Championship Sunday
It was infuriating to watch the Bears play the Dolphins a week ago. They lacked passion at Soldier Field that Sunday. They lacked guts. There is no more difficult experience for a sports fan than believing you – with a wing-sauce soaked beard and Guinness-foamed mustache – care more about the outcome of your team’s contest than the team itself. (This is the case far more often than fans know.)
There was nothing infuriating about yesterday’s embarrassment at Foxboro. It is impossible to be angry about a result so predictable. The Bears coaching staff was shown just how far they are from being able to compete mentally with the elite coaching staffs in the sport. The Bears players, especially their stars, were shown how stars are meant to perform on the grand stage of the NFL Sunday. The Bears general manager was forced to sit through another sixty minutes of his prized free agents, $15M of defensive end this season, donned their invisibility cloaks for the eighth consecutive week. Lamarr Houston removed his cloak just long enough to put the punctuation mark on this shambolic sentence.
The Bears right now are the most lethal combination in sports. They have star players not performing to their potential and a coaching staff unable to elevate the play of lesser talent. Calling them mediocre would be an insult to mediocrity.
Fact #1
Jay Cutler will have a bounceback game.
Here’s a rather remarkable stat for Jay Cutler. In his season and a half under Marc Trestman, anytime his passer rating in a game has dipped below 90 he has a rebounded well.
Trust history. Cutler’s passer rating: 109.4
Fact #2
Matt Forte will have more carries than he’s had all season.
Why do I like the Chicago Bears this week?
I always like the Chicago Bears.
Because there is no earthly reason to believe this football team – maligned quarterback, emotionally excitable star receiver, ignored tailback, coach under the microscope, temperamental right guard, derided defensive coordinator…etc. – can go into Foxboro and beat one of the greatest head coach and quarterback combinations in the history of the sport with their season on the line, they probably will.
Chicago Bears 40, New England Patriots 31
I watched him do it. From behind the goal post, decked out in ski goggles and enough waterproof clothing to stay dry in Seattle, I watched Tom Brady dissect the Bears defense in a blizzard. He was not phased. He was not human. Moon Mullin described the early dismantling:
The Patriots went through the Chicago defense on drives of 85 and 87 yards, lasting 12 and 11 plays against a unit that had allowed drives of double-digit plays only five times in the last five games. Less than five minutes into the second quarter the Bears were in a 14-0 hole.
In fairness I only watched the first half. That was plenty for me.
Now that same quarterback, that same coach, stand between the Bears and the possibility of a successful 2014 campaign. A win Sunday at Foxboro would send the Bears into their bye at 4-4, a respectable mark and a record to build upon over the second half of the season. A loss would compound early inconsistency and leave the Bears to answer a relentless stream of questions over the next two weeks. The most frequently asked question: how did this happen?
The Bears play three of their next four games on the road: at the Martz-had-no-use-for Greg Olsen in Carolina, at the Lovie-found-no-use-for Devin Hester in Atlanta and at Tom Brady and the now prematurely-buried Patriots. Sandwich in a home game against the Miami Dolphins and you have a four-game stretch that will set this season’s tone. Some teams battle for division titles. Some teams chase the top of the table all year long. How the Bears perform over these four games will position them in one of those two categories.
This is not a long-winded column. This opinion does not require a ton of explanation. When the Bears emerge from their bye week in November they play five of the their final eight games at home, including the warm weather, dome-based Saints and Cowboys in Soldier Field on cold evenings where both have been unmitigated disasters in the past. The other three games are at their division rivals. Those eight games will define the 2014 Bears.
Four out of four means the Bears are title contenders. Three out of four means they’re a serious playoff team. Two out of four means they’ll have a meaningful final two months of the season. Anything less is a crap shoot. Anything less than .500 over these next four games will be a serious cause for concern and more than likely leave the Bears with a second wild card ceiling.
To paraphrase Al Davis, “Just win…half of em…baby.”
Go Jets.
Go Panthers.
Go Patriots.
Week One
Sunday September 7th – Noon
Week Two
Sunday September 14th – SNF
Week Three
Monday September 22nd – MNF
Week Four
Sunday September 28th – Noon
Week Five
Sunday October 5th – Noon
Week Six
Sunday October 12th – Noon
Week Seven
Sunday October 19th – Noon
Week Eight
Sunday October 26th – Noon
Week Nine
