Apparently, it was all a mirage. How else can you explain the one thing Bears fans knew they could hang their hats on crumbling into a heap before their very eyes. Going into Sunday’s game with Carolina you knew one thing absolutely. The Bears defense would keep them in the game. If they lost it would be because they just couldn’t score any points.
We’d seen it all year long. Watched a defense so good, so relentless, so efficient that they didn’t just stop teams from scoring, chances were they’d outscore the other team by themselves.
On Sunday there was no sign of that defense. In its place was one that spent the first half wobbling and looking like it was about to get completely knocked out, and in the second half when incredibly, the offense stepped up with three long, competent scoring drives, the defense could never answer the call. When the Bears cut the lead to two on two different occasions, the defense merely needed a stop to give the offense a chance to get the lead for the first time all day. They never even came close.
Actually, that’s not entirely true. For all of the plays that will be seared on our cortex for years to come (Steve Smith watching Charles Tillman make face down snow angels in the dirt, Chris Thompson (who?) waving goodbye to Smith, Mike Green being so fooled on an end around to Smith that he tried to tackle one of the officials, Desmond Clark running a four yard pattern on third and five with less than :50 left in the game), you could argue that the biggest play of the game came on Carolina’s second possession of the second half.
The Bears had cut the lead to 16-14 on their first possession of the second half. It was their second straight real-live scoring drive and momentum had swung back towards the Bears. The defense finally forced Carolina to punt and then after a false start derailed the Bears next possession, they actually got a good punt out of Brad Maynard.
Wait, scratch that. They got a good bounce on a punt by Brad Maynard. He shanked another one but it rolled 27 yards before dying on the Panthers’ 44.
Here is where, in my mind, the biggest lost opportunity was for the Bears.
The Panthers drive started with Tillman getting called for defensive holding. This was progress because it was the first time he’d touched Steve Smith all night. Then Nick Goings ran for three yards. The Bears threw Smith for a two yard loss on a screen pass on the next play. It was third and nine on the 50. The first third and long the Bears had forced since the Packers game.
Before the snap, somebody moved. Maybe it was a Panther maybe it was the Bears. The Bears decided it was the Panthers and didn’t bother to keep on playing. Jake Delhomme threw a quick out to Smith who broke it for 21 yards. Turns out the flag was on Walleye Ogunleye. First down Panthers. Why did the Bears quit? That was a question we could have asked all night.
The next play got the crowd all revved up. Brian Urlacher blitzed up the middle and was all over Delhomme who turned and flipped the ball to his fullback for a ten yard loss.
Then, the Bears thought it would be a fun time for Chris Thompson to take a shot at Steve Smith. Jake Delhomme nearly crapped himself with excitement when he looked over and saw a guy he’d never heard of on the best player in football right now. One play and 39 yards later it was 23-14 and it never got any better.
If the Bears keep playing on third and nine and don’t give up a first down, then at the worst it’s third and four after the penalty. How would that have turned out? We’ll never know. But on a day when the unthinkable happened routinely, it’d been nice if the inexcusable hadn’t.
Just like in the Peyton Manning press conference, there was plenty of blame to go around.
Mostly, the scapegoat will be Charles Tillman. Is that fair? Should he be singled out?
Yes.
He wasn’t just bad, he was awful. The tone was set on the second play of the game when he did that weird “I’ll try to hit Smith with my ass” move, then fell down and watched Smith go 58 yards for a score. Oh, that was just great.
But Tillman’s day never got better. He couldn’t tackle even when he finally gave up catches where his man wasn’t already six yards behind him. He acted like he was hurt for most of the second half. He was a deer in the headlights.
Here’s a question we all asked repeatedly at our TVs during the game. Why couldn’t the Bears just put Pro Bowler Nate Vasher on Steve Smith? Even in junior tackle football you can tell a guy, “OK, find 89 and then line up across from him on every play.” Apparently, the Bears are not as sophisticated as many junior tackle teams.
The Bears gave us some bullshit explanation about how all the Panthers would have had to have done then is run crossing patters to get Smith away from Vasher anyway. Well, you know what? Maybe those crossing patterns would have taken long enough for a pass rusher to get to Jake once and a while? Nah, that’s just crazy. Better just let him line up across from superstars like Tillman and Thompson all day. That way he can just take quick passes all day and singlehandedly kill the Bears.
Speaking of the pass rush, even on plays when Delhomme held onto the ball for more than half a second they were nowhere to be found.
Sure, the Bears had their share of bad luck. DeShaun Foster fumbled, incredibly off the ground at full speed and back into his hands. Delhomme fumbled to himself, too. But the fact is that the Bears didn’t make enough plays on defense. Urlacher made one great play on his interception, but was MIA most of the game.
Mike Brown hurt his calf, again. And that meant lots of Mike Green, which is never a good thing. Twice he failed to get deep enough to stop slants to Smith, when replays showed the Bears defense was set up for the corner to stop just that route. On the key end around to Smith, Green was completely lost.
Offensively, the Bears put together three of their best drives of the season. They had scoring drives of nine, eight and 11 plays that covered 67, 68 and 66 yards and lasted 4:29, 3:39 and 4:44.
They also spent the first quarter and a half looking like Terry Shea and John Shoop had buddied up to create a gameplan.
All their slow start did was to encourage dopes who thought that not playing Rex Grossman in the Minnesota game was criminal. The Vikings aren’t the Panthers, and while Grossman did get off to a lousy start, he only made one horrific throw during that stretch. He could have used a little help from his recievers who dropped four of his first seven passes.
The Bears did get away from the running game. In fact, in the early going it looked like Carolina and the Bears had the same gameplan. The difference of course is that the Panthers have Steve Smith, while the Bears just have the fraud who is Muhsin Muhammad.
On the final drive of the first half, the Bears offense finally got a clue. Grossman hit five straight passes and since Muhammad showed no inclination to make any plays Bernard Berrian had to step up and get it done.
Unfortunately, on the Bears scoring drive to open the second half, Berrian had his hip replaced by Panthers safety Mike Minter. That resulted in Nate Vasher finally getting to return punts. Sure, he can do that, but God forbid he be asked to cover the best player on the field. Nah, that’s crazy!
I knew things were bad when Dusty Baker said on Friday that he’d talked to Lovie Smith. Dusty must have rubbed off on Lovie. I half expected to see Neifi Perez out there trying to cover Steve Smith.
You had to love the end of the game though. Not only did the Bears catch a “break” when the officials missed a delay of game on third and long (only the Bears get away with it and then throw an interception), but when they finally got their three and out on defense the offense goes back to work with Muhammad, Justin Gage and the great Eddie Berlin as the wideouts.
On third and five, with no timeouts left, what does Desmond Clark do? He runs a five yard in pattern, only he only goes four yards and is tackled short of the first down with less than :50 left in the game. The Bears can’t kill the clock with a spike play. They can’t call time out. So they have to run a play and have to pass on fourth and one. Thanks, Des. Nice job.
Today, Lovie is all smiles. He feels like the Bears are headed in the right direction. They were 5-11 last year and now they are 11-6. Twenty-one of the 22 players who started on Sunday are under contract for next year and the one who isn’t, Helen Huntermeyer wants to come back. Though really, that’s a spot where the Bears need to upgrade.
But I can’t help worry that like the Cubs in 2003, the Bears just blew their best opportunity to win something. The NFC was down this year, the two “best” teams in the AFC both crapped out in the second round. The Bears stood an excellent shot of winning in Seattle and getting to the Super Bowl.
You could be better next year and have a harder road to the Super Bowl.
But how could the Bears lose when the offense scored 21 points for them? Guh.
As I told Andy and Sloth, Tom Shaer and Chuck are in select company, each serving as school board members in my district. Shaer is/was on the high school district, so the two never clashed in a board meeting.
Did I get any love at the Cubs Convention? For old times sake, you know.
I’m real clever. Like the headline to the latest blog posting? “The Smiths, By Morrissey.” This shows that while I’m aging and boring to read, I’m hip just like all you kids. I bet Kelly Dwyer couldn’t come up with that kind of word-play.
I don’t know Ed, but I was trying for all the Cub love I could get. Unfortunately, no lady wanted to hear about my exploits at Prospect High School in 1967.
Isn’t Fat Lance Canadian?
Look at Murton ride that mechanical bull! Wheeeeee!
“Um, Carlos, can you, um, talk to this guy? I, um, have to move my car… it’s double-parked.. I have to ask Hendry if I’ve been traded yet… I’ve got dinner reservations in 15 minutes… I have to go kick Jim Edmonds’ ass for you.”
Pure hilarity. What a boner.
I will confess my ignorance. I don’t know who Tom Shaer is (was). Is that a good thing not to know?
Tom Shaer (1997): Look alive! (Even though he was on radio)
Tom Shaer (2007): Streetwise!
I’m from Texas. Born in Waco, played at Rice U.
Tom Shaer was a sports anchor on Channel 5 for several years, well known for a few things: 1) his indestructable hair, 2) his pompousity and absolute lack of hipness, 3) lying about his age, and 4) not always having the facts straight. Soon afterwards, he gave all that up for sports radio (smooth move, Ex Lax) and he doesn’t even have that anymore.
Looks like Matt Murton wants to audition for Brokeback Mountain Part 2…..
Might I add, Sloth?…
Back when the SCORE first aired (Jan. ’92), it was very refreshing. Guys who have since grown WAY too big for their britches–namely Mike Murphy and the 800 lb. gorilla himself Mike North– were great to listen to because they were regular guys. This is before North hit 1,000 free lunches and a 7 figure salary, of course.
Anyway, the SCORE felt the need to balance this proletariat lineup by including one seasoned broadcaster. And they could not get a more irregular guy than the dolt Tom Shaer. His morning show was horrible. He told callers to “look alive!’ even though, as I noted above, he was on radio. His regular bits were exercises in utter banality– the “24-second shot clock” where callers could take a swipe at whomever they pleased. Not wanting to be known as nasty, evidently, Shaer also had his “schmooze patrol” which may have been the worst regular bit in the history of human beings. Callers would phone in and actually do the opposite of the “shot clock” and kiss someone’s ass. Who the hell wants to listen to that?
Anyway, it was the biggest dorkfest in Chicago radio history. That’s saying a lot in a town that also boasts “Eric and Kathy”. As bad as the SCORE is today, as guys like North and Murphy have become mockeries of themselves and have clearly lost their cachet as “regular guys” (Murph not so much as North), it’s easy to forget how bad it was with Tom Shaer.
That story is gold, Andy, but I need closure. Did he get away without paying for the shoeshine, or what? Inquiring minds want to know.
Grossman was lousy for 3 quarters of the game. His numbers were lousy and he played lousy when the game was on the line.
Bill Simmons, I’m coming after you!
http://deadspin.com/sports/espn/isiah-thomas-bill-simmons-quien-es-mas-macho-149091.php
I saw this comin’, my guy Orton was the Bears MVP and they sank like a ton of bricks without him in the playoffs.
Shaer is ex of the 225 board. He and I have only clashed in the checkout line at Costco.
I did once check out a house that was for sale in Deerfield. While I was touring the home, so was Mike Lederman.
Never saw Greg Gumble or Mike Adamle. Chet Coppock and his fur are spotted occasionally in Glenview.
That’s about it for WMAQ sports anchors.
Unless you include TJ trying to get Giangreco to host the charity golf outing we’re working on next fall…
You know, if we’d gotten Furcal, we probably could have had Pierre for used jockstraps.
When I was in high school I worked at the Wheaton Men’s Wearhouse. This turd with crooked teeth and an outfit that was almost a disguise (hat pulled down over his face, sunglasses always on) used to come in right when we opened and would only shop with a woman. I made a point to ring up his purchase one day, and the name on his credit card was none other than Howard Sudberry! He stayed away from having a man help him, because, he told my manager, he didn’t want to talk sports with “some guy”. Anyway, after we discovered we had a major celebrity in our midst, he clearly couldn’t shop there anymore. It’s not the Shaer story, but it’s all I got.
Chuck,
I was thinking of getting Jon Kelley to return to Chicago to emcee the event.
We have our first names on our jerseys so you can tell us apart.
If I say “inside information” in that stupid voice one more time, I need to be kicked in the throat.
Todd and Tank, you can put that on your jerseys (respectively) too so we can tell you apart.
great line, andy;
“But on a day when the unthinkable happened routinely, it’d been nice if the inexcusable hadn’t.”
I am so relieved to find out that Tom Shaer is not someone important like the Secretary of State or a Supreme Court nominee or my congressman.
Word Up. As in Cameo.
I once called the Celtics Dee Brown “Reggie Lewis” on a telecast, well after Lewis had died. I’m a dumbass.
Without a good bunch of me, Jon Kelley is El Retardo. At NBC-5, he made Mike Adamle’s oratorial skills seem like Mario Cuomo’s. Once he went national, he wasn’t so bad, once a team of slick producers was able to prop his inarticulate ass up.
So are you trying to tell me that he’d make a lousy auctioneer?
Can I really do whatever I want during Spring Training?
Yes.
I can’t stand the Smiths. Johnny Marr played some pretty cool guitars, though …
I resent the inference that I’m Dumbass Du Jour. You guys gave all the credit for the defense to Lovie, now he can take all of your blame. Rivera out.
We have no pride at all. George Knue looks down on Desipio, but methinks he stole a commenter’s idea to caption Matt Murton’s mechanical bull photo.
We suck.
Oh they better not do that to my photo! The Tribune company is PLAIGIRIZING!
You’re right 35, we suck as a whole. Just pathetic.
I am one annoying, sassy, classless bitch. I should learn to shut my mouth. I didn’t get near what I deserved and my hubby should be suspended for 20 games, stripped of his Players Association title, and fined $100,000.
1…2…3.. “WE’RE HAPPY FOR YOU”!!!!
I have officially become a train wreck. It’s a shame I suck so badly now.
you guys realize I was beaten by “the best play maker in football”, according to Urlacher. I would like to see any of you try to cover Smith while I was on my ass eating dirt. Besides, Andy was right, my mind was on something else, another one of my hoe’s told me the night before that she was pregnant. So now I will have 8 little bastard mouths to feed!
we will not win a playoff game either.
If you don’t like recent vintage, you can always fall back on the brilliance of the Sox Train Wreck thread and ask Mike D if he’s moved into the trailer as vowed.
Good times.
Aww fuck I did say that, didn’t I? Boy, is my wife gonna be pissed.
Thanks, EF.
Guess we blew our load on you guys.
I’m back, bee-yotches!
Michael who?
Kobe scored more in the second half than we scored the entire game. Man we suck, thank God we have Kobe. Too bad this great year for Kobe will go all for not as we will be lucky if we last through the first round of the playoffs.