had the nerve merely suggest he DID NOT HATE Cutler. The forty minutes that followed revealed to me that in Chicago’s bloodstream lived a disease. If this disease was gonorrhea, hating Cutler was the burning during urination.
Where do we start? Oh yeah, the quarterback.
