Well, I've seen uglier wins. Not many, but they have occurred. On Sunday, Lovie Smith's Chicago Bears played the field position game and ran the ball effectively enough to get the 23-6 win over the Carolina Panthers and climb to 4-1 on the year.
For everyone who thought Todd Collins' preseason outings were so impressive, I present you with his stat line for the day: six out of 16 for 32 yards and a massive four interceptions. That's a recipe for benching a back-up if I've ever heard one. Man, he was so worth that money. Collins couldn't complete any pass medium range or over, relying instead on checkdowns for his few rare completions. After three quarters of his ineptitude the Bears had seen enough and brought in Caleb Hanie to finish out the dirty win. 29 passing yards is ridiculously bad, but at least the offensive line didn't have to protect on 35 drop-backs.
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Setting the tone early, the Bears scored 17 points in the first half thanks mostly to Matt Forte's speed and good blocking up front. When Forte is on his game and healthy, his ability to break big runs cannot be ignored. He showed it today, scoring on runs of 18 and 68 yards to put the Bears on top for good. Racking up more than 150 yards on the ground, he was the Bears' offense for the game. The second half wasn't quite so pretty, but thank the defense for that.
The defense held tough all afternoon after giving up a few big runs on Carolina's opening drive. But as the score differential increased, the Panthers had to start throwing the ball with more frequency, playing right into the Bears' hands, who notched two interceptions. Julius Peppers earned his money again today, getting pressure on Jimmy Clausen and intercepting a pass off his own deflection. Brian Urlacher took it away late after Armanti Edwards failed to bring in a pass. (Tillman pulled in another in garbage time.) Israel Idonije notched three sacks of Clausen on the day, getting the benefit of increased playing time after the Bears cut Mark Anderson.
If the Bears were play a decent team, a performance like this wouldn't cut it. But when you've got an opponent at 0-4 and you're coming off a loss as brutal as they were, losing was not an option. I have to question the long leash for Collins though. Couldn't the coaching staff see the ineffectiveness that we were all seeing? After the second interception I was calling for his benching, but Smith apparently thought four was his limit. How I miss my Jay Cutler. All things considered, this was a calming/boring game. I prefer them that way.
After years of hearing sexual innuendos all over NFL TV broadcasts, I've decided to start noting the best one-liners or TWSS moments of the game. This week's? "Robbie Gould really got it up on that one." Loved it.
Bear down y'all! Get ready for some Cutler-action next week! Happy Jay Cutler Day!
Keywords: Carolina Panthers, Chicago Bears, Jay Cutler, Jimmy Clausen, Joe Anello, Julius Peppers, Matt Forte, NFL, Todd Collins
