i've been fortunate enough to be in attendance for the last two games, and like, as an eternal bears pessimist who found last year to be some sort of a 2001-redux thing i didn't have sky high hopes for this season. sure, i've come around on lovie being a quality coach who manages to get a pretty damn good deal of quality performances out of largely mediocre-to-slightly-above-average talent and i'll even give you that this newschool "college of ex-head-coaches" thing is paying dividends, especially mike tice.... but like, after today i have to ask you guys what has happened to my beloved bears team and who the fuck is this football team i'm watching?!
they're good. i mean, they're solid... and they're legitimately good at football. case in point: today after the chargers take the ball to start the 3rd quarter and march down the field to tie the game @ 17, the bears get the ball back and proceed to answer with their own touchdown drive. roy williams, who elicited all kinds of caterwauls to the tune of "you fucking bum" when he dropped that pass on the opening drive (remember friends: if you're passing to roy will don't hit him in the hands. he's not good with that) but he made, IMHO, the play of the game when he converted that third-n-4 deep in the bears territory during their drive right after SD tied the game. once he made that catch, coupled with a slick rendition of his first down gesture, he caught a spark of something and proceeded to catch ~3-4 more balls on that drive, ending up with 5rec 62yds (no doubt i can tell my grandkids that i was at "the roy williams game" someday) and the bears put up a touchdown to respond and go up 24-17.
and then after peanut tillman does what he does, i.e. strip the ball from ryan mathews, the bears proceed to answer with another TD... but not just a pedestrian ho hum hey look kellen davis is falling backwards on his ass TD... nope, a proper play where the defenders have a hand on cutler, who steps up and lofts a ball PERFECTLY to the corner of the endzone putting it in a spot where it splits two defenders and can only be caught by johnny knox, who makes one hell of a grab to put the bears up 31-17 and essentially ice the game.
then in the 4th quarter when calamity seemed imminent after knox fell down and SD returned an INT to the ~10 yard line, major wright has his second HUGE game-icing INT in two weeks, and this one is in the endzone. then after a dumb penalty, the bears start on their 5 yard line and manage to take the clock down from ~9:30 left all the way down to ~1:50 left in the game!?! converting first downs like a good football team trying to ice a solid well-deserved victory?!?!
who the fuck are these guys in the bears uniforms? this is not the team i grew up with... this is not the team i've loved to bitch about for years... this is something else... something new. this is a quality outfit that seems to be getting better and better, i mean, even tho SD's d-line is banged up we had our 2nd game of hte season where cutler didn't get sacked (in fairness ,neither did rivers) and he's out there making all kinds of plays... excellent throws both in the pocket and on the bootleg... and like, in the end you're left with a wholly satisfying win that, for once, actually leaves you thinking "wow, this bears team is pretty damn good... and they're showing signs that they could get even better!"
it sucks that aaron rodgers has gone and typed in "iddqd" and hit enter, thus enabling god mode where his eyes light up sparkly gold and he can move down the football field at his own leisure, taking no damage or shoulder-dirt along the way... cuz like, seriously, this bears team could actually have a shot at doing something along the lines of making a run to the super bowl if the packer problem can be addressed. back in 2006, even tho it was fun, i never really had that "whoa, the bears are pretty damn good" feeling... sure devin was going off, sure the defense did what it does... but with rex and t-jones and CED (who got booed when the jumbotrons showed his statline of 15 rushes, 46 yards and 2TD or something) and that "i'm going to go outside and have a smoke and hope they score whilst i'm gone" offense you just knew that if the bears got down ~10 points in the 4th quarter there was no hope... there was no chance.
now, with a bonafide franchise quarterback and some receivers who are starting to have a clue about the martz offense and an o-line that is fully capable of running max protect ~95% of the time and shutting down banged up d-lines to the tune of 0 sacks, it's like... holy shit, we could get into the playoffs and have a chance. i could actually see this team pulling a miracle out of its ass if it had to cuz like.... they're good. they're actually good.
so let's hope that someone can take care of the packers, or maybe we have one of those all-time legendary games where we remember where we were when we saw it.... but regardless, forgive the babble... if you have a problem with my pointless meandering go fuck yourself! this bears team has impressed the hell out of me, and i've been fortunate enough to go to the atlanta, detroit, and now chargers games.... three games that i didn't think the bears were going to win (today would have been more of a letdown coupled with the chargers last gasp effort to make the playoffs) and they didn't just wi nthe games, they won all three of them in very solid convincing fashions... and well, i damn near almost bought one of those overpriced ditka shirts... or maybe i'll get the vintage ditka bears sweatervest so i can put the dress shirt under it, slick my hair back and do the shades and the 'stache.... cuz for once in my life, this seems to be a bears team that i can fully get behind and cheer for without having that perpetual creeping doubt borne of the bears being a one-year-wonder fluke of a team who you knew would eventually let you down in the clutch.... sure they prolly won't win the super bowl this year, but like, i'm going to enjoy the shit out of watching them play for as long as they can.... cuz right now, more than any time in my life, i'm damn proud to be a bears fan. my football team is kicking some ass and it's a joy to watch!!! bear the fuck down@#%$
_________________ Curious Hair wrote: Les Grobstein's huge hog is proof that God has a sense of humor, isn't it?
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