Devin. Aromashodu. FIN.
In what might be one of the staunchest cases ever of people performing not to be fired, the Bears, playing with heart and conviction for maybe the first time all season, defeated the Minnesota Vikings 36-30 in overtime tonight. Lovie Smith is glowing.
Tied 30-30 in overtime, Jay Cutler found Devin Aromashodu — who beat Antoine Winfield deep on the right sideline — for a game-winning 39-yard touchdown. It was, in the truest send of the phrase, an all-around effort. The question is … why did this take 15 games? The answer is not Craig Steltz and Josh Bullocks, although even they played well, too.
You can’t help but feel conflicted about, what is, a huge morale-boosting victory. On one hand, based on previous years’ success, you knew the Bears had the talent on the roster capable of sparring toe-to-toe with upper-echelon teams like Minnesota. But on the other hand, you kind of started to doubt that they did and began to believe the entire roster must be summarily jettisoned. So, which one is it?
Are we fine with the offensive line? They played extraordinarily well tonight. Chris Williams made Jared Allen his little mulleted bitch. Do we have the receivers we need? Aromashodu could certainly be a number one. Our defensive front four got to the quarterback with the conventional ease we all expected they could, given their athleticism and Rod Marinelli’s tutelage. Does that mean we don’t need to rid ourselves of, say, Mark Anderson or Tommie Harris? The secondary was atop their game tonight, too: Tillman and Bowman provided a pretty solid 1-2 combo. Danieal Manning, outside of his big-time returns, made some big plays. The aforementioned Steltz and Bullocks weren’t all that bad. And we all know that Afalava and Payne have had their moments. Does this mean we’re only a few moves away from being regularly competitive again?
I know, I know: This was just one game, let us not get ahead of ourselves. But, the Detroit Lions couldn’t have done this; the Cleveland Browns couldn’t have done this; you have to be a good team deep down inside to pull off this type of win against an 11-win team, don’t you?
I don’t know, tell us what you think. Help me. My head is scrambled right now. What does it all mean?!
Now, video of ‘shodu’s game-winning 36-yard touchdown catch:
My laptop says it would rather not right now. Stay tuned …
Alas!
More from Blog Down, Chicago Bears
- Kevin Shaffer Tries Left Guard, Mike Martz Gushes Over Wideouts, And Is Juice Williams Your New Third-String Quarterback
- Devin Aromashodu’s Ceiling, Embracing Your Legends, And Where The Bears’ Average Age Ranks Amongst Other NFL Teams
- Jamar Williams Signs His Tender, Jerry Angelo Expects Even More Changes, And Clearly, Greg Olsen And Vince Vaughn Are Best Friends Forever
I’m not sold on anything, but I hope this is a sign of what Williams is capable of at LT which is where he should have been all along. The D still scares me. This season, six teams have given up more than 30 points to the Vikes, six teams have allowed less than 30 (including Detroit twice), and three have allowed exactly 30. That means when we’re playing at our best, we’re capable of being average. Hooray for mediocrity!!! Actually, I think that might be on the McCaskey family crest.
That aside, it felt really damn good to see them get this win (even thought it cost me my FF championship- I’d have been really pissed if I’d lost the title AND they’d blown the game.) I didn’t get to see the game cause I’m stuck at work, but I imagine Soldier’s Field had to have been a madhouse tonight. I’m sure ChiFa… err, uh Gavin, will hopefully fill us in.
I’ve changed my assessment of this team after last night.
I used to think the Bears have a lot of little problems, but EVERY team has lots of little problems. The Bears have one big problem, and it’s this: if you don’t have a middle linebacker who can cover sideline to sideline from the line of scrimmage to 20 yards deep AND read offenses accurately, the Tampa-2 doesn’t work, period. If you do win games, they will be 36-30 instead of 17-7.
This was the case last night. How many times did Favre play catch with a checkdown receiver to gain yards in the second half?
Pieces are there for next year, but Lovie needs to figure out how to keep Urlacher healthy or modify this defense to protect against the short West-Coast style passing attack.
Middle linebacker is huge in the Tampa-2. But I think the pass rush is the bigger defensive problem. When you play your corners like we do, predicated on keeping everything in front of them, it’s imperative that you get to the quarterback or else you leave your secondary vulnerable to being picked apart.
The beauty of having Urlacher, a middle linebacker who is adept at playing all-directional (drop back, blitz, play the flats), is that an effective pass rush allows him to remain instrumental in taking away the medium-to-long pass plays. We’re all about this bend-not-break mentality …
Or so I read on the Internets once.
Oh, and I promise never to write like that again.
For the first time in years I’ll be rooting against the Bears today. I don’t want to see Lovie end the season on the high note and give the McCaskeys just enough reason not to fire his dumb ass. Losing the final games to the lowly Lions should be the straw that broke the camel’s back. He’s absolutely horrible and must go now.