Bear Down Baffa

It was a good game.  Kind of exciting.  The Bears came out like a complete team for the first time in almost a year, and apparently all it took was dumping Conte.  We played better than probably even we expected, but in a story that’s become commonplace this time of year in Chicago, the better team pulled away before too long.  Though the final score was close, Green Bay put a fork in this one when they stepped on the field after the half.  They were better in preparation and execution from that point on.  But the Bears – at least for today –  are in third place in our division.  And if you’re a Cub fan, that makes this a winning season.

Pack lives matter

Recap
We started strong, scoring first and taking a 3-point lead for the third time at the end of the half.  But the Pack came out and returned the second half kickoff 46 yards, and then scored a quick TD, taking a 4-point lead.  Our response?  We wasted 7 minutes settling for a FG after Matt “The Sun Went Down When I Hit” Slauson got called for holding on 1st down just outside the redzone, despite us having gone 60 yards and converting 2 third downs.  We were simply out-gunned, and though some people may have forgotten that for an hour or so, everyone was quickly reminded of it.

This fucking guy

GB then played the slow jam by running, killing 9 minutes before scoring another TD, pushing the lead to 8.  So we did what any first year team would do – we panicked.  With 10 minutes left, we switched to our catch-up offense and stopped running, which we all know never works for us.  Cutler got lucky when Marquess “Lounge” Wilson turned a 10-yard completion into a 50-yarder, but after a subsequent 2nd-and-goal from the 2, Cutler threw 3 straight incompletions and we turned it over on downs.

THIS fucking guy

Our defense came up big though, forcing GB to punt after a quick 3-and-out, giving us the ball at midfield with 6 minutes left.  But after converting a 3rd-and-7 to Martellus “Because You Can’t Show Us” Bennett, giving us a first down at their 29, Cutler threw his only pick when Clay Matthews made a play on him.  It took GB only a minute and a half (and 2 Bear penalties) to extend the lead to 15 points with another TD, giving us the ball with under 2 minutes left.  It was THEN that Cutler chose to throw his only TD – with 34 seconds left, when the game was already over.

Even though he picked one off, it was pretty neat seeing
Matthews taking it from behind like we all know he prefers it

The Low Down
Our defense played much, much better than anyone could’ve asked.  And while overall we played well, nobody really stepped up and nobody really made any plays (save Wilson).  We held the Pack to 322 yards, but that was more about them being efficient than us stopping them, as they didn’t turn it over, only punted twice, and scored 4 TD’s and 1 FG on their other 5 drives.

Rodgers shows just how big the gap really is between him and Cutler

And though we only punted once (which Patrick “The Only Chicago Athlete Named Patrick WithOUT A Rape Charge” O’Donnell booted 56 yards!), we squeaked in 3 FG’s, and only scored 1 TD in the first 59-plus minutes – and that was aided by 3 GB penalties, including an offsides on a FG attempt that gave us a 1st-and-goal at the 5.  GB has never had a good defense, but they still go to the playoffs every year.  We can’t rely on bad defenses helping us; we need to be better offensively.

Cutler throwing another incompletion into double coverage

We committed to the run, but only in the first half when we rushed for 130 yards.  As if attempting to prove we still don’t know how to keep a lead – or a commitment – we then ran for less than half that in the second half.  And the passing game wasn’t nearly as reliable once we shifted gears.  Cutler’s timing was off with almost everyone, and receivers were dropping passes like they were Kim Davis’s name at a GOP rally.

It’s hard to get a Cutler pass and a Bear WR in the same shot

Matt “Being Unreliable In The Pass Game Must Be My New” Forte dropped at least 3 passes that hit both his hands.  That might explain why we gained more yards per run play (5.7) than per pass play (5.6).  I didn’t know that was logistically possible.  But while that balance bodes well for the longterm, we have to be able to pass the ball when we need to.  And that’s going to be hard to do against GB and A-A-Ron Rodgers.

If it had been a competition of helmets looking
like the Predator, we would’ve won handily

Rodgers threw only 5 incompletions with his 3 TD’s (he had 6 of each in last year’s blowout), while Cutler threw 18 incompletions, 1 TD and 1 INT.  When facing the Bears (dating back to 2008, when he had thrown only 60 NFL passes), Rodgers is 13-3 with 34 TD’s/10 INT’s.  As a Bear against GB (which dates back to 2009, when he’d already thrown 1,200 NFL passes), Cutler is now 1-11 with 14 TD’s/23 INT’s.  It’s never more obvious that Cutler is over-matched as it is when he faces Rodgers.

Alan “Have You Seen The” Ball is
having some trouble seeing the ball

While we did show a solid defensive turnaround from last year against a great QB, and we did gain over 400 yards (including going 11 for 17 on third downs), GB was also playing their first game of the year.  They committed 10 penalties, including 2 in the redzone on their lone FG drive, undoubtedly the only reason they didn’t score a fifth TD.

Do ya get it?  His last name is Ball, and the
one thing he can’t seem to find is the ball!

GB got the big kick return and the interception, they made more timely conversions, and they had a more balanced attack.  Well that and talent.  Rodgers is a douche-rod, but he is uber-talented.  And McCarthy knows how to put together and execute a game plan.

Fox to McCarthy: “I thought you said you’d go easy on us?”
McCarthy to Fox: “Uhm, we did.”

In all, considering how god-awful we were last year, that this was the first game under a new regime, and that it was against a perennial Super Bowl favorite and one of the best players in the league, I was slightly pleased.  I didn’t think we’d be in it after the first quarter, that we’d keep them under 40, or that we’d score in double digits.  Honestly, I wasn’t sure we’d come out on the field after pre-game warmups.  So I give us a solid B+.

Some fans asked Cutler for their money back

Doubtlook
Although this was our first game, we still don’t know who our stars are and we’re certainly not a completed project yet, what it comes down to is we need to make plays.  Was it a more respectable loss?  Yeah, sure.  And we were actually in it for more than half the game.  But it’s a loss nonetheless.  We may be more disciplined and play better than expected at this point, but it’s evident we’re headed for plenty of L’s; we just might keep the scores a bit closer than last year.

It’s easy to see why Mariani didn’t catch a pass on Sunday –
for the record, this was during pre-game warmups

Quotes of Note
Joe Buck on Rodgers: “So much fun to cover, so much fun to watch.” ~ He literally said those words.  I think Joe Buck wants to pull a Cosby on A-A-Ron.

Robbie “Good As” Gould is now officially our most
successful representation of offensive ineptitude

Matt “Apparently Throwing My Former Boss Under The Bus Is My New” Forte: “The mentality of this offense, which I’m proud of, is nobody had that stupid look on their face (when down multiple scores) like before…Before when something would happen, (it was like)…the game is lost already when there’s time left… (But today) we kept fighting.” ~ Ouch.  He’s not really mincing words here.

Goodell has enjoyed taking “ball inflation” to a new level,
with unannounced measurements using his own 2 hands

Matt “Pulling A ‘Forte’ Is My New Forte” Slauson: “(It’s good)…to have a coordinator that actually trusts us to run because we have the best back in the game.” ~ Apparently the Matts on our team have a problem with their former bosses.

‘Merica!  I live 3 miles from Soldierz, and I could
hear the fly over noise with my windows closed!

BEAR DOWN?

#TheRebuildHasBegun

© 2015

This entry was posted on Mon, Sep 14, 2015 at 4:15 pm and is filed under f) 2015 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.