Bear Down Baffa

Yes, the Bears found a way NOT to lose Sunday night, playing four quarters of NFL football like they’re expected to.  They held on to win 24-20 despite never leading by more than 7.  I got to watch it sitting in the South end zone next to some guy named Mark who was so drunk, I was embarrassed for him – yes ME, embarrassed for HIM!  He could hardly sit, stand or form words – or at least words anyone could comprehend.  I was with Chris and the Zito’s, who flew in from FloRida (BIG Bear fans) as they do every year, and a couple of nappy-headed ho Philly fans.  Well, one wasn’t a ho, but only because she married a Zito.  The front of her t-shirt read “Eagles by Blood,” and the back, “Bears by Submission.”  Pretty solid. 

But her sister wore an Eagle hat, spoke with a potty-mouth and a Philly accent, and was ill-behaved most of the game.  Afterwards, she was quite the sore loser, getting arrested while taking on two horseback cops when one joked that he was there to protect the Philly fans from themselves.  She said something about her balls being bigger than his, and she went at him.  It was on – for about three seconds.  They probably would have let her go if she hadn’t tried to bite them, or if she hadn’t pulled that blade. 

So I apologize for the delay in getting to this week’s post, but I didn’t get home from the game until midnight, and then we had the SOX extended season Monday and Tuesday.  I just couldn’t focus long enough to get er done.  And I didn’t want to post crap just to have something up here – I’d rather wait a couple days and then post crap after I’ve had time to really think about it.  And now that I’ve thought about it, I think we’re in pretty good shape – at least until Sunday.  Our defense showed up, and that was the minimum we needed to salvage our season.  But that’s just what we did.  And even though we kind of fell apart offensively and almost blew it, we didn’t.  And sometimes that’s all it takes to get the doubl-ya.

So we’re back to .500 at 2-2, and we’re tied for first.  So I can’t help but acknowledge one thing: despite the fact that we in no way, shape or form want this blog to be associated with the losebag Loveable Losebags, that brings to three the number of Chicago teams currently in first place.  And three teams now playing in Rocktober! I read that it’s the first time in 100 years that both baseball teams made the post season, so I guess it’s the first time in 100 years that all three are playing this late in the year.  So enjoy it because it probably won’t last past the weekend.

But what an exciting game, with stellar defense in the end with the game on the line.  We passed a crucial test when we stopped Philly on the four most critical plays of the game – from first and goal on our 4 with 5½ minutes left and a 4-point lead (translation: Philly had to go for the TD).  Our defense showed signs that it ain’t ready to die yet when they stuffed them on second, third and fourth down runs – all from the 1 – as two minutes ran off the clock.  Rookie Matt “O-Tay” Forte then gained the biggest first down of his career, sealing the deal like a roofie dropped in Paris Hilton’s Perrier.  But it was a complete team effort defensively, and it gives hope that the Bears are who we thought they were.  And that they can be good enough even without Tommie Harris.

And how about Mike Brown and Dusty Dvoracek surviving four full games already?  Their injuries have almost become an after-thought, especially after seeing the brilliant Brown back to his old ways of punishing those who dare carry the ball in his path.  But when you combine the two, it’s like eight games, which means one of them is going down soon.  Our staff took a poll of 14,643 fans: 94% think one of them will get hurt before game-time Sunday, 47% think both will go down before game’s end and 23% think the tandem would beat either Presidential and VP candidates in a debate, though it’s dead even on whether they’d be more qualified to handle national defense issues based on their time spent on the gridiron.

Reportin and Retortin on Orton
For the first time in 7 games, Kyle “Captain’s ‘C’ Sportin” Orton’s QB Rating was lower than the opposing QB (77.5 to 75.5) even though he was 15 of 24 for 174 yards and a career-high 3 TD’s (3 times as many as McNabb) in the first half, when he had a QBR of 106.6 (and that’s not a misprint, that’s a fever so hot you could die!).  But he threw 2 INT’s and was charged with 2 fumbles, 3 of those turn-overs coming in an 11-minute window in the third quarter.  You’d have thought he was literally trying to give the game away. With the win, he moves to 14-8 (64%) as a starter, but I’d have to say we won this one in spite of him.  But we won, so fuckin aye!

Super Bowl, Super Defense!

© 2008

This entry was posted on Wed, Oct 1, 2008 at 9:19 pm and is filed under m) 2008 Posts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.