This game reminded me of the one against the Packers earlier this year. For most of the game, the offense sucked completely and while the defense wasn’t as good as that game, they still found a way to minimize the damage. This game still pissed me off on every level. The Bears played like shit until the last quarter. When the Bears play good teams (Texans, 49ers, etc.), do they win these type of games? The answer is no.
Offense: I am not pinning this shitty offensive day all on Cutler. Yes. He threw a dumb pass into triple coverage and fumbled causing another turnover earlier in the game, but after that, he was too busy getting sacked and when he wasn’t on his ass, his receivers were dropping passes. The entire offensive line couldn’t block anybody. There were more false start/holding penalties. Matt Spaeth sucks and should never be thrown to again. Marshall and Hester dropped some passes as well that would have extended drives and instead, the Bears were giving the ball back to the Panthers. The running game couldn’t get going either. This was all happening while the Panthers were giving the Bears great field position on just about every kickoff. Then, the fourth quarter arrives and the offense finds it’s mojo. Bennett and Marshall are catching everything in their site and the Bears march down the field for 16 points.
Defense: Cam Newton was having a great time for most of this game. The Panthers had nearly 37 minutes of time possession. For you stat geeks out there (Yeti), that’s more than half of the game. Newton had drives that went well over eight minutes and one of those drives was 90 yards. He had his I-Pass for sure throwing for over 300 yards. I did mention above that the defense minimized the damage they did, but that doesn’t mean they weren’t lousy. There were some stupid penalties on this side of the ball as well. I believe there were two personal fouls that helped the Panthers score on I believe, two drives. This lack of discipline needs to stop. I don’t know why Tillman wasn’t on Steve Smith during this game because Jennings couldn’t stop him. I want to than the Soldier Field grass for making Steve Smith slip, letting Tim Jennings get an easy pick giving the Bears the lead. I just had a flashback of Johnny Knox slipping on the same grass. I’ll stop there.
Special Teams: Ron Rivera was looking like a genius with all of those squib kicks which didn’t allow Hester to do anything up until late in the game. Robbie Gould misses a field goal after I was telling myself “Just take the points”. Since Cutler is a man and marched the Bears down the field about as calm as anyone can in the final two minutes, Gould redeemed himself in the end.
The Bears have a two-game lead in the division over both the Vikings and the Packers. The face the Titans next week on the road.
Fire Ryan Poles | Fire Matt Eberflus 
October 28, 2012 at 6:22 pm
I agree with your premise, I still don’t like the Bear’s Offense and do not think Tice is a good play caller. it was good to see Kellen Davis actually catch the ball.
But, also they are force to use max protect, and twice the only receiver was Marshall (one was for an interception as you know, the other was a pretty good gain). Max Protect means less receivers.
Still, even high caliber teams look bad, look at Green Bay against Jacksonville. There is a lot of parody so I would just take this win. we will need to be 7 and 1 going into the last half of the brutal schedule.
October 28, 2012 at 6:56 pm
Here is something that is getting me worried. Since the bye (an extended bye, they played on Monday night), the offense has scored a grand total of 29 points over the course of 8 quarters against two very inferior teams. I understand todays 16 points because of Cutlers sore ribs, but c’mon. Tony is right. Tice is an improvement of Martz, but he’s still not very good. If they play like this the rest of year I can see them easily going 4-5 and maybe even 3-6. And that will put them at 10-6 or 9-7. Those losses are to Houston, San Francisco, Seattle, Green Bay, and maybe Arizona. And it could be worse if the Vikings can manage to play well, and Detroit can get their collective heads out of their asses. Don’t tell me any of those teams don’t stand a chance against the Bears because they suck. Carolina sucks too and the Bears should have fucking lost that game. And if Cutler is injured and knocked out for the year, mail it in. They’re done.
But what the fuck do I know? I’m just the biggest whiny little fucking bitch on this site. And Lovie Smith is in line for not only a 50 year contract extention, but he’s also going to be the next Pope, President of the United States, leader of his high school Spanish club, Harvard psychology professor, and captain of his own starship. All at the same time too. Right?
October 28, 2012 at 11:19 pm
Chucky,
I have to give you credit on saying that the Bears would play down to their competition like they usually do. I guess even the casual football fan would say the same thing but when it actually happens, time after time, it’s annoying. They do this shit all the time. I agree with Tony that there is some “parody” in the NFL, but the Bears seem to do this more than other teams.
October 29, 2012 at 2:09 am
One thing is certain: there is more than enough parody-and parity-to go around in the NFL.
I’m not surprised by this game in the least…byt at least the Bears won.
I predict that Lovie will NEVER win a Super Bowl as a head coach…I think it’s a fairly safe bet, unless he’s hit by lightning or something.
Then again, what do I know….even less than chucky!
October 29, 2012 at 3:34 pm
Chucky is the “fire and passion” of this site.
October 29, 2012 at 4:43 pm
Don’t tell Boers and Bernstein that!
October 29, 2012 at 8:26 pm
Now you see why Pittsburgh released Matt spaeth
October 30, 2012 at 2:52 pm
Chucky,
I heard an idiot on The Score this morning (like most days) saying that the Bears should trade Devin Hester before the deadline Thursday. To be honest, I believe that dweeb Matt Spiegel agreed with him.
Why do people want the greatest returner of all time traded? Do these idiots not watch how other teams react when he is back there waiting for a kickoff/punt return. Let’s just take Sunday for an example. Rivera has the Panthers doing squib kicks on every kickoff and the punter doing corner kicks (the last one only going six yards) because of him. I do wish he would stay off the field during the offense as I have repeated that for many years. He sucks as a wide receiver but as a punt/kickoff returner, put him back there.
If Mike Tice ever figures out how to run the offense properly, the Bears can make teams pay dearly for those errors. Anyone who says Hester should be traded needs their TV slammed over their heads.
October 30, 2012 at 6:19 pm
Fro…I’ll do the honors personally. Seriously, idiots like that don’t deserve to breathe. Another idiot called B and B yesterday afternoon and question them about how the Bulls will match up against LeBron in the playoffs. Seriously. Why don’t we wait until they play a fucking goddamned regular season game before we start worrying about the fucking playoffs. Jesus fucking Christ, some people are just goddamned retarded. Yeah, I’m looking right at you Greg.