Turn That Frown Upside Down: Bears Beat Lions, Finish 7-9

I know this sounds totally Blog-a-Bullish, but my first thought after the Vikings game - you know, the only good Bears game this year - was "Crap, now they're going to finish 7-9. That's not even that bad!".

Enter yesterday, enter the Lions, and, of course, that's exactly what happened. There are few certainties in sports, but beating Detroit's football team is one of them. And the Bears, for as miserable as they are, did it. Outside of an explosive fourth quarter, it wasn't pretty, but it doesn't need to be when you play the Lions. You basically just need to be conscious, and - while I hate to give the Bears credit for anything, ever - they proved Sunday that the players and coaches are, in fact, still breathing.

The final season tally for 2009 reads 7-9. Seven and nine. What a record, that is. Looking at it, I can't believe it's real. This is not a 7-9 football team by any measure, besides for the only one that counts. It's bad enough to piss off an entire city, good enough to justify another chance for an organization in painful need of a restart. 7-9 isn't enough to eat $11 million to fire the coach or to fire the GM. I will be legitimately shocked if it happens. Instead, Lovie and Angelo - tied at the hip forever, as they should be - will both be around in 2010. I don't think any number of Arlington Heights-based billboards can change that.


Why am I complaining about a win, though? The Bears couldn't even screw up first round draft position with this one!

Basically, it's all good. The last two games will give some of you hope. Hope is essential, right? And, after all, we are talking about the NFL here. Only the Lions are doomed to death annually. Even with Lovie in charge and a roster that will likely look very similar come next season - no draft picks + an uncapped year probably means little player movement - this group might be able to compete in 2010. I guess.

Yeah, it was only the Lions. Yeah, 7-9 came against the NFL's easiest schedule. But whatever. We'll take wins when we can get them. Turn that frown upside down.


Is that a smile? I think it is! It took us 17 weeks, but we got there. 7-9, what up.

A telling anecdote: the picture above is saved on my computer and in the system as cutler-smile. When I was placing it on the site, some of the other Cutler-related picture slug names on my laptop popped up. They looked like this: cutler-frown, cutler-sad, cutler-fuck, cutler-suck-suck-suck. A nice change-of-pace for today, right?

So yes, this was a meaningless, stupid win against a meaningless, stupid opponent. But I'll take cutler-smile over cutler-suck-suck-suck any day. It may even be enough to get me through the offseason.

Other stuff

- Eight touchdowns to one interception in the last two games saved him: Cutler finishes the season with more TD's (27) than INT's (26). What a strange path he took to get there.

- With an interception yesterday, Zack Bowman ends the year with six picks. It's the most for a Bears player since Vasher finished with eight in 2005.

- Matt Forte finishes the year with 929 yards, a 3.6 yards per carry average, four touchdowns, and five fumbles. All things considered, I still probably give Cutler's year a solid D. Forte probably earns a F. Really, a miserable season for him.