The Word of the Day is… PANIC
Hit Me...?
Da Bears had their lunches handed to them. Jay Cutler looked Rextacular. Urlacher's done for 2009. The o-line looked like a set of turnstiles. The wide receivers are young. Forte couldn't get it going. It was the God Damn PACKERS!
Glad we got that out of our systems. We good? Everybody out of breath to stop yelling long enough for this?
IT WAS WEEK 1!!!!!!! RE-LAX! Jeez Louise... Am I the only one that feels like the "Gas Man" in Dumb & Dumber during the most annoying sound in the world scene? GUYS! GUYS!!
EHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!
It happened. Yeah, it was brutal. Tough to watch. And what made watching it worse is that it was a complete 180 of what Bears Nation was expecting to feel. We cracked beers for Sunday Night Football expecting to feel like Dirk Diggler and ended up feeling like John Wayne Bobbitt; which is to say we all felt completely emasculated. It was like not seeing your prom date naked after all the build-up.
Here's what we have to hang onto going into week 2 against the Steelers:
It's still Jay Cutler. It's not Rex Grossman or Kyle Orton or Chad Hutchinson or Henry Burris or Cade McNown or Shane Matthews or Johnathan Quinn or Craig Krenzel... do you get it or do I need to go on? It's not Chris Chandler or Moses Moreno or Rick Mirer (**Moment of Silence for Notre Dame's fallen program... Thank you very much**) or Steve Stenstrom or Mike Tomczak or Brian Griese. Okay, I'm done... or Dave Krieg. Seriously, I'm done. I promise.
Hunter Hillenmeyer filled in serviceably for Urlacher when he missed 7 games in 2004. Yeah, it was a long time ago, but that's how long ago it was since Urlacher served as a complete stud.
Brian Urlacher hasn't been the best linebacker on this team for 3 years now. Lance Briggs is this defense's stud.
The defensive line played well. The secondary held its own with the exception of Afalava's biting on the play action en route to Greg Jennings' winning touchdown catch. Chalk it up to a rookie mistake in his first NFL game. I'm fine with that.
Has everybody settled down now? Good. Week 2 against the Steelers will be a better measuring stick of how good this team can be anyhow. Let's call the start of this season the beginning of the cliche "The Hotter The Fire, The Harder The Steel". This Bears team is chock full of veterans top to bottom; and what's better is that the Bears have a cocky, yet respected veteran at the most important position on the field. (That's right, I just brought it back full circle to Cutler.) Everything is in place for this team to handle adversity. Simply put, they'll bounce back.
Look to see more of what Cutler put out in the second half. He'll be fine. He made Devin Hester look like a legitimate wide receiver, Johnny Knox look like a prime time deep threat, and Earl Bennett look like he had seen the field once or twice last season.
And that's just Da Bears as they relate to Jay Cutler.
Are you ready for the most uplifting--and overlooked--takeaway from the world's worst possible week 1?
The Bears lost the turnover battle 4-0 and STILL could have won the game.
Translation: Give it another few weeks before we all hit the Panic Button. Nobody was expecting another Super Bowl Shuffle in February 2010. Let's not confuse things. The reality is that this Bears team is still a 9-7/10-6 team with potential for the post-season only via the Wild Card. Isn't it a foregone conclusion that the Vikings are winning this division? Everything was magnified last night because it was Sunday Night Football, it was the Packers, it was Urlacher's last game of the season. Let's let this season breathe a little bit before we start pinning our hopes on the Blackhawks and Bulls.
Chill. Everybody just chilllllllll.