- This is the most gut wrenching Bears loss of my lifetime, right? I think I said “I can’t believe the Bears won this game…” about 25 times after Davis’ touchdown grab. To see them blow it like that, especially when you just know this loss is going to come back to bite them once the playoff picture starts taking shape….ugh.

- We'll let David Haugh- the best sports writer in Chicago?- break down the fateful play that set up Jason Elam's game-winning field goal:

In that zone defense, (Marcus) Hamilton typically has the responsibility of the routes in front of him but needs to drop deep enough at first to take away the corner route Jenkins ran. That buys the safety precious seconds.

Understand that with six seconds left in the game and the Bears protecting a one-point lead, no pass caught in front of Hamilton matters. A 10-yard gain would not have been enough to put Elam in field-goal range. A 15-yard gain probably wouldn't have either. If Hamilton had dropped a few yards deeper, Matt Ryan never would have thrown that ball.

Of course it'd be stupid to blame a loss on a cornerback who never would have seen the field had the Bears' entire secondary not been injured yesterday, but that doesn't make this loss any easier to stomach.

- A quick piece of advice for Ron Turner, who I actually think has done a pretty good job this year: if it’s 3-and-1 or 4-and-1 and you are going to call a fullback dive to Jason McKie, save yourself the trouble just have Orton take a knee. 

- Buried in the internal bleeding this loss left everyone with is the Bears’ slow transformation into an alright offense. For whatever reason, I trust this crew. Orton has played as well as anyone could have hoped, Forte looks a first or second round fantasy football draft pick for the next eight years, the receivers are strangely reliable, and line isn’t great but it’s probably 3x as better than last year.

The last time the Bears looked this good offensively was the first half of 2006, but I really don’t expect a massive shift backward like the one that occurred that year. This just seems like a fairly average, well balanced offense, one that will likely be more consistent than the 06 version that relied heavily on bombs to Bernard Berrian.

- Heading into this game, my buddy Michael Turner was averaging 108 yards and more than a touchdown per game. The Bears held him to 54 yards and kept him out of the end zone. Lots of people are complaining about Tommie Harris- including my father, who declared “The Bears should just cut him now” after today’s game (haha)- but he, along with the rest of the defense, has been awesome against the run this year. I guess we’ll find out how good the run D really is next week against the Vikings and Adrian Peterson.

- The Bears are now 3-3. They could easily, easily, easily (easily) be 6-0. It’s almost like they’re jinxed….

En Espanol!

(For the record, TTCS' Scott Phillips thinks this year's Madden Curse is on Brady, because the game gave him 99 in throw power and throw accuracy which they apparently didn't do last year.)

- I’m almost glad the Bears aren’t 6-0, though. It’s kind of nice to cheer for a team without huge expectations (sort of like this year’s White Sox). The Bears are pretty good, but I can say with 10,000% certainty that they aren’t going to win the Super Bowl this year. If they were 6-0, they still wouldn’t be good enough to win it all, but people would expect them to.
 

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Also on the Network: √ The lineup gets a pickmeup [Feeling Dodger Blue] √ 7/2/09: Zito Betrayed [El Lefty Malo] √ Andre Miller's Disappearing Leverage [Depressed Fan] √ 7/1/09: A Tolerable Loss [El Lefty Malo] √ Progress So Far? [Depressed Fan] √ St. Louis Loves Their Colby Jack [C70 At The Bat] √ Peace, Ben. It's been real. [Tremendous Upside Potential] √ 2009 Free Agents, Position-By-Position [Depressed Fan]

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