Well I guess the season isn’t over after all! There was some comical over-reacting by fans and local media after the Bears week 1 loss to Buffalo, but the Bears are back in the NFC North mix after a surprising 28-20 win on the road over the San Francisco 49ers. In reality, the Bears are exactly where most fans and analysts thought they would be going into week 3 with a 1-1 record. How they got there doesn’t matter, but it was a big win Sunday night, basically cancelling out the home loss to Buffalo. The Bears are on the road again in week 3 for a Monday night match-up vs the Jets, which is a winnable game even though the Bears are 1.5 point underdogs.
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Sunday night’s game looked like a disaster for most of the first half, but the Bears got a TD late in the half and then fought like crazy in the 2nd half to steal the victory. There were plenty of heroes on both sides of the ball and I’ll touch on a few of them below. This week’s takeaways are much more positive than last week, but there are still quite a few areas that need improvement.
1.) Brandon Marshall / Alshon Jeffery are warriors
Both Marshall and Jeffery were playing with injuries serious enough that neither man was expected to play this week. Marshall said he was 80% sure he wasn’t playing before adrenaline took over in warm-ups and he changed his mid. The Bears are lucky he did. Marshall wasn’t moving as well as he usually does, but there was nothing wrong with his hands and he snagged 3 TD passes. His first one was the most important as the Bears were down 17-0 and looking hopeless, when on 3rd & 2 Marshall reached up and made a ridiculous 1-handed TD grab. To quote wordsmith Chris Collinsworth, “Wow… That’s just… I just… wow” Thanks Chris.
Alshon Jeffrey was in worse shape and basically just fell down after his 3 catches (47 yards), but Jeffery just being on the field helped the Bears. Both Jeffery and Marshall understood the importance of this game and gutted out solid performances to help the Bears pull of a victory. Back-up WRs Santonio Holmes, Jay Bellamy, and Chris Williams were non-factors and the Bears would be 0-2 without Marshall and Jeffrey’s gutsy performances Sunday.
2.) Mr 4th Quarter is back!
At least we won’t have to read any BS articles about Cutler not being a leader this week. After he was ripped apart in the media following the Buffalo loss, Cutler deserves some effusive praise after he led the Bears to a stunning comeback win. His stats weren’t special (23/34, 176 yards), but his 4th quarter accuracy was (5-5, 3 TDs) and his 4 overall TD passes and 119 QB rating were good enough for the win against an excellent defense in a hostile environment. With only 12% of 0-2 teams making the playoffs historically, that was as close as you get to a must win game in week 2 and Cutler stepped up in the 2nd half and led the Bears to a victory. The fact that Cutler hung in there after taking a vicious hit in the sternum, that would have knocked out plenty of QBs, is even more impressive.
3.) Another solid game from the offensive line
The Niners D was missing some big names like Aldon Smith and Navarro Bowman, but they are still a top 5 unit and a major challenge for a Bears offensive line missing two starters (Garza, Slausen). Starters Jermon Bushrod, Kyle Long, and Garza’s replacement, Brian de la Puente, all graded out solidly for the day. Right tackle Jordan Mills had some trouble (as usual) and Slausen’s replacement, rookie Michael Ola, gave up a sack but on the whole the O-line played pretty well. For the second week in a row the Bears faced an excellent defensive line and ignored the run game (more on that later) forcing Cutler to drop back 44 times (51 last week), but only gave up 1 sack on the day. The Bears haven’t run enough to know what they can do in the run game, but the O-line has been good in pass protection averaging just 1 sack allowed per 32 pass attempts, despite starting two reserves against two tough D-lines.
4.) Charles Tillman will be missed
When the cameras panned to Tillman after his injury and tears were rolling down his face, it got a little dusty in the Flan cave. Tillman, a former 2nd round pick, has been a Bear for all of his 12 year career and possibly the best corner back in Bears history. Tillman is 2nd all-time in Bears history with 36 INTs (2 behind Gary Fencick) and forced the most fumbles in Bears history with 42 using his “Peanut Punch” technique. Tillman forced 10 fumbles in 2012 which is an NFL record and also holds the NFL record for most forced fumbles in a game (4). Somehow Tillman has only made 2 Pro Bowls and 1 all-Pro team, but he is the best Bears defensive back that I have seen since I started watching the team in 1984.
With all the negative off-field issues plaguing the NFL right now, the league should be shining the spotlight on players like Charles Tillman. He started the Cornerstone Foundation to help critically ill children in Chicago and has won three Brian Piccolo awards, the Ed Block Courage award, the Salute to Service award, and the NFL’s Walter Payton Man of the Year award in 2013. He will be missed this year, but I’m not convinced that Peanut’s career is over; This season clearly is as the Bears have already placed Tillman on injured reserve, but I wouldn’t be shocked if Tillman came back to the Bears in 2015 to solve their free safety problem. I hope so at least, cause the Bears are a much better team both on and off the field with Tillman on the roster.