The Bears survive

It's hard to feel anything but relief after that one.

This was a rough game for the Bears. The defense got shredded by one of the league's worst offenses, and their emerging quarterback got carted off the field. If it wasn't for a missed extra point in the first half by Jason Hanson, the Bears likely would have been headed for overtime. Yeah, the Lions probably would have won the coin toss and taken the wind, but whatever. This game was a lot closer than it should have been.

The Bears still found a way to pick up the win, which is all that matters, I guess. With the Packers losing to the Titans in overtime, the Bears sit alone in first place in the NFC North at 5-3. For how frustrating parts of this season has been (Hester, lack of pass rush, injuries to the secondary, ect.), that’s still a better record than pretty much everyone would have guessed.

Thank God the Bears won this game: combine injuries to Orton and Brown with a loss to the winless Lions, and we would have been looking at the worst Bears defeat in a long time. It would have happened too, had Ron Turner not finally figured out to give the ball to Forte.

For all the success the Bears offense has had this year, I still think they throw too much. Turner didn’t change the game plan at all without Orton in the third quarter. Rex finished the game 9-for-19; that’s about 5-10 more passes than he should have attempted.

The Lions are a terrible team, as I’m sure everyone agrees. Almost all terrible teams share one trait: they can’t stop the run. So when Grossman came into the game, the plan should have been to feed Forte the rock as much as possible. After all, he's their best offensive player by a mile and Grossman is, well, Grossman. But Turner kept relying on Rex to throw short passes, which, let’s be honest, is possibly the worst game plan ever. Luckily Forte broke a couple long runs, and Turner had no other choice but to keep giving it to him.

I thought Grossman did ok when you factor in rust and hostile home crowd. He missed a couple deep passes, including one to Hester, that he usually connects on. If the Bears have any chance against the Titans next week (who have to lose sometime, right?), Rex is going to need to hit the deep the ball.

Odds and ends….

- I defend Urlacher as much as anyone. I think he gets a bad rap sometimes because the cover-2 doesn’t let him rack up big numbers. His value comes from plays that don’t happen. He usually sits in deep zones and controls the middle of the field. I think Urlacher has been alright this year, but he’s clearly not as dominant as he once was.

So what does that mean? Lance Briggs is the best player on the team. He’s been all over the field the whole year. The Bears are lucky to have him.

- Hester’s hurt. He has to be. The blocking has been bad all year, but as my father pointed out in our weekly post-game phone call, he just doesn’t look as fast as he used to. And when Hester isn’t breaking big returns, mistakes are inexcusable. As anyone who plays Madden knows, nothing is more demoralizing than fumbling a kickoff. He can’t do that.

- Sunday’s strangest development? Ex-Bears kicking ass. CedBen put up 104 and a touchdown in the Bengals’ first win of the year, Mark Bradley threw a touchdown pass, and Bernard Berrian caught two bombs, one for a touchdown. I’m happy for Bradley (who got a raw deal from the coaches here) and Berrian (who got a raw deal from the fans), but, as always, fuck Cedric Benson. I actually thought about picking up Benson in my fantasy league for .03 seconds before I came to my senses. Oh and Thomas Jones averaged 5.8 yards per carry and scored, so good for him.

- The early word on Orton is that the injury isn't too seriously, thankfully. He can miss next week since the Bears have no shot against the Titans anyway. Hopefully he can be back on the field the following week, in Green Bay.

- Brett Favre: 300 career interceptions. I think the accomplishment speaks for itself.

- I’ll be writing Full Court Press at the Sun-Times all week, so check that out. And I forgot to link to my top ten list last week so here it is.

- Bulls things coming tomorrow, including a trade proposal that will almost certainly piss off everyone. But hey, at least I’m not lobbying for Vince Carter anymore. Baby steps, people.