Bear-ly!
Wow, the Bucs made a game of it and shocked the Hell out of me and Vegas. The Bears were favored by 13.5, yet had to go to overtime to win the game (and home field advantage throughout the NFC playoffs) by a score of 34-31. Today's near-failure boiled down to one thing, the vaunted Defense. But first, let's talk about something happy. The offense.
Grossman was excellent. He wasn't a QB at the "A Number One" pinnacle of his profession, but he was a solid A for sure. No turnovers, and I honestly didn't see even one throw where I said, "uh-oh" while it was in the air. Pretty sweet. I hope he keeps it up, because we're going to need it.
The running game worked, as Benson and Jones split the load evenly. Jones was a ghost in the fourth quarter and overtime, and I suspect his injuries flaring up were the reason. Both Benson and Jones looked solid behind a line missing their Left Tackle, John Tait.
Special Teams played OK, I guess. Maynard was pretty awesome, Gould has proven mortal with yet another short-miss (though he did nail the game-winner) and Hester made the critical fumble. Somewhere I remember reading that the Bears consider fumbles as detriments that cancel-out touchdowns. So with Hester's two fumbles to go with his six touchdowns, he's still a +4. I'm not worried if you're not.
Finally, the defense. They clearly are not the same unit that lead the NFL in total Defense two weeks ago. Since the offense held the ball the way they did in the first half, the defense looked as good as ever. When the offense wasn't quite as proficient in the second half, keeping the D on the field for more snaps, the D wore down. The lack of depth is clearly the problem. (The mediocre Tim Rattay replacing the horrible Bruce Gradkowski was no doubt a factor as well.) Now that Tommie Harris and Terrence "Tank" Johnson are out, their primary backups are starting and their former-practice-squad guys are backing them up. Big difference. Scott and Boone are fine, half the teams in the league would be content with them in their starting lineup. But these guys are a huge dropoff for the Bears. This is not to mention Mike Brown, Todd Johnson, and Nate Vasher being out as well. Chris Collinsworth summed it up best when he called the new Bears defense "ordinary." The good news is Vasher and Todd Johnson should be back by the time the Bears play their next meaningful game on January 14th. (damn, that layoff is long.) The bad news is Harris and Brown are done and Tank is as good as gone himself. Hopefully Rex doesn't lose that magic dust, as we're gonna need 20+ to win in the playoffs.
Bear Down!