The labels that will be applied to the NFC Championship Game between the Bears and Packers at Soldier Field will be plentiful.  Epic.  Legendary.  Historic.  Colossal.  Prodigious.  Herculean. People, including me, will also pile out the match-ups that will determine the outcome.  Can the Bears block Clay Matthews and Charles Woodson on designed blitzes?  Can the Bears establish the run with Matt Forte on the outside?  How will the speed receivers of the Packers handle the turf?  Will Mike McCarthy punt to Devin Hester?  Was James Starks merely a flash in the pan against the Eagles’ mediocre run defense?

It was as dominant as the Chicago Bears have been this season, only letting the Seahawks make the game look closer by mailing in the last five minutes or so.  I have a lot of thoughts.

Rick Reilly is the Dave Barry of sportswriting and Dave Barry is to comedy what Antonio Cromartie is to not fathering nine children with eight different women.  In Reilly’s anti-Cutler column currently running on the ESPN home page, he levels charges against Cutler as severe as texting while ignoring John Lynch, watching TV while ignoring John Elway and not wanting to answer the questions of reporters at a press conference.  I say we string him up!

Reporter: When you were a kid, which quarterback did you look up to?

Cutler: Nobody.

Reporter: Nobody? You didn’t look up to anybody?

Cutler: No.

If he’s lying, it makes him a miscreant. If he’s telling the truth, it makes him a miscreant.

“Deep, deep down, I think he’s a really good guy,” Waddle says.

Maybe. But why do we have to look that deep?

Reilly’s hypothesis, of course, ignores the other obvious conclusion to be drawn from Cutler’s answer: he doesn’t like reporters.  You know reporters, right?  The ones who vilified him publicly and canonized Josh McDaniels in the aftermath of the Denver scandal?  (How’d that work out for Denver?)  The ones who have been quick to criticize every interception he’s thrown while ignoring his franchise record-setting productivity?  The ones who have written every week that Denver actually won the trade with the Bears by acquiring Kyle Orton, a player that has been benched for a quarterback who doesn’t possess the ability to throw the football accurately?

A win and the Chicago Bears advance to the NFC Championship Game, at home, against the Green Bay Packers.  A win and the Chicago Bears are sixty minutes from the Super Bowl.  A win is all that is needed.

o

And now we enter the Divisional Round of the Fantasy Playoffs, with twenty-four bloggers still competing to winning the monthly off-season column.  The remaining competitors are:

It is why we argue and debate from mid-February until
early-September about the make-up of the roster and alignment of the coaching
staff.  It is why we spend that sleepless
night before opening day, like an eight year-old on Christmas Eve, anticipating
the action figure he’s coveted for the weeks and months previous.  It is why, win or lose, we fight with rival
fans, the national media and the skeptic inside ourselves in defense of our
favorite football team: the Chicago Bears. 
It is the playoffs.  And it has
come to Soldier Field.

YOUR DESTINY IS NOW
2010 CHICAGO BEARS

Over

Seattle
Seahawks

Why do I like the Chicago Bears this week?

• I always like the Chicago Bears.
• The best thing that happened to the Bears all season turned
  out to be their defeat at the hands of Seahawks in Week Six.  How can you take an opponent for granted when
  that opponent has already beaten you at home? 
  The Bears defense, a prideful bunch, was embarrassed by Matt Hasselbeck and
  will not want to see history repeated. 
  Defensive POY candidate Julius Peppers was handled sufficiently by
  rookie Russell Okung and I suspect he’ll be angling for revenge.  There will be a rallying call at Halas Hall
  this week and that call will be 23-20.
• Very few opponents can cancel out Leon Washington.  The Bears don’t just call Washington,
  they raise him Devin Hester.
• I believe the Bears will have success running the ball to
  the edges of the ‘Hawk defense with Matt Forte, who has simply been one of the
  best backs in football over the last five or six weeks.
• That running success outside will open up the two needed facets
  of the pass game: shots down field to the speed receivers and quick tosses to
  G-Reg (catch the damn thing) and Earl Bennett. 
  
• I think the Seahawks will have minimal success running the
  ball and getting it outside to Mike Williams, taking advantage of
  off-coverage.  I don’t believe they’ll
  have enough success with either to control the game.
• I think we shouldn’t forget that while Mike Williams was the
  chains-mover for the Seahawks, it was Ma Hass making big throws down the
  sidelines, specifically to Deon Butler, that put points on the board.  Unless Marshawn Lynch takes over the game, I
  expect LoveRod to stay in a disciplined cover-2 shell.

• I don’t pretend to understand the psyche of Jay Cutler.  I don’t think anyone other Cutler does.  But I have to believe that a competitor of his nature will relish this opportunity while understanding he can not take the kinds of chances he’s taken repeatedly in the regular season.  He has to understand that throwing the ball away is necessary to prevent a two or three-yard loss on a crucial second down.  He has to understand that the Super Bowl, the grandest of all football stages, is within his team’s grasp.  If he doesn’t understand these things, he’s not the leader or player I think he is.  18-24, 240 yards, 2 touchdowns.
• Name one thing the Seahawks do better than the Bears.  I can’t either.  Put the game in Soldier Field and the Bears have no excuse but to win this game.

Chicago Bears 27, Seattle Seahawks 13

Hasselbeck Says Briggs Takes Game to “Another Level”

“He’s huge,” Hasselbeck said. “I think he’s arguably one of the best defensive players in the game. I think he’s a great player. Going into the game we fully expected him to play. He didn’t play, and that was a big deal…so for us to sit back and say, ‘Hey, we beat them at their place, we can do it again.’ That would be a dangerous way to feel because Lance Briggs did not play in that game. He is big, big-time difference maker and a great football player. So as hard as this game is going to be, the fact that he’s back up takes it to another level.”

Hasselbeck is right.  Lance Briggs is one of the best defensive players in the sport.  But the Saeahawks did not beat the Bears on the ground or by exploiting the middle of the field.  They beat the Bears by going after LoveRod’s soft corner coverage and finding Mike Williams in space on pivotal third downs.  I’m not sure Lance Briggs would have been a distinguishing factor in that area.

Julius Peppers. Oh, I know, the Bears paid his too much money to cut him, and he has had a wonderful season — All-Pro when you consider what he has done with Harris starting — but I mention his name here for game-specific reasons: He isn’t going to get owned by a rookie tackle again, right? This is the game — the start of a month of games — that the Bears really paid all that money for.

I think Julius Peppers’ performance against the Seahawks and rookie Russell Okung was perhaps his worst (and only truly bad one) of the 2010 season.  I don’t think that performance has sat well with him all season and I expect an inspired effort on Sunday.

Mark Potash believes Lovie Smith can not lose this game against the Seattle Seahawks.  Not at home.  Not against an inferior opponent.  And not while operating under his current contract.

Lovie Smith has been among the highest paid coaches in the NFL over the three seasons prior to this one, with nothing to show for it. It’s time for him to hold up his end of the bargain.

While I don’t imagine a loss to the Seahawks on Sunday will cost Lovie Smith his job, the question that could be raised is an interesting one: what does this ballgame mean for Mr. Smith?

Many of us believed, when the season began, a playoff victory for the Bears in 2010 would validate Lovie’s tenure and lead to a surefire contract extension (if not also an extension for GM Jerry Angelo).  But does a win, at home, against the 8-9 Seattle Seahawks really validate anything?  If the Bears knocked the Saints or Eagles out of the playoffs this Sunday one could easily make the argument that 2010 was a resounding success, as its doubtful Vegas would have extended the Bears even the customary three-point home advantage against either of those opponents.  But the Seahawks?  How can Halas Hall draw up a $15 mil contract for holding serve as double-digits favorites at home against a losing club?

A loss would be nothing short of devastating.  Lovie enters Sunday’s game with the better offense, defense and special teams.  The same case could be made for/against Sean Payton (special teams is debatable there) but Payton was on the road and coming off a Super Bowl title.  Lovie is coming off three consecutive non-playoff years and most of the Chicago Bears faithful consider victory on Sunday a guarantee if the Bears merely play well.  Not even solid.  Just…well.

What’s the best outcome for Lovie Sunday?  A dominant, two-touchdown victory that springboards the Bears into the NFC Championship Game.  If that game is in Atlanta, the Bears will be underdogs and Lovie will find himself in a no-lose scenario.  If that game is at home against the Packers, well, I’ll guess I’ll have another column like this for you next Wednesday.