Presenting Your 3-0 Chicago Bears

Well, if you'd told me that the Bears would be the lone remaining undefeated team in the NFC after defeating the highly-touted Packers on Monday Night Football after the debacle that was the 0-4 preseason, I might have laughed in your face.  But here they are, alone in first atop the NFC North and 3-0 going into tonight's match up against the Giants in the massive New Meadowlands Stadium.  Two weeks in a row now, the Bears have taken an early shot to the jaw, but have been able to stay composed, pick themselves up off the mat, and slowly but surely chip away at both the Cowboys and Packers, two preseason Super Bowl favorites.  Obviously this is not a trend we'd like to see continue, but it's good to see that this team can weather a storm.  

First things first in regards to this game: I've never seen a player so completely dominate a game the way Julius Peppers did without racking up a huge stat line.  He officially finished with just two tackles and a blocked kick, but he was simply a force.  At least five or six penalties on the Packers can be directly traced back to Peppers, including several of the most blatant holds I've ever seen.  After all that talk about the guy taking plays off in Carolina, I'm wondering if they were watching somebody else play, because more often than not Peppers is rushing the QB and then sprinting down field to help complete the play.  The guy's motor is amazing, at least through three games.  The game arguably turned on the sequence of events in the third quarter when a potential Aaron Rodgers TD pass was nullified due to a hold of Peppers, and then two plays later he blocked the Mason Crosby field goal attempt, basically single-handedly swinging momentum completely over to the Bears. Guy's been worth every penny of the 90 million thus far, even if he only has one sack.  Those will come, but his consistent play and the way he forces teams to game plan for him more than makes up the difference.

Great news to come out of this game - Devin Hester is back, and he is still ridiculous.

It was so very, very good to see him break a couple big returns off, first when he almost took a punt to the house only to be dragged down by the punter, then when he repaid the Packers by making damn sure he got in on this fourth quarter jaunt.  Good stuff by Devin - there were whispers that the coaching staff directed him to focus on just running the ball up field, because the last couple years have seen him try to be a little too fancy and dance around horizontally, only to be tackled for a meager gain or a loss.  On Monday night, he saw a hole and BOOM - see ya later.  Great to see that fifth gear that so few players have kick in and just burn down the field.  If he's anywhere near his old return self the rest of the season, that's a huge advantage for this offense - average starting field position should take a big upturn, so look for that in the weeks to come.  

Jay Cutler and Co. were not at their best, far from it, but they showed some moxie in coming up big when it mattered most.  Driving for a touchdown right before the half was huge, taking some good vibes into the locker room with them cannot be underestimated.  And on the final drive that culminated in yet another clutch Robbie Gould FG, Cutler and Olsen combined for a huge yard strike that dug them out of a 2nd and 20 situation, enabling the Gould heroics.  It's good to see them win a game when the Martz system is not clicking, because that's going to happen from time to time.  Jay even rebounded from throwing an early pick to put up a decent stat line.  Yes, he did actually throw a couple more, but they were nullified by penalties.  Gotta commend the guy for standing up in the pocket and taking a beating for a second straight week while still leading the team to a W.  I must say, I like the way he's seemingly matured under Martz - last year, after a start to the game like against Dallas or Green Bay, games tended to snowball and go against us, with turnovers, blowups, and whatnot.  Not the same story this year thus far - this can only mean good things going forward.

The defense as a whole played a decent game, never sacking Rodgers but also not giving up the big play that's burned them in the past.  They played the Cover-2 to perfection, giving up modest gains but never the back-breaker.  Sure, there were a couple 7+ minute drives that culminated in points, but against an offense with weapons like the Packers have, that's going to happen.  The linebackers were great again, and never more so than on the forced fumble late in the game that basically won it for us.  Urlacher and Briggs converged on the receiver, and while both were pile-driving him to the turf, 54 did his best Peanut Tillman impression and punched the ball out.  The football then took one of the better bounces I've ever seen, balancing itself nicely juuuust inside the sideline, allowing Tim Jennings to make a nice body-control play to recover the ball while keeping himself in-bounds.  A solid, bend-but-don't-break game for the D, which will do just fine if the offense continues its resurgence.

As for the Packers: we'll be seeing them again.  They're too good, too talented not to be there in the playoff conversation come December and January.  That Aaron Rodgers guy is GOOD - the real deal.  Kinda pisses me off that after 17 years of all-world play from some other guy who's still playing, they find their next Pro Bowler on their next try, while it's taken the Bears years and years to finally find a guy they think can be a franchise cornerstone at that position.  But no matter...we've got him now (we think).  Anyways, Rodgers was clinical in his dissection of the secondary, picking us apart underneath like it was his job (waitaminute...).  His throw to Greg Jennings on their first touchdown was a thing of beauty, zipping right past Urlacher's ear hole in a verrrry small window of opportunity.  The guy's gonna be a thorn in our side for quite some time, but there are definitely gonna be some good battles between him and Cutler.  And let's face it, Bears-Packers is never as good as when both teams are decent, let alone playoff quality.  That final-week match up at Lambeau could be a barn burner, what with the division crown potentially on the line.

The penalties were atrocious for the Pack, totaling 18 in all for over 150 yards against.  That's a jaw-dropping amount, and make no mistake, the Bears probably won this game due in large part to those 18 miscues.  A Super Bowl aspiring team cannot make that many mistakes - they may not commit 18 again, but even half that amount might be enough to turn the tide of an important late season or playoff game against them.  Something to watch for...

Who's this guy on the sidelines demanding accountability from his (so-called) stars and what has he done with Lovie Smith? This guy, the same guy who was the driving force behind the ill-fated Tommie Harris extension a few years back, benched Harris last week, not for discipline, but because he wasn't one of the 45 best players on the team that week.  Think about that...Harris was a 3 time Pro Bowler from 05-07 and was arguably the best 3-technique D-lineman in football, and less than five years later he's benched because there are 45 other guys who Lovie, the patron saint of veteran favoritism, thinks will help his team win.  Gotta say, I love the newfound accountability up at Halas Hall this year.  Maybe it's the playoffs-or-bust ultimatum, or the desperation Lovie had to be feeling going into this year with his job on the line, but he's doing things that were unheard of not three seasons ago.  Aside from Harris, Devin Aromashodu has seen virtually no offensive snaps after his great Week 1 performance due to poor practices and not learning the slot position in Martz's offense, and the team even cut some recent high-round draft picks in training camp (Juaqin Iglesias chief amongst them).  This type of decision-making is new to the organization in the Lovie/Jerry regime, and I like it a lot.  Do your job.  Earn your time.  That's how it should be.

Big game tonight in the Meadowlands.  This Giants team is reeling, having been browbeaten the last two weeks.  They're a mess, and the Bears should take advantage of that, perhaps for no bigger reason than this: if they win, they'd be 4-0 with a highly favorable schedule for the next month and half.  After tonight, they play at Carolina (0-4, a very young team with a rookie QB and no Steve Smith), home against Seattle (a Week 1 mirage, they got beat badly by St. Louis - St. Louis !! - this week), home against the Redskins (not an easy game, but they're definitely beatable, especially in Chicago), then their bye, then at Buffalo (the weakest team in the league).  Going off that, I'd say that 6-2/7-1 should happen, barring any catastrophes.  By weathering the early storm in their schedule, the Bears have set themselves up nicely to stockpile some wins in the first half of the year, wins they will certainly need once the second half starts and we have the top 3 in the AFC East, the Vikings in the Metrodome, and the Eagles, among others. 

A win tonight solidifies their status as a top team in the conference, and sets them on that road to the bye with at least 6 wins or more.  Should be a good one.  Enjoy Al and Cris, everybody