Bear Down Baffa

The “Who’s Your Daddy In” Cincinnati Bengals, who’ve made the playoffs the last two years, came to town as 3 point underdogs.  And they left as the first of what should be many NFL teams to lose to Marc Trestman.  Of the eight new NFL coaches, six played on Sunday (CHI, KC, AZ, JAX, BUF and CLE).  And Trestman was the only one of four rookie coach’s to win (the other two play Monday night, PHI and SD).  Maybe we should consult him on the situation in Syria.

Fans react when it is announced that the
Bear Down Baffa blog will continue this season

It’s nice having a coach that:  A) doesn’t call dumb challenges, B) doesn’t waste time-outs, C) doesn’t punt on 4th-and-inches, and D) can put points on the board when we get the ball with under a minute left in the first half.  Oh, and E) who’s undefeated.

1-0 baby, 1-0!

Balance Sheet
Not only do the Bears have a new coaching staff, they also have a new look on the field.  Remaining solid on defense, we’ve addressed our albatross of the last few years by filling out the O-Line.  We’ve been winning on one side of the ball for decades.  And after acquiring Marshall last year, we have arguably the best QB, RB and WR combo in the NFL.  All we needed was a solid O-Line to protect them.  And the way they played on Sunday, Emery may have pieced together the line we’ve been looking for – all in just one year.  This should balance us out so we can win on either side of the ball.  So we got that going for us.  Which is nice.

Compared to 2 years ago, there are a LOT of
new guys in on our offensive celebrations

A Battle of Two Halves
We fell behind 11 points after Cincy’s first drive of the second half, but we took control by holding onto the ball for 18 of the final 23 minutes, and scoring the last 14 points of the game.  In the first half, we were out-gained by almost 150 yards and gave up twice as many first downs (10-5) as we got.  But in the second, we flipped the script, out-gaining them by 125 yards and doubling their first downs (12-6).  After Cincy averaged over 7 yards a play through that first drive of the second half, we limited them to a total of 20 yards on 8 plays the rest of the way, turning the Bengals into Hello Kitty.

Wait, do we have a TE who can actually catch the ball now?!

Offense
We were out-gained both in the air and on the ground.  But make no mistake about it, Cincy is a top tier defense.  So with a brand new system and four new starters on our O-line (including two rookies), this was an unbelievable performance.  Cutler was not sacked once.  Yes, that is not a misprint; CUTLER WAS NOT SACKED ONCE.  In fact, he was hardly pressured or even hit.  If it weren’t for his 3 carries and some time running around celebrating, he might not have even needed a shower after the game.

Half of these 8 Bears could wind up being Pro Bowlers

Defense
We did yield some big yardage for almost half the game.  From the middle of the first quarter through the middle of the third, we allowed 5 straight drives that averaged over 60 yards and led to all 21 Bengal points.  But we had that shit on lockdown other than that.  Peanut “Butter Cups” Tillman had 2 INT’s, Tim “Waylon” Jennings recovered a fumble he caused, and Shea “McLovin” McClellin had a sack.  It seems as though not much has changed defensively – other than losing the greatest defensive player ever, that is.

Peanut returning yet another pick.  Yawn.

Special Teams
Devin “Are You Still Ridiculous?” Hester has yet to prove he’s what he once was, and he was a non-factor with Cincy only punting 4 times and leaving us with touchbacks on all but one kickoff that Hester returned for 31 yards.  But Robbie “Good As” Gould kicked a career, Bear and Soldierz Field long 58-yarder that wound up being the difference in the game, and earning bookies everywhere a small pot of “gould.”

Mmmm, Bear’s booties

Outlook
After beating a playoff-caliber team, we can’t imagine not looking to make a post season run.  It is early, yes, but so far we’re playing with balance, have virtually no holes in our game, and came from behind without the defense scoring.  The only weak spot (if you can call it that) is that we haven’t proven we can do it for the long haul.  But for the first time in years I can honestly say I like our squad’s chances more than 0-1 Green Bay’s.

We can expect good things with this super human
trifecta:  Trestman, Cutler and Emmanuel Lewis

Quotes to Note
Briggs to Trestman during a recent practice:  “Do you ever take your hat off?”  Trestman:  “If you had hair like mine, you’d never take your hat off.”

Someone needs to tell Briggs that his “Two in the Pink,
One in the Stink” celebration is no longer appropriate

Cutler:  “The guys up front did a heck of a job all day long.  I’m really proud of those guys.”

Cutler pulls a “Natural” – pointing to
where he’s going to throw his next TD

Marshall on the O-Line:  “That’s where it started and that’s where it ended.  All day.”

Kaner, Toews and the Champion Hawks showed
up to pass the torch to the next Chicago champion

Bengal’s A.J. Green:  “They didn’t stop us one time…they didn’t really stop us on offense.  We were doing whatever we wanted.  The biggest thing we had was turnovers.”  Really?  Cuz 4 punts and 3 turnovers count as 7 stops, Einstein.

Hey genius, who’s the only team to register a
sack Sunday?  And don’t sacks count as stops too?

Coach Trestman:  “I think it tested us and our backbone because it didn’t go the way we wanted it to go, certainly, in the first half.  But the guys hung in there together, at halftime pulled themselves together, and the team went out and played every play and were able to come out on top.”  OK, so he’s not the best sound biter (the jury is still out on whether he’s a pillow biter).  But this could be the start of something very special – perhaps even legendary.

Resemblance to Lombardi?  I think so.

#IsTrestmanAPillowBiter

BEAR DOWN!

© 2013

This entry was posted on Mon, Sep 9, 2013 at 3:32 pm and is filed under h) 2013 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.