Bears Lose, Season Over.
Despite the fact that the Bears lost to Seattle today, it was a pretty entertaining game. Both teams were making one big play after another on both sides of the ball. It was precisely the type of 30-23 victory that would have made NBC happy. Oh well, their loss.
Speaking of losses, this marks the end of the Bears' season. If it's not officially over, it's practically over. At this point, you're basically looking for a six-game winning streak and asking for help. Forget the help, do you think this team can win six games in a row? So yeah, it's over. But that's not to say it's time to pack up and stop watching. No, sir, there's still plenty to see. So much in fact that I kept a running diary. Here's what I saw:
3:15pm: I just cracked open my first beer of the day and it's time for kickoff! Let's see if Holmgren has the guts to kick to Hester!
3:16pm: Nope. Nice little return by Wolfe, though.
3:17pm: Holy crap! Who's wearing Benson's jersey! A 43-yard touchdown run, are you effing kidding me? He hit the hole! He showed moves! He outran somebody! We got a runner!
3:20pm: <Looks at watch>... Damn, that first beer went down fast. Time for another trip to the beer fridge.
And...cut! Just kidding about the whole running diary thing. I'm pretty confident that I would suck at that worse than the Bears offensive line sucks at football. Here's some notes instead.
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Cedric Benson looked like the guy the Bears thought they drafted on his first two carries today. Two carries, 60 yards. Unfortunately, for the rest of the game he was who we thought he was. El Busto. Nineteen yards on his next nine carries. <shakes head />
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I thought Rex Grossman played very well today. He wasn't great, but he mostly did his job well. Smart, accurate throws. An inkling of pocket presence. A few nice scrambles. Really, he was one fumble away from an B+ in my book. (Note: I grade Bears QBs on a curve. He'd get a C in any other town.) I don't think Griese could have made some of those throws today, and I don't think he'd have put up more than 23 points either. Rex gets the nod next week.
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The receivers looked good, too! Berrian and Moose were making acrobatic catches left and right. Olsen was getting tough yards. And my goodness, was that Rashied Davis! Not enough Hester, though. Where the hell was he? He must be the Bears double-secret weapon. So secret that you didn't even know he was there.
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And now, to the downfall. The offensive line is the suckiest bunch of sucks that ever sucked. It's so bad, that I really can't say if the problem with the running game is really Benson or just the line. Fred Miller was especially horrible today. That fourth and one play where they ran it straight up the gut and lost yards? Brutal. Holding calls and false starts? Fugly.
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A more disappointing downfall today was by the defense. They aren't as sucky as the O-line; nobody is. It's just the pride and joy of the Bears is "below average" at best at this point. They looked good at times. They got a few nice sacks. They forced a turnover. But they let Seattle get 21 first downs today. Last year they were consistently giving up less than half of that.
There's really not much else to say. Bears lose, season over. Time to start evaluating talent.
Bear down.