Bears-Seahawks: Bears Victory puts them one Win from Super Bowl!!!
Hell yeah! The Bears beat the Seahawks today to advance to the NFC Championship Game. Oh, man, what a relief! I feel like an enormous weight has been lifted from my shoulders. I simply couldn't bear the thought of another one and done. Not that I'm going to be happy if they lose next week, it's just that losing today would have been a huge kick in the balls that I might not have recovered from. The pure elation/relief/excitement when Gould's kick went through the uprights sent me into a frenzy. All throughout today's game, I was like Chris Farley in the Superfans, havin heart attacks. Then...a scream to the heavens.
Since I lack the ability to focus right now enough to write a coherent article, I'm going to fill out a report card for the Bears:
QB: Rex Grossman gets a B+. He wasn't at his best, but he wasn't far from it. When he threw that beautiful "f--k it, I'm throwin it downfield" bomb to Berrian, you couldn't wipe the smile off his face. Only some shoddy blocking, conservative playcalling and the occasional bout of happy feet kept this from being an A. (Why must he still insist upon running backwards so much?) Yes, he had the one pick, but that really should be credited to Moose. Just a great game and exactly what we needed. When I say "we," I mean "the entire city of Chicago." Thank you very much.
RB: Jones and Benson get a B. Nice solid running from start to finish. Benson is a beast that simply bowls people over and Jones is a nimble little minx. Nice combo. No complaints here.
WR: Overall B-. I'd give Rashied Davis an A, Berrian a B, and Moose a C. That one interception off Moose's hands was inexcusable. My Lord. Desmond Clark was pretty invisible and Bradley was carted off in what's becoming a yearly tradition.
OL: C+. Run blocking was very solid but the Pass defense was pretty atrocious, in my opinion. You've got to protect a guy like Grossman a little better than that.
DL: B. Decent pressure, decent run stoppage till the fourth. I don't know if they wore down or what, but Alexander was looking like the 2005 MVP again and not the hampered has-been that he looked like for most of 2006. (He's not a has-been, he just played one on TV for most of this season.)
LB: B+. Urlacher, Briggs and Hillenmeyer came to play and it showed. A few glaring missed tackles in the fourth but otherwise dyn-o-mite. Briggs had the play of the game on that fourth and one play. (You know, the play that Alexander thought he could run 50 yards for a TD if not for a botched snap.)
Secondary: B+. No deep plays allowed all day. They gave up some big third downs of course, but I can live with that if they can stop them from getting the 40-yard TDs.
Special Teams: A-. Hester bobbled two balls but had yet another game-breaking play that was called back for a penalty. Maynard hit some, missed some. And Gould looked pretty nervous before his two kicks, making me even more nervous, but he nailed them both, including the 49-yarder to win the game. How's a brother gonna complain about that?
Coaching: B. Pretty conservative at times, balls to the wall at others. (That fourth and 1 from the 6 was the shit.) An effective mix for the playoffs, and a hundred times better than some of the other coaches this weekend.
Speaking of, I'm sure some people my poo-poo the Bears for not covering and barely beating a clearly inferior team at home. Screw that! Did you see Baltimore and San Diego this weekend? Those were clearly the top two teams coming into the playoffs this year and both were one and done. And how about the rest of the QBs this weekend? Only Drew Brees outperformed Grossman, the rest were either adequate game managers or even worse losers. I'm feeling pretty good right now.
Too early to think about the Saints. I'm just thinking about today. Bears Win! Bears Win! Bears Win! Let's finish them off and head to the Big One.
BEAR DOWN!!!!
UPDATE: Check out this article from Gene Wojciechowski at ESPN.com. Bears Softest of Final Four. He has some valid points, but it's excessively negative for a national publication. (He's even worse than Mariotti!) He makes it sound like the Bears barely deserve their playoff spot and the rest of the teams in the playoffs are the second coming of the Steel Curtain. Um, did you not see that THE TOP TWO SEEDS IN THE AFC LOST this weekend? Did you notice the holy Saints failed to cover at home as well? This is the NFL, man, parity rules. Nothing comes easy.
This isn't the first time this guy has been unnecessarily fair towards the men in navy and orange this year, and I have a theory as to why he's such a sourpuss. He's a Chicagoan and a Bears fan. He was here in 1985, and he doesn't think today's Bears compare to that legendary team. Well no shit, Gene. I don't care that they're not as good as 1985. That was then, this is now. I enjoyed the Bears championship then, and if they happen to "luck" their way through the next two rounds, I'll enjoy this year's championship just as much. Jeez. This is the best day to be a Bears fan in at least 19 years. Let us enjoy it for a few hours before you piss in our wheaties.