Let me just get a few things out of the way before I completely boil over about that travesty from last night. The Badgers won. Here's a link to the Badgers blog, which I have a feeling will be more fun to write than this one. The Brewers are playing for nothing and just blew a game in the 9th. Alright, here she goes:
Let's set the stage. Green Bay Packers (2-0) @ Chicago Bears (2-0). Monday Night Football. Early season game, but still quite meaningful. Two roommates who are Bears' fans watching with about 10 Packer fans at my house in Oshkosh. I think it's fair to say that this is a pretty fun atmosphere, but also pretty tense at the same time. I'm not lying to you when I say losing this game would completely ruin my week (until Friday at least...figure that one out for yourself). Anyway, let's move to the game...
Right off the bat, things looked pretty usual. The Packers jumped out to a lead just like they did against the Buffalo Bills last week thanks to a march down the field led by A-Rodg, who went on to sling a TD pass to Greg Jennings. Jennings seemingly disappeared after this happened. Then the Jay Cutler we all know and love showed up and threw a ball to Derrick Martin, who decided that kneeling in the endzone and being at the 20 wasn't for him and returned it to the GB 10 instead. Thanks for giving Rodgers some room to work with on that one, second string safety. Nice pick either way, I suppose. If you realize that the tone of this entry isn't going to be changing, I totally understand if you want to stop reading.
After the Bears and Packers watch their drives stall with the exception of a Mason Crosby field goal (in which a holding PENALTY was called late in a very promising drive), the Green Bay SPECIAL TEAMS unit watched as Devin Hester returned the ball 28 yards into Packer territory. Sadly, this was not the last we would see of Hester doing what he pleased. With good field position, Jay Cutler, like good quarterbacks do, led Da Bears to a touchdown right before halftime, sucking the momentum out of Green Bay. I'm surprised that Greg Olsen didn't get more targets...he owned us and only caught five passes. God bless our linebackers, but they couldn't cover a table if their lives depended on it.
Despite allowing a touchdown right before halftime, the Packers came out rolling to start the 3rd quarter. The opening drive was the Aaron Rodgers and Jermichael Finley show, but it soon turned into the Mark Tauscher show for all the wrong reasons. A blatant holding PENALTY by Tausch nullified a superb connection between Rodgers and SirMichael for a touchdown. The man he held? Julius Peppers. 4th down came a play later where our SPECIAL TEAMS unit returned at full form, opening the floodgates for the Bears line to enter through. Crosby's kick was blocked. The man who blocked it? Julius Peppers. The Packers went from being up 17-7 to 13-7 to 10-7. Talk about taking the wind out of your sails. Finally, the Packers caught a break at the end of the quarter when the Bears had a 4th and goal at the Green Bay 1. Yeah, I guess you've gotta go for it in this situation, and that's exactly what Lovie Smith decides to do. Desmond Clark was open. Cutler threw it to him. Clark dropped it. Bullet dodged. Lots of action in the third but no scoring. Bring on the 4th.
If it wasn't for that slugfest in the NFC Wild Card game between the Packers and Cardinals last January, I'm pretty sure this would have been the most painful and frustrating ending to a game that I've witnessed in a long time. Green Bay goes 3 and out deep in their own territory, so they have to punt from their own 5 yard line. You know what a great idea it would be to kick it out of bounds so Hester doesn't beat us again? I do. Mike McCarthy didn't. 14-10 Bears. SPECIAL TEAMS! And in the end, Lovie Smith looks like a genius for going for it on the previous drive. I CANNOT BELIEVE that McCarthy was out-coached by Lovie. It wasn't even close. Watching this game made me feel like I could be an NFL Head Coach.
The Packers, once again, bounced back admirably as Rodgers targeted pretty much every available receiver except for Jennings. After back up tight end Andrew Quarless dropped a sure touchdown pass (seems to be a recurring theme with back up tight ends), Rodgers scrambled to the right and dove over the pile-on for a touchdown. Hard not to have a man crush on that guy for the things he does week after week for this team. Now at this point in the game, I couldn't help but notice the disparity of penalties/penalty yards between the two teams. I was having trouble thinking of one penalty we didn't deserve. Oh, but don't you worry. The best is yet to come.
On the first play of the following Bears' drive, Cutler threw an interception to Nick Barnett. I thought we had the game sealed there for a split-second, but Frank Zombo for some reason had the desire to body slam Cutler into the ground (and who can really blame him) for a roughing the passer PENALTY. The drive continues. Two plays later, Nick Collins wants to get into the action and gives Matt Forte a nice little pile driver 2 years after the play was over for another 15 yard gift. By this point, the Bears were in Robbie Gould's range, and they ended their drive with a field goal. Packers 17, Bears 17. Here we go.
The Packers receive the ball and begin to drive down the field right off the bat with a Rodgers' 17 yard scramble. Unfortunately, Rodgers threw his next pass into the vicinity of a black hole and he's flagged for an intentional grounding PENALTY. I told you the best was yet to come. With the down second and with a distance of 20 to go, Green Bay picked up a solid 12 yards on a pass play. This was the last time the Packers' offense saw the field. James Jones fumbles (forced by Urlacher). The Bears recover the ball, which decided to barely stay in bounds. McCarthy challenges even though all of Packer Nation is collectively screaming at him not to. Good bye first timeout.
Goodness, this is depressing to recount. The Packers pick off Cutler deep in Green Bay territory, but...you guessed it! A PENALTY! Morgan Burnett had help coming over the top in Nick Collins, who would go on to intercept the pass. This didn't stop Morgan Burnett from essentially mugging Earl Bennett. Wipe out another interception. Now here comes the best part. So after the penalty, the Bears have a first and goal with over a minute remaining and the Packers only have one timeout to burn. The Bears will undoubtedly score, it's just a matter of time. SO WHY DON'T YOU LET THE BEARS SCORE HERE AND GIVE YOUR OFFENSE A CHANCE INSTEAD OF HOPING ROBBIE GOULD MISSES A CHIP SHOT FIELD GOAL WITH UNDER TEN SECONDS LEFT!?!?!?!? ARE YOU KIDDING ME? I NEVER see NFL teams do this, and low and behold, Mike McCarthy apparently doesn't do it, either. Good as Gould makes an 18 yard field goal with a whopping eight seconds to go and it's ova. The Bears win 20-17 in a game the Packers really deserved to win, but didn't at the same time thanks to a franchise record 17 PENALTIES. Special teams. Self-inflicted wounds. You can't do this on the road against a quality opponent and expect to win.
Still, there are some positives that we can get out of this one. No way in Hell does Green Bay kick shoot itself in the foot more than this for the rest of the season (or maybe ever). And they only lost by 3 to a solid Bears team. Maybe this loss was good for the Pack. There are 13 games to go and a lot can happen, for better or worse. I think there's nowhere to go but up after that fiasco...but for God's sake...why do we have to do this against the Bears?
Great Post! It was almost as good as watching the game! I think the massive amounts of disappointment I could sense in every single word that you wrote is what really did it for me. This post says exactly what your face (and I'm sure the faces of countless other poor misguided packer fans across Wisconsin) did when the clock went to 0:00 and the Bears took the field in victory.
ReplyDeleteI do realize had the Packers not shot themselves in the foot (multiple times) they would have probably beat the Bears. I am glad however you seem to admit that the game was called fair. I believe the packers deserved every penalty they got. I can't tell you how sick I am of hearing so called "packer fans" complain that there were so many bad calls in the game. Learn the rules!! Helmet to helmet contact IS roughing the passer and raping a receiver down field IS pass interference. Both teams played under their abilities, but the Bears were disciplined and the Packers were not that was the difference in the game.
I appreciate the two references to "a solid bears team" and "quality opponent." Its about time people recognize that the Bears are a good team.
Lastly I'm not all about kicking a man when he is down but for packer fans there is an exception.... GO BEARS!!
(This is a post by the true Bears fan that lives with Dave.)