Bears take care of Lions

The Bears beat the Lions 48-24 in a victory that wasn't quite as dominating as the score would indicate. Some quick notes, in outline fashion:

Johnny Knox returned a kick 102 yards for a TD (though he did almost pull a Desean Jackson at the end of the play). Hester, Bennett, and Manning all had nice returns as well. Why have the Bears been so blessed in finding such great return men the last few years? I'm now convinced its the system. Dave Toub is the man. It seems everyone he plugs in there can drop a 50-yard return any time he wants. If it was just Hester or Manning or Knox, I'd be like, OK, they found a great return man. But to have every one of those guys look like a dynamo? It's gotta be the system.
Brad Maynard was about as studly as a Punter could be today. Every punt landed inside the 20, a couple even inside the 5. Huge.
Robbie Gould finally made a 50-yard field goal today (52, actually). I'm probably more excited about this than anything else I saw today. Why? Because I never again will have to hear about how Gould can't make the long kicks. While I certainly won't call Gould an "excellent long range kicker," I can say that in watching him through the years I was confident that he had plenty of leg to get the job done, if needed. He routinely boots 46-yarders as much as ten yards beyond the crossbar. It's just Lovie's grand plan to never surrender the field position as the primary reason for Gould getting so few opportunities to go deep. Good for you, Robbie. If I'm annoyed by the talk, you've got to completely fed up.

Jay Cutler was solid. Great helicopter running TD, solid game management. Two TD passes, no picks. Efficient. Orton-like. Ho-hum. I don't want to look a gift horse in the mouth, but where's the gun, man? Eight measly yards per completion? I don't want you to pull a Grossman, but you gotta go deep once in a while!
Speaking of, I think we all owe Rex a bit of an apology. Cutler has now fumbled like 3 snaps in 4 games, all of which were thankfully recovered. But Orton dropped a few, Griese dropped a few. Rex dropped a bunch. Maybe the problem has been Kreutz all along. I remember Jim Miller talking about Olin on the radio a few years back, on how he's really low to the ground and doesn't always place the ball in the QB's hands efficiently. Maybe our 7-time Pro Bowl Center is just a shitty snapper, though that does seem like a bit of an oxymoron.
Matt Forte busted out today, though to say his problems are over would be disingenuous. He had a 120 yards and a TD, but 100 of those yards came on 2 runs. He averaged only 2.0 ypc the rest of the game. Am I complaining? Maybe a little. I'd just like to see some more consistency.
WRs did all right, though they got banged up some. Both Hester and Knox had to leave the game early, resulting in a Rashied Davis sighting. Hopefully they'll both be fine after the bye. I'm really starting to dig Knox. He's not a "number one" like Megatron or anything, but he's made at least one huge play in all four games of his career. Great draft pick.

Absolute garbage in the first half. Stafford, a rookie, consistently converted huge 3rd downs. Yes, Calvin Johnson is a man among boys, but still. Can't you effectively double him?
The D did show up in the second half, thankfully. Lance Briggs was all over the place. Alex Brown, Adewale Ogunleye...even Tommie Harris had a huge pick. And speaking of Ogunleye, they seriously ought to consider signing him to a series of one-year deals. If he played every year like it was a contract year, he'd be a hall of famer.

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