Bears Send Green Bay Packing
The Bears somehow muddled through and beat the Packers today in brutal conditions at Soldier Field. Seventeen degrees, 40mph winds, just a horrible day for football. Horrible from the lakefront, that is, but it was a blast on TV! Yes, the game was "meaningless" for the Bears. In fact, they'd be better off draft-wise losing. But what fun would that be? The Packers needed a win to have a chance at gaining home field advantage throughout the playoffs, and sending them on the road in January is a nice consolation for this season of discontent. To the notes:
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Say what you will about Lovie Smith, but the man knows how to beat the Packers. He's now 6-2 against the Pack, after the previous two guys combined for a 4-20. He had an awful lot of help from the conditions, and that punter for Green Bay will probably be Ray Finkled out of the league after that one. But still, Lovie has met his first goal again and again in his tenure. Now if we could just get back to that third goal.
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You can't really evaluate the performance of individuals in a game like today's. I mean, it's noteworthy from a survival standpoint. And it'd be perfect if we were looking ahead to January football. But alas, good and bad sort of mesh and the weather affected every play. So on that note:
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Kyle Orton looked pretty damn good. Poised. Strong. "Accurate". And better than The Legend, to boot. Give him back some of those drops and you might say he was damn near flawless. But that said, I'd like to see him start in normal conditions behind a solid line and with a good running game and a more inventive coach calling the plays. Am I asking too much? Maybe then we'd be able to really evaluate him. All we know now is he can handle the cold well.
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Running game mostly worked. Receivers largely didn't but it's hard to really blame them on a day like today. I can only imagine trying to catch some of those frozen bullets in such conditions. It's gotta be like
Homerpalooza.
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Other than a few enormous runs by Brian Grant and some nice third-down throws by Favre, the defense did it's job all day. Without the help of Nathan Vasher, Mark Anderson and Lance Briggs, who must have pulled his contract.
The game really was all Special Teams, as Green Bay's punting unit was horrific. A couple blocked and a couple of bad kicks. That's all you can say. Bears win. A nice Christmas present from the boys in navy and orange.
Merry Xmas, everybody.