Cheeseheads not so Gouda at Soldier Field
What’s this?? Adrian Peterson runs for 100 yards rushing against the great Packer defense? Kyle Orton finds his tight end Desmond Clark for a touchdown and then Greg Olsen for the two-point conversion? Multiple turnovers by the Bears special teams by blocking punts? Brian Urlacher intercepting a Brett Favre pass and running for a touchdown?? Did I somehow time travel to last season??
Turns out the Bears were able to turn back the clock on Sunday and manufacture the most one-sided victory of the season against the hated Packers. Everything the Bears tried actually worked. The screen pass that has come up short all season suddenly looked perfect with Adrian Peterson and Garrett Wolfe giving the defense a speedy one-two punch they couldn’t catch up with. The Bears gave up a big 66 yard run to Ryan Grant but otherwise limited him to 100 yards rushing. When you exclude that big play he ran for 34 yards on 13 carries for 2.6 yards per carry. This was a Bears team that was not giving the Packers any easy yards. Favre looked terrible, going 17 of 32 for 153 yards and 2 interceptions. After the game, Favre complained about the bitter cold as if looking for sympathy and understanding despite the fact the Bears seemed to play just fine under the conditions.
There is no doubt the conditions were bad. It was about 17 degrees at Soldier Field and the wind chill made it feel like it was -1 degrees. Let me tell you right now, that’s what you’ll read about tomorrow but I was sitting in the stands and it felt much colder. The wind never let up the whole game and any exposed skin felt like it was on fire. I removed my glove to take my flask out of my back pocket and it took me a good 15 minutes to warm my hand enough where it wasn’t in pain.
That’s still no excuse for Favre, considering everyone else was playing their hearts out. Urlacher looked like his old self, lending me to believe that the bitter cold conditions may have created an environmental ice pack for his back and gave him more mobility. We’ll take what we can get right now.
The Packers are 12-3 on the season, losing twice to the Bears. What’s this I see in major Chicago newspapers telling me there is no rivalry?? If that’s not a sign of a thriving rivalry, I don’t know what is. Oh, and let’s not forget the Bears officially knocked the Packers out of home field advantage for the playoffs. The likely showdown between Green Bay and Dallas will take place in Dallas, although from the looks of Favre today, he might prefer the weather in Texas than his own Green Bay.
At least for one day, the Chicago Bears were able to remember what made them NFC Champions a year ago and gave them something to build upon for next year.