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Bears Mon Dec 28 2009
Footballic Ramblings: Bears Stun Selves, World, Beat Vikings
It was a little late to be deemed a "Christmas Miracle!" in the spirit of those hokey Yuletide cartoons, but the Bears did pull off an improbable and inspired victory against the divisional overlords, the Minnesota Vikings. Season-saving? No. Coach-saving? Still, no, we can fully expect that Ron Turner is shown the exit door, tout de suite, following the Bears last game next weekend in Detroit. But did it feel good for one frosty night to witness what Jay Cutler can do when he has an iota of protection and receivers that are ready to play? Hell and yes. Did it feel good to watch an aggressive defensive line shut down the Vikings much-mythologized Brett Favre and watch him get sacked on successive plays in overtime to give Cutler another chance to win the game, again, Hell and yes.
For the first time in months the Bears linemen dominated the opposition and forced the action on both sides of the ball. "Only" three sacks might show up in the box score, but Favre was harried all night long and was hit or knocked down another five times. Meanwhile, there were six tackles for loss and the Bears contained Adrian Peterson as well as you can contain the Herculean Purple Jesus.
The plaudits don't even end with the much-maligned offensive and defensive lines. The special teams play was incredible --Frankly, this was an entirely different Bears team than what has been seen for the other games. Lightning bolts up arses? Who knows, but it worked-- Danieal Manning (134 yards of returns) was handing Cutler and the offense gift-wrapped boxes of precious field position all game long and Cutler, for all his INTs, knows exactly what to do with excellent field position and more than a count of "One Mississippi ...SACK!" Cutler-Bot 5000 was his exacting and secondary-destroying self as he tossed four touchdowns; coolly avoiding pressure and slicing apart whatever formations the Vikings were throwing his way, en route to 273 yards of passing. Meanwhile, Cutler may have finally found a receiver with deep threat potential and the steady hands to match. Devin Aromashodu, he's been dinged up a LOT and buried on the roster, so don't worry if you can't recognize him. Aromashodu has caught at least seven passes and a TD in 2 of his last three games. Last night he went into full-on "Hero-mode" as he reeled in a staggering 150 yards and the game-winning touchdown in overtime. The 150 yards in receiving? yeah, that's easily the highest-single game yardage total for a Bears receiver all season long. This portends something vaguely positive for Cutler and the Bears offense into the future...
The Bears wrap up the season next week with a trip to MoTown to face Megatron and the Detroit Lions. Will the Bears win? Tune in Sunday!
