Wow judging from all the chatter around Chicago, you’d think the Bear’s season officially ended last Sunday, 15 games early. Relax people. see if your ObamaCare can spring for some Xanax or something. Yes there were turnovers and missed tackles and mental lapses. It certainly wasn’t as bad as last season, we have a lot of mediocrity to achieve before that happens.
In fact, let’s look at how last season ended. ( Bears fans should watch this video every Sunday just before the game. The players and the coaches should have it running on auto-repeat throughout Halas Hall):
Some common rants across the Blogosphere:
We Were Supposed to Win This One
Uh there’s a reason these games are played instead of just letting Madden NFL decide who goes to the Super Bowl. As the saying goes, on any given Sunday any team can win in the NFL. Sure, last year’s Buffalo Bills team underachieved and they haven’t been much better in recent years. Still, teams vary from year to year which brings up….
History was on our side
Any financial advisor worth her salt will tell you that Past Performance is Not Necessarily Indicative of Future Results. It doesn’t matter that the Bills have never won at Soldier Field or that the Bears almost always win their home opener. Never won at Soldier Field? That just makes it more and more inevitable that some day a Bills team would do it. Last year Drew Bees finally won at Solder Field. Even the crappy Bears teams of the late 90s and early 2000s managed to win a couple times in Green Bay.
Jay Isn’t An Elite Quarterback
Neither is Joe Flacco or Eli Manning really. If you look at future Hall-of-Famer Tom Brady’s numbers to Jay Cutler:
T Brady 29/56 249 1 0
J Cutler 34/49 349 2 2
(Source: ESPN).
I didn’t watch that game but Brady does well when his team is winning by more than two scores but in closer games he gets rattled and tries to force things just like any other QB who wants to win. It’s just as likely Brady didn’t have any interceptions because of time of possession. You cannot throw an interception when your team is on defense (right?). The New England Patriots were essentially out of the game by early 4th quarter. At least the Bears tied it up and took it to overtime.
Looking Ahead…Bearly
This can obviously go one of two ways. I’ve been a Bears fan long enough to know that this could be the 4-12 seasons of 199 and 1998 and 2002. Or the coaches make some adjustments and the team comes out stronger. The first two games of the NFL are considered pivotal because no one really knows what a team is like under the hood. Most players are still healthy and performing at a high level and there isn’t enough film available to have seen everything a team does. Just as many 2-0 teams end up missing the playoffs as 0-2 teams win their divisions. A stat I totally made up.
San Fran looked elite against a bad Dallas team. The Jets are good but not great and Green Bay is vulnerable. Considering everyone would be glad to just be 2-2 In four weeks, if somehow the Bears are 3-1, no one will remember this Bills game. And if they are 1-3 or 0-4, you know that you have the rest of your Sundays free for yard work, winter maintenance and holiday shopping.
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