Bears Blitz

Published by TAB BAMFORD on September 14, 2009
Article Source: Bleacher Report - Chicago Bears

Frustration knows no depths like those in Chicago these days.

I already reacted to the first half. This piece is my reaction to the full body of work produced by the Chicago Bears in Green Bay Sunday night.

After the Cubs and White Sox have spent all summer making us drink, we get Sunday night. There’s “close but no cigar,” and then there’s the Bears driving people to pick up chain smoking.

Are there any vices left for the Bulls and Blackhawks this winter?

In the opener of the 2009 season, the Chicago Bears did as much wrong as they possibly could and still had the lead inside the last 80 seconds.

After Jay Cutler looked as lost as a blind mouse in a cheese factory for a half, he came out and looked as sharp as he was mediocre in the second half. He put the ball on a rope to Devin Hester in the third quarter for a touchdown and was finding his receivers more consistently.

It’s almost like he left his game in the locker room when the Bears came out for the opening kickoff, and nobody was willing to go get it for him during the first half.

The defense was fantastic all night. The run defense, missing two starting linebackers the entire second half, was stout, and the pass rush, which was on sabbatical last year, made a good quarterback in Aaron Rodgers look rushed and, at times, frustrated.

For 25 minutes in the second half, the Bears looked like a good football team.

Then, for a reason that will likely be explained at some point 20 years from now next to a piano in a smoky Wisconsin bar, longtime Bears long snapper Patrick Mannelly decided to audible to a fake punt. With a two-point lead and the Bears inside their own 30 on a 4th-and-11, it appears the special teams ace made a terrible mistake.

That judgment call was made worse when Love Smith challenged that the Packers had too many players on the field, which replay showed they clearly did not. The Bears could have probably used that timeout in their attempt to not lose the game in the last 71 seconds.

But no. The Bears turned the ball over inside field goal range for Mason Crosby, and he was true on the attempt. The Bears now trailed 13-12.

It was now that Cutler appeared to earn the stripes that surround George S. Halas’ initials on his sleeves.

He drove the Bears the length of the field in a long, well played, time-consuming drive that ended with Robbie Gould hitting a field goal and giving the Bears the lead back with just more than two minutes left. It was now 15-13 Bears.

The Bears defense then began a solid, hard-hitting struggle with the Rodgers-led Packers as they tried to mount a two-minute drill to finally get a comeback win in the fourth quarter of a game.

The drive was slowing, and coming out of a timeout on a third down and short yardage situation, the Bears opted to stack the box and leave should-have-been-cut-in-August Nathan Vasher alone on All-Pro receiver Greg Jennings.

Give Green Bay’s coaches all the credit in the world for having the stones to call a play action deep ball in that situation. It takes a serious level of intestinal fortitude to call that play in that situation. After all, they only needed a field goal.

But there it was, a play that every Bears fan dreaded. Watching the oft-injured Vasher spin his tires while Jennings ran past him like Usain Bolt at a junior high track meet was reminiscent of Bernard Berrian waving adios to Charles Tillman for 99 yards last year in Minnesota.

So was the result.

There was Rodgers pumping his fist like the old man he replaced, while Bears defenders looked lost and Cutler warmed up. Now it would be his turn to storm back down the field and initiate this soon-to-be legendary rivalry between he and Rodgers.

Two young gunslingers doing battle. Last man standing wins. Right?

Nope. Cutler found a green jersey for the fourth time of the night, setting a personal high for interceptions in one game and a new all-time low for Bears fans that liquidated what was left in their retirement accounts to buy a new jersey with his name on it.

I really need a British soccer announcer to describe the “oceans of sorrow and gnashing of teeth” taking place all over northern Illinois this evening.

The Great One, the Golden Arm, the Best Thing Since Sliced Bread…however you might have described Cutler before kickoff was gone.

Now he was the Great Doughnut. The Big Oh-Fer. The Grand Oops.

Now the Bears come home, devastated, for their home opener against the defending world champion Pittsburgh Steelers next Sunday. Because, after all, why should things get easier?

The Bears challenged two plays on Sunday night. One challenge resulted in the Packers having the ball spotted on the one-yard line instead of the five after an interception, and the other cost them a timeout they could have used on their final drive.

They also lost two linebackers during the game, and offensive coordinator Ron Turner limited running back Matt Forte to 55 yards rushing after he went off for over 1,200 in 2008.

Lots of questions, few answers for Bears fans after the season opener in Green Bay. This will be a long, hard week for Cutler, and we will all see his maturation process in seven short days.

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