Bear Down Baffa

So, apparently there is a God after all.  And apparently, he’s a Green Bay Packer fan.

God Ends Bear’s 2010 Season

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It’s the best weekend in football, the conference semi-finals.  Four teams coming off playoff wins at four teams coming off bye weeks.  And this season, all four games were rematches in the same stadiums as their regular season match-ups.  The two AFC games were division rivalries with 49 wins between them.  And the two NFC games bring us another division rivalry in the conference championship, what will be the most anticipated non-Super Bowl game in the history of the NFL – Chicago and Green Bay for the NFC crown.  I think it moved.

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It was a matchup of the oldest rivalry in the NFL in a city where there’s nothing to do but drink beer, eat cheese and watch football.  This rivalry has brought us 181 regular season games (which the Bears lead 92-83-6) but only one playoff game (which the Bears won 33-14 in 1941).  It involves 21 championships (Green Bay 12, Chicago 9) and 50 playoff appearances (25 each).  It has always been played in GB or Chicago (except for one game in Milwaukee in ’74 and one in Champaign in ‘02).  It brought us a 61-7 Bear victory (‘80), a GB 10-game winning streak (’94-’98), and the Charles Martin incident (’86).  And it has given us the two greatest players in history in Bret Fahrvergnügen and Walter Payton, and the two most important NFL men in Vince Lombardi and George Halas.

Lombardi and Halas

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So much for the battle of two highly-touted defenses and two under-producing offenses.  The Bears and Jets forced the scorekeepers to earn their pay, combining for 72 points – 59 in the middle two quarters alone – in a barnburner despite snow flurries and sub-freezing temperatures.  When the smoked cleared, the Bears had handed the Jets their third loss in four games.  And with all the crap the Not-So-Sexy-Rexy Jets coach has spouted, the Bears forced him to put his wife’s foot in his mouth.  And though capturing that on film is nothing new, this version will be watched by a completely different contingent of viewers.

Johnny Knox(ville) Scores First of 2 TD’s

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After all the hoopla with the stadium change, Bret Fahrvergnügen going from “out” to “questionable” to “starting,” getting crushed in similar weather last week, and playing on a Monday Night when we rarely do well, the Bears gave us an early Festivus present.  Knocking old #4 out of the game (both this game and quite possibly the game of football altogether), we clinched our first division title in 4 years, and earned an automatic birth in the Super Bowl.  Suck it, Green Bay!

2010 NFC North Division Champs!

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Last week Jay Cutler clinched his first winning season since his days at Heritage Hills High.  This week, he played like he was still in grade school.  Going into this game, I was under no misconception that the Bears had a chance to win.  But when I stepped out into the white wash that blanketed the Midwest as I headed down to Soldierz Field for the first time this season, I certainly didn’t think we’d incur the worst first half shellacking in the history of the Bears franchise.  We had the opportunity to take down a monster, and the wind and snow gave us a huge advantage in taming the inferno that is Tom Brady.  But we went out and got man-handled like Sarah Palin facing off against common sense in a dark alley.

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You can only beat the team in front of you on any given Sunday.  Well the Bears have now done that 5 weeks in a row.  And as we all start putting up our aluminum poles (with its “very high strength-to-weight ratio”) and prepping for Festivus, our 9-3 record gives us plenty to celebrate.  Though our last 5 opponents are a combined 23-37 (.383) and Detroit started a 3rd string QB with only 104 NFL passes under his helmet, a W is always a good thing – unless of course you’re talking about Hurricane Katrina or Iraq.  The Bears just won’t be hoisting any “Mission Accomplished” banners just yet.

Photo of My Uncle who Went Lion Hunting on Sunday

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The Bears came up big in our biggest challenge of the season.  Facing what some were calling the best team in the NFC (and certainly a dangerous offense with big play potential), the Bears played their best all-around game this year.  Bear players downplayed this being a statement game, but there’s no way around it – we put ourselves on the map Sunday.  And we beat the Eagles at their own game – we had 4 plays of at least 30 yards, Philly had 0.  You better start making your Supa Bow plans…

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In a game that Miami should have forfeited because they had more injuries than an emergency room on a Saturday night on Chicago’s South Side, the Bears absolutely dominated them.  Miami spent as little time in Bear territory as Lindsay Lohan spent in prison, and we pitched our first shutout in over 4 years, giving Miami only its second goose egg at home in 40 years.  For the third time in a row, we looked really good against a bad team.  And again, there’s really not much to celebrate other than the W – our third in 12 days.

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In a match-up that would lead to one team’s season ending, the Bears came up big time and not only kept their season alive, but revitalized it.  Despite 11 penalties, we put together a well balanced attack and took down a beast in both Favre and Peterson.  It seems hard to believe at this point in the season, but we haven’t lost in 3 weeks, and are now 3-0 in the division.  And the winning streak now stands at 2!   (more…)

Despite playing north of the US border, the Bears “hung on” to win against the only remaining winless team in the NFL, the now 0-8 Bills.  If we had performed like this against a good team, I’d be impressed.  But against a team whose last win came on Jan. 3, there’s not much to celebrate – other than the fact that we picked up our first W in four weeks, and that we’re now 5-3 instead of 4-4.   (more…)

Coulda, shoulda, woulda.  I gotta be honest, I’m sick of this season already.  Dropping good passes, throwing bad passes and throwing passes to the other team were the only things the Bears did well on Sunday, and they led to us beating ourselves yet again.  At 4-3, our record is slowly and surely crawling back down to reality.  And that reality seems to mean a 5-11 season.   (more…)

A seahawk somehow managed to take down a grizzly bear in Chicago on Sunday.  What’s next, is a pigeon going to eat an elephant?  The Bears blew another game, and lost for surprisingly only the second time this year.  And to a 2-2 team that lost to Orton’s lowly 2-4 Broncos, and who’s two wins came against the winless-until-today 9ers and the now 2-4 Chargers.  WTF!?  I’d like to blame someone, but with so much blame going to the players and coaches in recent weeks, I’m going to put this one on the fans.  Yeah, that’s right, I’m calling YOU out!   (more…)

It was like a Pop Warner game in a blizzard – neither team could throw the ball.  Except it was gorgeous out and there were highly-paid players tasked with doing just that.  I think this game would have been better if they had made it a “Let the Fans Play QB Day.”  They could have called out a seat number, let that fan run down the stands to the field (much like the audience does on The Price Is Right), suit ‘em up and let ‘er rip.   (more…)

Plain and simple, the Bears got they ass whooped.  Again.  Only this time, they scored fewer points and actually lost.  And it was an ass whoopin’ both figuratively and literally.  They were beaten in every aspect of the game, and battered like Guantanamo Bay prisoners.  And it’s about time!  Realistically, we haven’t beaten anybody yet.  And on Sunday night, it was like the dealer who’d been giving us free crack for three weeks came to collect – and we didn’t have any cash.   (more…)

Ho-ly Shit!  After being dominated in their last four match-ups, the Bears beat the Fudge Packers on a Monday night, becoming the only unbeaten team in the NFC.  That’s two NFC title contenders we’ve beaten in back to back weeks after “losing” to the worst NFC team on opening day.  It sure didn’t hurt that GB had more penalties (18) than they did points (17).  And after GB set a team record for penalties in a game, the NFL is considering changing the color of the yellow penalty flag to yellow and green.   (more…)

The Chicago Bears are officially back in business.  Unlike Joaquin Phoenix’s hip hop career, we are for reals.  Coming from behind twice against a solid Dallas defense, we were able to hold on and win for the second week in a row.  And this week’s win wasn’t due to a bad call at home against a terrible team without their starting QB – it was on the road against a Pro Bowl QB and what some experts called the NFC Super Bowl favorite.  Don’t look now but the Bears have won 4 in a row, and are tied with GB for first place at 2-0.   (more…)

The Bears were saved by an overturned Lion TD pass with less than a minute to play.  I don’t understand this new rule, but apparently in order for a pass to be considered complete, a receiver who goes into the air for a ball must maintain possession after he lands, stuff it in his pants, pull it out his sock and carry it onto the team bus.   (more…)