Another near catastrophe.

Go figure. The Bears on both sides of the ball kick so much ass in the first half. Then in the second half, we witnessed the stupid play calling of Mike Martz, a dumb wildcat play by Forte and a defense that returned to feces in the last quarter. I cannot understand why this team is not capable of shutting the door on teams. They were leading the Eagles 31-13 at the start of the fourth quarter and nearly blew it but still won 31-26. Facing the Seahawks Sunday, the Bears had leads of 28-0 and 35-10 before Hasselbeck was figuring out how to pick apart the defense. Luckily, it was too late and my blood pressure is slowly going back down to normal.

Offense: The whole game, we saw the offense playing at a top level. Cutler was all money in the first half with the exception of that stupid pass which was was nearly an interception. The game was 7-0 with the Bears close to the goal line when all of a sudden, Cutler throws inexplicably right to Jordan Babineaux. If he gets that pick, this game might have been the other way around. The Bears had more running plays than passing which was nice and Forte had a great game on the ground. Big thanks goes out to the offensive line for playing outstanding by getting great blocks and limiting the dumb penalties. Greg Olsen had three catches for 113 yards and a touchdown. He also helped on the ground by making some big blocks for Forte and Taylor. However, Mike Martz proved he still has some idiot in him when he calls a wildcat play for Forte. I have no problem with the wildcat but when Forte tries to pass the ball, there is no excuse for Martz to call that. It was 28-3 at the time and all the Bears had to do from there was to run the ball to burn time off the clock. Instead, the Bears give the Seahawks a chance to make a comeback.

Defense: In the first three quarters, the defense was outstanding. It is amazing to see what happens when a secondary actually learns how to cover receivers. The Seahawks receiving core had trouble getting open right from the start. The front four put pressure on Hasselbeck and we for the second game in a row, witnessed a Tommie Harris sighting. Nice to see him show up. Now onto the fourth quarter. After the idiotic pass by Forte, the Seahawks had the ball at the Bears’ 33 and Hasselbeck had no problem on that drive which lead to a touchdown. I will give the defense a pass on that drive. The last two however do not merit passes (No pun intended). All the Bears had to do was play like they did the first three quarters. Then all of a sudden, they start to look like the defense we saw most of the regular season. Big plays, lots of yards and quick touchdowns. The defense was once again fortunate as time ran out on the Seahawks to complete their comeback.

Special teams: Brad Maynard had some nice punts that pinned the Seahawks near their own goal line. That lead to the Bears’ defense forcing a few three and outs. Devin Hester gave the Bears good field position on one of the touchdown drives in the first half by taking the ball near midfield. One thing I still cannot understand is why Danieal Manning was on kick-returns after one of the Seattle scores. When Hester is back there, good things happen for the most part as we have witnessed in the past.

Next up are the Packers at Soldier Field for the NFC Championship.