About Last Night
There were more thoughts swirling around my head last night than there were snow/rain/sleet bursts in Minneapolis. Lucky for you I let them percolate through a sweet slumber before unleashing them to the masses so they are fine and polished. like this:
The Chicago Bears are NFC North champs. What does that mean about the quality of this rendition of the "Monsters of the Midway"? If you listened to the podcast, and judging by the stats- you haven't, then you would have heard me predict these Bears to be an 8-8 team.
Truth be told, I still think they are that 8-8 team, they just have taken advantage of some very nice happenstance. For example, facing Tyler Thigpen, Drew Stanton, and Jimmy Claussen. And who could forget the Calvin Johnson non-TD catch in week one that will most surely at least make the league office consider a rule change in the offseason?
The problem is that even with the division championship locked up, we still don't know what to make of this team. When you look at those lucky situations, while looking at the abhorrent performances against the Giants and the Patriots, while not forgetting they also beat the Packers before all the injuries and a hot Eagles team everyone was touting as Super Bowl bound before the game- you realize this Bears team is still a crap shoot (see how I linked the turd and crap references?).
However, sometimes it's the team that gets hot at the right time that goes the farthest. The next two weeks, the Bears face the Jets and Packers. We'll find out a lot more about this team over the course of those two games than we did in the first eight. Are they the team that can take care of business or are they the team that didn't show up against the Patriots and let Jay Cutler get knocked around like a rag doll against the Giants? If they beat the Packers, that means they have run the table on the division- 6-0. How many times has that happened to team you're just not sure about?
Last night's game was somewhat of a microcosm of the whole season: back to back holding penalties give the Bears a 1st and 30, only to have Cutler hit Johnny Knox on a 67 yard TD bomb. The height of acid reflux.
As our power rankings show, you are who your record says you are. The problem is, no one is still quite sure what that means in Chicago.
The Chicago Bears are NFC North champs. What does that mean about the quality of this rendition of the "Monsters of the Midway"? If you listened to the podcast, and judging by the stats- you haven't, then you would have heard me predict these Bears to be an 8-8 team.
Truth be told, I still think they are that 8-8 team, they just have taken advantage of some very nice happenstance. For example, facing Tyler Thigpen, Drew Stanton, and Jimmy Claussen. And who could forget the Calvin Johnson non-TD catch in week one that will most surely at least make the league office consider a rule change in the offseason?
The problem is that even with the division championship locked up, we still don't know what to make of this team. When you look at those lucky situations, while looking at the abhorrent performances against the Giants and the Patriots, while not forgetting they also beat the Packers before all the injuries and a hot Eagles team everyone was touting as Super Bowl bound before the game- you realize this Bears team is still a crap shoot (see how I linked the turd and crap references?).
However, sometimes it's the team that gets hot at the right time that goes the farthest. The next two weeks, the Bears face the Jets and Packers. We'll find out a lot more about this team over the course of those two games than we did in the first eight. Are they the team that can take care of business or are they the team that didn't show up against the Patriots and let Jay Cutler get knocked around like a rag doll against the Giants? If they beat the Packers, that means they have run the table on the division- 6-0. How many times has that happened to team you're just not sure about?
Last night's game was somewhat of a microcosm of the whole season: back to back holding penalties give the Bears a 1st and 30, only to have Cutler hit Johnny Knox on a 67 yard TD bomb. The height of acid reflux.
As our power rankings show, you are who your record says you are. The problem is, no one is still quite sure what that means in Chicago.
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