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Bears Tue Sep 28 2010

Footballic Ramblings: The Rasputin Gene

Footballic_Ramblings2.jpg The Bears are going to be better than my predicted 6-10 record. How much better? I can't say. Playoffs? No, probably not, but hey, three wins in three attempts gets you somewhere. If Minnesota falters anymore and Brett Favre gets decapitated then opportunity will be knocking. The Packers are still going to win the NFC North and wow, wasn't the Monday Nighter a weird game? Bears fans surely will even concede that, yes? The Bears were outgained by a net 103 yards, which means nothing when you consider Green Bay's comical 18 penalties for a whopping 152 yards, which really is grounds for an LOLCat or something: "I IS IN YR BACKFIELD BEFORE THE SNAP" "Chuckle, chuckle, guffaw!"

But really how much longer can this wacky good fortune continue for the Monsters of the Midway? There's of course the flukey Detroit win wherein "there but for the grace of obscure rules and miasmic interpretation of said rules go the Bears." Then was the thorough handling of the Dallas Cowboys, who may be the most schizo team thus far in this nascent NFL season.

Then there was this Green Bay game.To be fair I watched the game under the fog of some nighttime severe cold and flu medicine and had to steady my head a time or two to recognize that yes, the Packers were giving the Bears a wrapped gift of a win. In spite of the meds (or maybe because of the meds?) 391px-Rasputin_pt.jpg I conjured up this notion of the 2010 Bears having the same quality of one Grigori Rasputin. You know, the impossible to kill Russian seer who had way too much sway within Tsar Nicholas' circle of influence? In any case, he was one bad mother who only surrendered to death's clammy, bony hand after eating enough cyanide to kill five men, being shot 4 times and dumped into a partially frozen river. His official cause of death was drowning. So I don't know, maybe the Bears have the Rasputin gene and it's just going to take a lot more for them to lose games this season. Still, some fortunate calls, bounces of the ball and the Bears are 3-0 (whether they deserve it or not.)

And before Bears fans think I'm too anti-Bears (I swear I'm not, I'm just a fan of good football) let me say I'd like to commend the excellence on the field, so let's do that:

Plaudits and High Fives All Around...

Lance Briggs and Brian Urlacher. 18 tackles between the two of them (granted, that's probably inflated thanks to home field scorekeeping) and Urlacher came up with the play of the game as he stripped the ball away from James Jones on Green Bay's last drive of the night. Thus giving the Bears the ball back, thus giving them the chance to win the game.

Chicago Special Teams Hester, Maynard, Gould all handled biz. Yes, Gould had the one field goal attempt botched in the first quarter BUT he's still the most capable scoring threat for the Bears...for now. Maynard was a machine booting two punts on the night that pinned the Packers back inside their 20. Hester? Ninja! that he's not been in about two years. Hester absolutely made Green Bay pay for the horrendous dead goose of a Tim Mashtay punt by taking it to the house.

Booos and Hisses

Chicago's Running Game. Okay, it looks better in the box score 4.3 ypc, etc, but whoa this was a terrible effort for the Bears running backs. Forte with 29 yards on 11 carries (12 of those yards coming on one run) and Taylor with three rushes for nine yards. Yikes. Still not a rushing touchdown since Week 8 of last season and if Jay Cutler gets hurt, "Game over, man. Game over."

And that's that. Another week, another game and I wasn't even all that pessimistic about the Bears this week, fans. Anywho, preview of the Sunday Night game against New York will be up later this week.

 
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