Not Fooled

As far as Chicago Bears season openers, this one is a bit weird and misshapen. It's certainly not as humiliating as the 1997 Monday Night loss against the Packers 38-24, nor the 49-7 castration by the 49ers in 2003. It also certainly isn't as fun as the 26-0 shutout of the Packers in 2006, or the 29-13 pasting of the Colts in 2008. This one had a lot of expected bad AND some surprising good results to choose from. Before I get into it however, let's get the obvious out of the way and make sure we use the correct adjective of  "LUCKY" to describe the outcome. All Calvin Johnson had to do - according to the rule - was get up with the ball in his hand the whole time, and we're talking about a much different outcome. Let's Begin:

The Good :

• Jay Cutler played pretty well (23-35 372yds 2 TD, 1 INT).  More importantly, he appeared to be more controlled and disciplined, without looking like he was trying to do too much. That was especially evident late in the 4th quarter when he threw his second TD pass to Forte in the corner of the North End Zone. He made two mistakes that I can recall off the top of my head, the obvious one being the pass that lead to his first INT of the season. Still, he gave some hope that he can run, and do well, in the Martz version of Air Coryell.
• Matt Forte appears fully recovered from the injury he didn't tell anyone about last season. The screen pass he turned into an 89 yard TD pass really showed that he does have breakaway speed. Also, as mentioned previously, he hauled in what turned out to be the game winning TD pass, although he also left room for improvement. More on that in a minute. 
• The Defense : Julius Peppers earned his money today with plenty of QB Hurries and a sack (should have had 2) that knocked Matthew Stafford out of the game - and a forced fumble. That's exactly how the Bears want him to play in the Tampa 2 scheme. Brian Urlacher...welcome back and thank you for reminding Bear Fans that you are a borderline hall of fame player when healthy, and vital cog to this defense en route to giving up a paltry 168 total yards.

The Bad :

• Fumbles. Forte had 2 (1 lost), Cutler had 1, and Greg Olsen (yes they still are trying to trade you) had a vital 1 in the red zone. Fumbles are something that is never excusable in the NFL, and cost the Bears a lot of points today. Ball security is also something teams spend their training camps on. The Bears obviously have not spent enough time on it, and it will need to improve drastically before they go to Dallas next week.
• Offensive Line : While this unit performed better than I thought they would, they still couldn't get any push up front whatsoever as they had a total of 101 rushing yards, 22 of which belong to Cutler scrambles. Throw in 4 sacks allowed, plus some numerous false start and holding penalties, and it's safe to say the unit left plenty of room for improvement. SPECIFICALLY AT THE GOAL LINE....
• LOVIE SMITH : You sir, continue to mystify and frustrate The Beard with your non-sensible decision making. You went for it on 4th down in the 4th quarter at the 1 yard line....WHEN YOU'RE DOWN 2 POINTS! Not to mention when you DO decide to go for it, you use the SAME FORMATION for the 4th time after watching it fail 3 times previously! I really don't know what the hell you were thinking, or if you are capable of thought at all at that moment. Despite the win today, you are FAR from out of the doghouse of non football retarded Bears fans.

Overall, I'm still not buying this team. While I want to be encouraged that this team might actually have talent, and that the schemes they are running on both sides of the ball can still be effective for them despite being outdated, they are still pretty far from a finished product. Playoff teams don't fumble the ball 4 times. Playoff teams don't have 9 penalties in a game. Playoff teams have offensive lines that can get 1 yard at the goal line.

With all that said however, I'll give the Bears some credit for not being the Football Dead team I had them pegged to be. Could that change in a week from now? Absolutely.