Standing in the way of the Bears return to the Super Bowl are their arch rivals, the Green Bay Packers. The Packers, it should be mentioned, are coming off their own very impressive castration of the Atlanta Falcons this week. As far as NFC Championship Games are concerned, this is pretty unprecedented, as the two teams have met only once before in the entire history of the NFL playoffs, and have never met for the NFL Title nor the NFC Championship.
As for that contest itself, it remains to be seen who will emerge victorious. As for this weeks game, here's what I took pleasure in:
Offense : In a word "synergistic". I had concluded going into today's game, that if the Bears were going to be victorious they were going to have to run the ball successfully. Not that running the ball well is all that shocking of an approach to winning football games (Doug Buffone), but a lot has been made this season about the run-pass ratio the Bears/Mike Martz called during games. Against the Seahawks, the Bears ran the ball 45 times and passed 29 times. In terms of yardage, 176 yards on the ground and 274 in the air. The key play wasn't a run however, but rather a 58 yard play action fake TD strike from Jay Cutler to Greg Olsen which was essentially the knockout punch the Bears delivered to the Seahawks in the first quarter.
From that opening TD strike, the Bears were in control of this contest. In what has become the norm, Cutler was good with hiccups of retardation here and there, as he could have easily had at least 2 interceptions on the day if Seattle's defenders had a decent pair of hands. Regardless, Cutler showed what has been true his entire career : you give him time, he will beat you. The axiom certainly rang true today as Cutler etched his name with Otto Graham into the history books today with two passing TD's and two rushing TD's in the same postseason game. Also, Matt Forte and Chester Taylor played the way the Bears front office envisioned forming a 1-2 punch that snapped off long runs and key 3rd down conversions.
Once again though, in what has become more than a cliche, the Offensive Line made all of this possible. Ever since Chris Williams was moved to left guard, this O-line has played much better and no matter what happens next week, have done a remarkable job this season.
Defense : The unit played as stingy as they've ever been today, limiting Seattle to 276 total yards, most of which were accumulated in garbage time. Just for good measure, the ghost of Tommie Harris got 2 sacks of Matt Hasselbeck, while the league's #1 rush defense allowed Marshawn Lynch and company 34 rushing yards on the day. The Seahawks were just as impotent through the air with 242 passing yards, but again most of that yardage was in garbage time. Key stat for the defense though was 3rd down conversions as Seattle was 3-14 on the day. The best thing any NFL defense can do is get off the field quickly. 3-14 makes that very possible.
Special Teams : After much talk about how the Seahawks planned to kick to Devin Hester this week, they backed it up by kicking to him and not allowing him to score. Robbie Gould was Robbie Gould, Brad Maynard was Brad Maynard, and overall the unit did what they are expected to do and that's get the Bears excellent field position.
Where Do We Go From Here : If you can find anyone who wrote, said, or went on any kind of record stating that the Bears were going to be one game away from the Super Bowl, please send it to me. Nobody, including myself though they would/should make it this far. I've doubted this team all year, and I don't have to think about it that long to find reasons why the Packers are going to win next week. Still, here we are. For better or worse the Bears have done what they needed to do to be one game away from the Super Bowl.
Can they beat the Packers? I definitely think so. The Bears know what Aaron Rodgers can and can't do. More importantly the Bears defense and linebackers know what the Packers offensive line can and can't do. Will it be enough? I don't know. I do know the Bears are plenty capable of winning as they have health on their side as well as some consolation that they didn't "show the Packers anything new" offensively during the last week of the season.
If the Bears continue to do the little things they've done most of this season, they'll be on their way to Arlington, Texas to play in the Super Bowl, and I'll be ready to apologize to Lovie Smith for calling for his firing a year ago....Wow...
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