I know I’m not alone in this. With a couple minutes left in the first half, I was sitting in the living room, watching a team wearing the Bears’ uniforms and wondering where the real Bears had gone. For nine weeks and eight games, the Bears had run roughshod over the NFL. They even found a way to win the game they played worst in, until last week when the hapless Dolphins kicked their tails. Now a beaten up (and overrated when they’re healthy) Giants team was putting it to our beloveds.
I wondered if Brian Griese could six-yard pass the Bears back into the game. Mostly, I just hoped the Bears could figure out what was wrong sometime before they sleepwalked their way into a Wild Card Playoff Round defeat.
Then, they woke up. On third and 22, Thomas Jones got about six nice blocks, stopped dancing around waiting for a hole and just ran. Twenty-six yards later the Bears not only had a first down, they seemed to have new life.
Four plays later, Mark Bradley ran off the milk carton and into the end zone. 13-10 Giants.
The opening drive of the second half served as a return to the kind of football the Bears played to go 8-0. The offensive line started to push the Giants around. Muhsin Muhammad ran unfettered through the secondary. Rex stopped mindlessly dropping back and throwing rainbows off his back foot.
Moose would fumble inside the five, but the defense, which had woken up much earlier than the offense didn’t let the Giants out of jail. (In fact, they stopped Tiki Barber for a safety, but Ed Hochuli’s enormous pecs put the ball at the one anyway.) When the offense got the ball back they took aim at the end zone again and this time Moose didn’t fumble. 17-13 Bears. Alex Brown sacked Eli Manning while wearing Bob Whitfield like a cape, the ball rolled free and Walleye fell on it. Two plays later, Desmond Clark caught a two yard TD pass from Rex and it was 24-13.
Right about then, it was easy to feel pretty good about the Bears. The swagger was back, on the field, on the sidelines and in my living room. The Bears were back. Nothing could stop them now.
Until the Giants had third and eight on the next possession, found the annoying Jeremy Shockey for a first down, then Tiki ripped off a 46 yard run and Brandon Jacobs ran unmolested for a touchdown. Oops.
24-20. The score didn’t matter so much as how easy the Giants had scored. The Bears defense had clamped down for almost two full quarters and suddenly, it was gone. The Giants got the ball back and started driving. They ended up on the Bears 34. A third and fifteen went unconverted and the Giants seemed to left with this decision. Punt and pin the Bears deep, or go for it and if you miss it, they still only get the ball on the 34.
Incredibly, the Screamin’ Meemie that is Tom Coughlin sent fat little Jay Feely out to kick a 51 yard field goal. Everybody in the stadium knew he wasn’t going to make it. The Bears sent Devin Hester deep in case Jay didn’t even kick it past the end line.
Here’s where it got nutty.
Al Michels noted that if Feely missed, the ball would go back to the Bears at the point where the holder spotted the ball for the attempt (the Giants 41). That seemed like pretty cake field position since there was no way in hell this field goal was going to be good.
Feely kicked it and it was straight, but short. Hester caught it eight yards deep in the end zone. I was pissed because it looked like he was going to down it and cost the Bears 21 yards of field position.
I was wrong on two counts. Apparently, if you don’t try to advance a missed field goal attempt you can down it and take the ball at the spot. So if Hester took a knee in the end zone, the ball wouldn’t have gone to the 20, but to the 41. Didn’t know that, did you? Me neither.
Instead, Hester stood there looking for all the world like he was going to take a knee. Only he was waiting for two things to happen.
First, the Bears punt block team was trotting off the field towards their bench. Only the weren’t, they were actually setting up a wall of blockers for Devin to run behind. Second, some of the Giants saw Hester catch it and thought the play was over, they started to walk towards their bench. Hester paused, then hit the turbo button and made a mad dash for the sidelines. The Giants were completely screwed. Hester easily blew out past the 41, which made me happy, and then Cedric P’nut Tillman knocked Shaun O’Hara into next week, springing Hester for the easiest 108 yard touchdown in NFL history. (We know this to be true, because we saw the only other one a year ago today, when thanks to a wildly windblown kick and Niners who actually tried to tackle him, Nate Vasher ran about 180 yards on his 108 yard return.)
The game was effectively over, the Bears reminded the league that all three facets of their team are top notch and NFC supremacy was in the bag and ready for the return trip to Chicago.
The best part was the endless sea of reaction shots NBC showed us from the Giants. Jeremy Shockey looking like he wanted to cry. Plaxico Burress looking like he’d had enough of being driven through the turf by P’nut, Danieal Manning and Chris Harris. Tom Coughlin looking confused and throwing his laminated menu around like a six year old who didn’t get Crotch Rubbing Elmo (or whatever one is the big Holiday gift this year.)
The Giants had a lot of guys out for last night’s game. Some will say it wasn’t a true test. Screw them. The Bears are missing two pretty important players too, Mike Brown and Bernard Berrian, and you don’t hear them pissing and moaning about it. Football’s a game of attrition, and on this night, the Bears took the Giants best punch, smiled at them, spat out a tooth and commenced finishing the fight.
Dennis Green should have been there to add his analysis. The Bears are what we thought they were.
The best team in the NFC. They didn’t play like it all night, but the wakeup call came just in time, and when it did? The answer left little doubt.
John Madden gets paid what, eight million dollars? Why did he never point out that the effectiveness of the Giants defensive line was bound to wane as the game went on? The Giants were playing without their defensive ends (and unlike the Bears, they don’t have eight top notch defensive linemen on their roster), and backups are backups for a reason. They’re not as good as the starters. Plus, backups don’t get starter’s playing time. You knew they were going to tire out. New York played the first 28 minutes on adrenaline, and even then only played good offense for about four minutes of it.
They tried to hide RW McQuarters by having him blitz, since the world knows he can’t cover anybody, that worked for a while. Then the Bears started picking up the blitz correctly.
Remember how the Patriots won the Super Bowl against the Panthers by finding Terry Cousin on every play in the fourth quarter and throwing to whoever he was “covering?” The Bears found Jason Webster (who played a lot like Emmanuel Lewis) and did the same thing.
Mark Bradley showed up just in the nick of time. If he can stay healthy, the Bears could actually benefit in the long run by Berrian’s injury. Now they’ve got four quality wide receivers (and whatever Justin Gage is.)
Robbie Gould will miss, eventually. But it doesn’t have to be this year, right?
Peanut Tillman takes a lot of crap, but he’s played at a Pro Bowl level this year. Plaxico found out the hard way that Charles is the wrong guy to talk smack about. Actually, if you find the right guy on the Bears’ defense, let me know. You don’t dare to do it to anybody on the front seven (even Helen Huntermeyer) and you can’t do it to Nate Vasher. Danieal Manning seems to enjoy chasing guys down and pummeling them, Ricky Manning is likely to beat you to death with your laptop and Todd Johnson is a psychopath. Hell, even Cameron Worrell is insane (as he proves at the end of every kick return, just watch him, the boy ain’t right). The best bet when playing the Bears is to shut your big yapper and hope they don’t notice you. Plaxico won’t admit it, but he got his ass handed to him last night. And it was fun to watch.
The best thing about the win last night was that it reminds us what we knew all along. The Bears are good and we need to trust them. At least a little.
Tillman has gotten very little credit for his high level of play this year. He’s been a stronghold. If anything on D, it’s the run we should be worried about. You can really see MB’s absence.
How many missed tackles did I have? I counted at lest 5.
I got waxed on that field goal return.
Is my name Cedric now? Is this an inside joke I’m not grasping? You know, like Denny Theriot?
Todd, I think that’s why you got benched.
I counted 5 missed Todd Johnson tackles on the first two drives. Granted, not all of them were actual misses, a couple were where he was so out of position he didn’t get a chance to even miss.
The Bears biggest problem right now (other than the offenses love of giving the other team the ball inside the Bear’s 30), is that when running backs do break through the linebacker layer, the best shot at stopping them is somehow one of our lineman chasing the RB down from behind.
It’s turning those 5-10 yard runs with Brown in into 20-40 yard runs.
Pre
How about some love for me – starting on about the 30 and running with Hester the whole way, helping to knock O’Hara on his ass and then 10 yards later doing the same to Feely!
Nothing too say about us? Aren’t we worth your attention?
#8 – You’re only worth talking about if I am also signed, oh and maybe a starter or two. (Wade Miller doesn’t count)
I sure as hell hope my rib feels better, it’s pretty obvious I was the receiver that kept other defenses in check.
Not Jason but Corey Webster, I am ashamed to say. Former LSU standout getting torched. Damn.
i got benched? werent the bears just running the nickel and thats why chris harris was out there for the first time since the packers game?
We really do miss Mike Brown. Damn.
If you think my pecs are something, you really need to see my guns in short sleeves!
Where’s the love…..
My Troy Palomalu like concussion (the one that makes me fall off the bench after flunking the concussion test) causes me to refer to Charles as Cedric from time to time.
Didn’t Cedric Tillman play wideout for the Broncos? God, I’m a douche.
I’m not John Lynch. Hell, John Lynch isn’t even John Lynch these days. Time to ban whiteys from the secondary.
You are correct, Andy on a number of things.
Crotch Rubbing Elmo? Oh baby, it’s gonna be a Merry Fucking X-mas indeed!
Todd, you’re no John that’s for sure. You’re only a less stupid version of Cameron Worrell.
#15, there wasn’t an actual one of you on Sunday night. Granted, they found a way to call it anyway… but that wasn’t as egregiously bad of a call as the non-safety call. Tiki was pretty clearly stopped in the end zone, and never made it close to where Hochuli spotted the ball.
What, no Carrie Musk(r)at MailHag today?
Andy, you’ve been ripping the Giants all season, but the fact is, a healthy Giants team isn’t “overrated”. They are, at bottom, 2nd best team in the NFC, and, at best, certainly not a team that gets bullied around in the 2nd half like they did Sunday night.
Ey guys, Ey am going to play for the Cubs mang! Ey am your new second baseman!
Oh wait, I’m white.
Overrated? Who? Us?… No, not us.
Gould better not go perfect for the season. He should shank one in a blowout before the season’s over. Thou shalt not taunt the football gods, lest ye honk a game winner in the playoffs.
-Vanderjagt 3:16
its actually spelled VANDER JAG’D IT
Al and John earned their paychecks Sunday with their top-notch handling of the whole holding/fumble/fumble/review nonsense alone.
I could have told them before seeing a replay that it was coming back on a holding call, but there’s Al Michaels laboriously fumbling his way backwards through the “crazy” sequence of events, trying to wrap his brain around them. It took him seriously three minutes of talking to himself to realize it was essentially win-win for the Bears. (The only real question was whether Hochuli would make the right call under the hood on a surprisingly good challenge from Lovie… which he didn’t.)
And I’m still praying for NBC to snatch the Bears-Pats game from the neon claws of Buck-Aikman. (Lord am I praying.)
On the plus side… having a quality team apparently means not having to deal with Bill Maas. And that’s always A Good Thing.
Also… It should be noted that I’d really like to molest Paula Faris.
I know knackers all about football, but I enjoyed that dose.
Puts in a vote for not hearing the word “knackers” enough.
And more Tonk posts.
I’m back for 2 more years baby !!! Keep the fan club going strong !!!
I still haven’t happened, #28.
And shouldn’t the chapter & verse be:
Gary Anderson 3:16?
A ten-week old son and a slipped disc (me, not him) can really interfere with your posting, Slak, let me tell you. A slipped disc is a real pain in the knackers. How’s that for starters?
Nice to know I’ve been missed, though. Thanks, mate.