Bears Blitz

Published by Richard O'Hagan on January 23, 2011
Article Source: Bleacher Report - Chicago Bears

When your most effective offensive player is your third-string quarterback and your opponent’s winning touchdown is scored on an interception run by one of the heaviest men in the NFL, you are not going to win a conference championship.

The Bears barely deserved to come close.

Chicago was second best in almost every aspect of this game.

Although their defense held Green Bay scoreless in the second half, on the bald statistics of the game, they lost.

Part of that falls on the Bears’ feeble offensive line.

In the most important game of the season, they allowed two quarterbacks to be knocked out of the game.

Even that winning interception rumble by BJ Raji came about because the pocket collapsed around Packers quarterback Caleb Hanie.

The first half would have been a massacre had Aaron Rodgers not continually overthrown his receivers.

And when the Packers got the benefit of a dubious pass interference call against Bears cornerback Tim Jennings, Rodgers threw an interception that even Jay Cutler would have found outrageous, picking out Brian Urlacher with pin-point precision rather than anyone in a white shirt.

By halftime, Cutler was out of the game with a knee injury. By the end of the third quarter, backup Todd Collins too was injured on a late hit that was not picked up by the officiating crew.

Hanie stepped into the breach and promptly led a 67-yard drive that would have ended sooner had Johnny Knox not gone out of bounds inside the one yard line.

Chester Taylor ran in the touchdown, and Earl Bennett scored shortly afterwards after Green Bay cornerback Nick Collins inexplicably pulled out of a tackle.

But Raji had the deciding word.

Chicago was supposed to compete in this game. Green Bay did not even play to the best of their considerable abilities. But the Bears were so poor, no one needed to bring their A-game.

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