Blog Down Breakdown: CHI 20 ATL 22
Oh, look honey! It’s Garrett Wolfe. Ain’t he cute?
At the risk of sounding ungrateful, Kyle Orton’s AMAZING touchdown throw to Rashied Davis just ruined this entire post. I guess it doesn’t pay to start writing before the game is over, huh?
Short of drawing on manly stubble with a marker, outfitting him in Wrangler jeans, and teaching him how to speak with an oh-so-gentle southern draw, the Bears couldn’t have made Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan look more like Brett Favre today.
Ryan completed one pass after another, especially in third-and-long downs, and the defense seemed more than willing to oblige the Falcons’ gameplan.
He finished the day with a career-high 301 passing yards, most of which were picked up in timely situations, enabling Atlanta to control the clock from the start.
The bearded hero played admirably, passing for 286 yards of his own; 17 on a late, go ahead touchdown strike to Rashied Davis. Meanwhile, Matt Forte literally (almost) carried the team on their first TD drive and outran Michael Turner for the game 76-54. By the way, how does having stumps for legs earn you the nickname “The Burner?”
Anyhow, the story of the day was the Bears’ lacking pass defense. Sure, you can’t fault them for the second to last play of game, the 26-yard pass that set up Jason Elam’s game-winning field goal. Everyone is playing deep, the Falcons simply made the perfect call. But everything else leading up to that proves one of two things: And I know Ryan ain’t no Favre.
The best player on the Falcons team was the clock keeper. He saved some where in the neighborhood of 6-10 on the clock during the final minute of play. Watch the video. I first noticed it when the clock was inside 30 seconds to go. On one of the Bears plays only 1 second ticked off the clock, then on the final pass play the clock didn’t start until Ryan dropped back from his shotgun position (minimally 2 seconds or more saved). The clock should have expired before the receiver touched the ball, plus there should have only been maybe 2 seconds left before the final play meaning the Falcons would have had to go for it all on the final play. Check the game video if you recorded it. Another fan stated that the clock started slow on the kick off as well.
Good tip, Wes. Unfortunately, I don’t have the video so I can’t go back and look but it’s definitely an interesting thing to consider. If you come across any hardcore evidence, shoot it over here.
I agree with Wes. What a nightmare. I’m so effing pissed off. Well, next week’s game is huge and the Vikings certainly didn’t look very good today. Stop AP like they stopped Turner and they’ll be in good shape. Hell, last year they took the game in OT at Soldier and AP ran for a billion yards.
I was running around screaming in excitement like I haven’t since the Bears beat the Cardinals in 2006 on MNF. 2 minutes later, wanting to puke. Unreal.
[...] of days of football from the Illini and Bears. Therefore, I’ll direct you to Illinitalk and Blog Down Chicago Bears for their respective rants. Onto this week’s parlay picks (home teams in [...]