Jay Cutler finally showing what he's capable of when his offensive teammates (particularly up front) around him are interested in playing football, and chucking 4 TD's, including the game winner=Awesome! Devin Aromashodu showing more than just potential, with a breakout game tonight=Fantastic! The defensive line stepping up in overtime, and Hunter Hillenmeyer punching the ball out of Adrian Peterson's grasp=Sweet! The Bears ending the Vi-queens chance at the number one seed in the NFC Playoff Picture=Fun, Fun, (schadenfreude) FUN!As thrilling as tonight's victory over the Minnesota Favre's was, unfortunately it's a hollow victory at best, and no reason to overlook glaring problems with this team, at worst. Once again, there is plenty of evidence from this game, no matter how pleasant the outcome, to show that this is a fundamentally flawed team.
Lovie Smith's vaunted defensive play calling after a very impressive first half, didn't trust his new safeties and stuck with that beaten scheme that is the Tampa 2 (with the stupid fake blitz up the middle with a linebacker). The Tampa 2 promptly went out and allowed 30 second half points, 321 passing yards from Brett Favre, 94 yards and 2 TD's from Adrian Peterson, and 423 yards allowed overall. Once again, Lovie has nobody to blame for his porous defense but himself. His pointless loyalty to a scheme, that zero playoff teams including the Colts even run anymore, allowed Favre to work the middle of the field and deep sideline routes ad nauseam for pretty much the entire second half. And that's just the defensive side of the ball...
Offensively, the execution was much better than in recent weeks, but then again it was hard to get any worse. For as much as Olin Kreutz wants to run his mouth calling for "top to bottom" organizational changes while still playing like a swinging gate, he did nothing tonight to convince anyone that he's not overmatched in the trenches and that he can still play at an elite level in the NFL. Matt Forte looked better, but still seems to missing something that rhymes with "burst". Aromashodu again had a great game, Olsen, Clark, and Earl Bennett had good contributions. In this blogs view, all of the success largely was due to Jay Cutler's fearless play. Cutler showed that when he's given time, and his receivers execute their routes, he can make Lame Duck Ron Turner's offense look good. Imagine what he could do with a good team and a real offensive coordinator...
So for now, HUZZAH to the Bears for tonight, and refocus on making this franchise a playoff contender next year for tomorrow.
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