For Real
The Bears beat the tar out of Carolina today in a game that wasn't as close as the final score would indicate. What a game! It was easily the best Bears game since 2001, and Bears fans across the country are dancing in the streets. That might be a slight exaggeration, but still. There's gotta be some shuffling going on somewhere. They've now won six in a row and you can take all of this talk about weak schedules and throw it out the window. The Bears proved it when it mattered against the supposed best team in the NFC. I picked the Panthers to win Friday, and I wasn't alone. What a mistake that was. Adewale Ogunleye said it best as he walked off the field, “Let's call a spade a spade, I looked at their schedule and Carolina hasn't played anybody this year.” Damn right, Adewale. The only good teams they played were the reeling Patriots and Tampa Bay. The rest were the same chumps the Bears had been playing, but nobody was pointing that out when talking about Carolina's dominance. They played NO, NE, MIA, GB, ARZ, DET, MIN, TB and NYJ. Big deal. Let's look a little closer at today's game against Chicago.
DEE. FENCE. DEE. FENCE. The front four ate Jake Delhomme for lunch. Eight sacks by the line, including three by the aforementioned Ogunleye. He's just a menace back there. Alex Brown must have thought he was at the Meadowlands because he had his finest game as a pro. (I rank this over last season's four-sack game against the Giants because this game had a lot more meaning.) Two sacks, two forced fumbles. Carolina's left tackle will be having nightmares about Alex. Tommie Harris, Alfonso Boone, Ian Scott, and even Michael Haynes...these guys were everywhere. Jake rarely had time to plant his feet, and the running game was stifled. The only negative by the D was Steve Smith getting loose for14 catches and 169 yards. No touchdowns, though. But you've got to give him some credit. He simply out-ran and out-muscled our secondary all day. That said, Nate Vasher might be joining him in Hawaii. Six INTs in ten games will get you noticed.
Kyle Orton was excellent. The numbers won't show it, but he clearly took a step forward today. He made all the throws he needed to and was practically mistake-free. He keeps this up and he'll be rookie-of-the-year, which is almost unheard of for QBs. As decent as his numbers looked, they would have been much better had there not been so many drops. Moose, I'm looking at you. You made a few nice catches today against your old team, but four drops. FOUR? Come on, you gotta catch those. You lost all rights to complain about your QB until further notice. While we're talking about receivers, what's Reggie Wayne doing in Justin Gage's uniform? He was awesome today. Nice to see someone step up. Thomas Jones and Adrian Peterson kept the ground game moving, as usual.
On special teams, it was nice to see Bobby Wade use two hands. He didn't fumble a single time! Gould was 2 for 2 on field goals and his windy city nightmare appears to be over. I'd like to see him hit something over 40 yards, though, before I start bronzing his shoe.
So ends my analysis of the Panthers game. It's just so great to be a Bears fan in Chicago when the Bears are winning. The air seems cleaner, the deep dish pizza tastes better, and the beer goes down smoother. Gotta love it!