Now I am sitting here clouded with influenza (FLU), lying in bed flooded with tissues,itchy ,watery eyes, eminse amount of pain and prescription bottles. With today's game with the Lions vs Bears, I sat and wondered.... did the final call of the game was a mere imagination from an overload of NyQuil and antibotics, or did this actually exist? I sat up and went to the bathroom, freshened myself up... and literally sat and watch that play over and over again, for 5 straight minutes. It was true. True to the point of eliminating the overly-drowsy theory.
The NFL rules people and officials embarrassed themselves against the Lions worse than the Bears did.
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| SMH BEARS.....smfh |
Lions receiver Calvin Johnson leaped over Bears defensive backs to grab a Shaun Hill pass, brought the ball down, got both feet down in the end zone, got both knees down in the end zone, and had control of the ball in his hand. The play appeared over as Johnson reached down and lost the ball.
Touchdown, right? Lions 20, Bears 19, with 24 seconds to go, right?
Nope.
The potential game-winning touchdown was wiped out because the officials ruled –- and the replay booth backed up –- that Johnson didn’t have legal possession because the process of completing a catch includes clear possession after hitting the ground. To recap, Johnson had possession of the ball, had both knees down, had both feet down, and frankly, seemed to be reaching to make sure he was in the end zone when he banged the ball on the ground and it bounced out of his hand. Johnson’s reaching out his arm could’ve been seen as a second act. Should’ve. In fact, one official signaled touchdown.
But no. Not in the lobotomized NFL. An stupid rule and bad interpretation. The Lions should’ve felt ripped off. The Bears should’ve felt lucky.
The Bears got lucky against a team that hadn’t won on the road in 20 games. Way lucky against a team that had won, period, only twice in the last two seasons. The Bears were so bad in so many ways that listing all of them would require every byte of cyberspace.
And yet, the Bears always seemed as if they would win. They injured the Lions’ terrific young quarterback. They had nearly three times as many offensive yards. They had the ball one inch from the end zone down by a point in the fourth quarter.
But it still took a well-conceived and better-executed 25-yard pass from Jay Cutler to Matt Forte to get the Bears an ugly win that inspired little confidence this is a playoff team, which presumably is the goal.
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| Detroit...home of stabbings and Eminem |
The Bears rang up 100 yards in penalties, managed just two field goals in four trips into the red zone, and committed four turnovers. Cutler fumbled and threw an interception. Forte fumbled twice. Their hookups for touchdowns at the end of each half barely covered each of their turnovers that turned into Lions touchdowns.
The Bears’ secret offense is still a secret, right? I mean, this can’t be what they were talking about. It certainly shouldn’t have taken almost a full half after Matt Stafford was put out of the game for the Bears to put the Lions out of our misery.
The defense, meanwhile, was better by a lot in the second half, treating a backup quarterback and kid running back the way good units ought to. Before the last drive, the Bears had allowed one third-down conversion in the second half. They allowed a mere 20 rushing yards on 21 attempts and only 168 yards total. Terrific numbers, but still, against a backup quarterback when it mattered, the defense still needed help from some NFL lunacy.
Naming names, Julius Peppers paid back some of that $91 million free-agent deal with a pass rush that eventually knocked the ball out of Stafford’s hand and knocked Stafford himself out of the game, leading to a field goal at the end of the first half.
Brian Urlacher and Lance Briggs seemed everywhere, making big plays, and in Briggs’ case, a spectacular one. With less than 11 minutes to go in a game the Bears trailed 14-13, the Lions were on their own 9 when Briggs timed the snap brilliantly and shot through to knock the ball out of Shaun Hill’s grasp on an attempted handoff. Think about that: He got there before the handoff. What’s more, Briggs recovered the ball at the Lions’ 1. Inside the 1. The one-inch line.
But now we have to go back to ripping the offense because the Bears got nothing. Not a yard, not a foot, not even an inch.
Forte, nothing. Cutler play-action, incomplete. Forte, nothing again. Forte, nothing yet again on fourth down. Lions ball.
You mean Forte couldn’t fall forward for an inch? The guy couldn’t find a hole behind massive Brandon Shamumaleuna? The line couldn’t move the Lions half a foot? You don’t have a quarterback sneak for an athletic quarterback in that massive playbook?
I’m not questioning Lovie Smith’s decision to go for it instead of kicking a field goal that would’ve given his team the lead. Smith’s defense was smothering, but more importantly, he has to believe his line can get an inch, come on.
But no. The Bears got out-muscled, outplayed and out-manned in the most important part of the game. That’s more damning. More damning of the head coach, the new offensive coordinator, the new offensive line coach, the general manager’s personnel decisions, but especially the players.
On one play, Johnny Knox cut off his route while Cutler was throwing deep. Earlier, Knox showed up in the same area as Devin Aromashodu on a play that went incomplete. It must be hard to get on the same page when the playbook has 400 pages.
Cutler was run out of the pocket a lot, and showed great athleticism to make something of the situations, but there were a lot of plays when he had time but either held the ball too long or his receivers couldn’t shake a beat-up Lions secondary.
That beat-up Lions secondary, by the way, beat up the Bears pretty good.
Olin Kreutz looked like an All-Pro again in making the block that sprang Forte for his 89-yard score on a screen pass.
Israel Idonije chased down Lions rookie running back Jahvid Best on a gimmicky screen for no gain. Nice play. Nice depth.
Two plays after one of Forte’s fumbles, Danieal Manning dropped an interception with half an open field in front of him. A glorious chance to run it back for a huge defensive score. But no, and then Manning was burned for nine yards on a slant to Tony Shefler on third-and-6.
Detroit’s C.C. Brown seemed to be everything the Bears want in a safety.
Whatever might be going on in the Bears’ secondary, I thought D.J. Moore made some solid plays.
The hope next week is that Dallas’ offensive line is injured and out of shape. Same goes for the Cowboys’ defensive line. Otherwise, the Bears will need another silly NFL rule to save them.
Amile
