The Good, The Bad, The Ugly and Being lucky.
A month from now few, if any, will remember too much about The Bears 19-14 win over Detroit. But for the next few days the talk will be about the bizarre circumstances that this game had in it. At half time the Bears had out gained the Lions 296-94 but trailed. Why? well three turnovers almost killed them. They ended up with four for the game as Jay Cutler, Greg Olsen and Matt Forte all fumbled and Cutler also threw an interception.
Forte and Cutler each redeemed themselves with big numbers as Cutler threw for 372 yards while Forte ended up with 201 yards of total offense. The two hooked up for the Bear's two touchdowns on passes of 89 and 28 yards. The second proved to be the game winning points coming with just 1.32 left on the clock. Then Detroit looked to score the game winner themselves with just a few ticks left but Calvin Johnson's apparent score was ruled not a touchdown on a really dumb rule. If 100 people saw the play all 100 would say touchdown but the rule states that in the end zone the receiver has to show possession throughout the entire play. After rolling through the air, Johnson almost does a flip(while holding on with one hand) and only after landing with two feet in then fell to the ground and finally the ball rolled out of his hands towards the back of the end zone. Stupid stupid rule but the Bears were the lucky beneficiary of it so the play was ruled an incomplete pass.
The good in this game was Cutler and Forte ending up with big numbers and the Bears amassing almost 500 yards of offense. The defense also did a good job limiting Detroit to just 168 yards with many of those coming on their final desperation drive. Brian Uhrlacher, Lance Briggs and Julius Peppers were all outstanding but let's remember that this came against a Detroit team that hasn't won a road game in three years.
Then there is the matter of Lovie Smith making one of the most questionable decisions in recent history. After Briggs forced a fumble and the Bears recovered at Detroit's one yard line the offense failed on three straight plays. Eight minutes were left in the game and the Bears trailed by a point. Logic would dictate that you settle for the gimme field goal to insure your team takes the lead. Smith however decided to take one more crack to get into the end zone and they were stuffed again. The crowd was stunned and the press box was mystified. Afterwards Smith backed his call and he said he would do it again and again. I'll leave it to you to decide if that was the right decision (hint...IT WASN'T). And if the Bears did not score late or if Johnson's catch was called a touchdown the furor would be 200 times greater then it already is.
Bottom line is that the Bears are 1-0 but the win came against perennial door mat Detroit and there are so many questions regarding this game that this station will have a field day taking all the calls from the listeners. That alone should be fun.
