The Bears just finished their season about an hour ago. They ended it on a bad note, but also a good note in a way. They lost to the Green Bay Packers, but the good part was that they weren't going to back down just because they had already sealed the 2nd seed and after the falcons won could not get the 1st seed. They wanted to beat the Packers it would have been a better story if they would have won, but that's all right. They played hard and only a couple people got hurt and they are minor injuries. This was a good risk to take because if they would have won the fans would have loved it and I think the fans loved it either way. But, lets move on to the rest of the season. I will start from the beginning.
Week 1
The Bears were playing the Lions in this game. With a 0-4 pre-season I was a little doubtful about whether the Bears would win or not, especially because it was looking like Detroit was starting to build a pretty good team. I was on the road during the time of this game, so I was listening on the radio. I didn't quite get the full experience but I found myself saying yes and no and come on about half of the ride. I remember that the Bears scored with only like one minute left and then the Lions marched right on down the field and they threw a pass to Calvin Johnson and it was complete, no wait it was incomplete. Then there was a review and the refs said that there was this rule that you have to be able to come up from the catch and hand the ball to the ref and Johnson apparently could not do that. The Bears got lucky and left that game with a win. Already the Bears were starting a controversy about themselves.
Week 2
I remember going into this game praying that the Bears might get lucky and actually win. I was not impressed at all with the way they played against Detroit, so I thought they had no chance to beat the Cowboys. They went into that game and they won it. They were undefeated. I know a lot of Cowboy fans kept saying that the Cowboys beat themselves not the Bears, but the Bears played one of their best games of the year and they flatout won. By that time I was super happy that the Bears had not lost yet. Seeing they lost all their preseason games this was huge to beat a team that was supposed to be one of the best in the league this year.
Week 3
Both teams entered undefeated. It was the greatest rivalry in sports at its best. Each team fighting for an early lead over the NFC North. The Bears didn't start very well and they played kind of sloppy, but the Packers played worse. They had 19 penalties and if a team wins with that many penalties the other team has some problems. This is the game that surprised me even more than when I found out that the Bears beat the Cowboys. This meant we beat the Packers, remained undefeated, and lead the NFC North. Those are all really good things for a football team that was predicted last in some polls.
Week 4
Enter the sloppiness and the bad stretch. Jay Cutler was sacked way too many times and was eventually knocked out of the game with a concussion. I was excited about this game at the start because I was hoping the Bears would continue to be undefeated. They did not and they lost. This was probably one of their worst games this season. This was the first game where the terrible offensive line was exposed. Some of the players were just letting guys threw or that's what it looked like. The Bears looked like they were in trouble.
Week 5
Todd Collins was forced to start this game because of Jay Cutler's concussion. Let me tell you I have not seen anyone play the quarterback position worse than he did in that game. Yet, the Panthers are awful and we are lucky the one week we didn't have Cutler we were playing them. We got away with a win, and got ready for the next week against another "easy" opponent.
Week 6
The Bears were playing the Seahawks in this game and they figured this was going to be another easy win. We went in with the wrong attitude and we lost. This was our down time in the season, we were looking bad and we lost this game even though we should have won. We could beat this team. Our offensive line looked bad again and our offense all-together looked bad. We were a lost team. Our defense and special teams were the only things giving us any points. We needed a win and we were playing another team we should have beat.
Week 7
We played the Redskins in this game and we should have won. I don't even mean that in we should have played better and actually won. I mean that if Lovie would have challenged that one Jay Cutler play we would have won this game. Lovie decided not to and talks of him being fired came up again because apparently that is bad decision making. I agree. This is a game we could have and should have won and yet we were finding a way to lose. After the bye week we would find our way to win, instead of lose and fixed many of our problems.
Week 8
Bye Week.
Week 9
In this game we played the Bills. They are another one of those easy teams. Fans were hoping the Bears wouldn't lose to another low grade team. The Bears came out of their bye week looking good. The offensive line looked a lot better. They were running the ball more, which took a lot of pressure off of Jay Cutler and the offense ran well. They still weren't ready to face high caliber teams, but they were getting better. This game started a 5 game win streak that helped lead us to winning the NFC North and to being the number 2 seed.
Week 10
This game was against the Vikings. I remember watching this game and almost everything was going right. During Bears games I often get stressed out, but this was one of the few where everything ran smoothly. This was the game where I thought the true Bears that are in the Playoffs now came out. The offense ran better than it ever had before and the defense was staying tough against a great quarterback and running back.
Week 11
We played the Dolphins this week and we got lucky some people say that we played their third string. I would agree with that, but we still had to go there and play. We had to win that game regardless of who their quarterback was and we did it. This was another good sign and a good week. People could really see the offense come together and the defense was the constant in all of this. They stayed tough and helped the Bears win a lot of their games this season.
Week 12
The defining game. This was the game where people actually took us seriously and found out that we could beat big teams. The Eagles were hot. Michael Vick was playing like an MVP and they were one of the best teams in the NFC at the time. The Bears went into this game and flat out outplayed them. Jay Cutler outplayed Michael Vick. The defense was huge and made a great game winning play when they intercepted Michael Vick's pass near the end zone. After this the Bears weren't a team that kept getting lucky and winning, we were a real contender.
Week 13
A rematch with the Lions. We knew they might be playing with a little revenge on their minds because they actually deserved to win the first game. We were the hot team now and we went in and beat the struggling Lions. This wasn't a monumental win, it was just the Bears taking care of business again. The next week would be the hardest of them all.
Week 14
This is a game I don't even want to talk about. It was freezing cold and their was snow and we got manhandled by Brady and their offense. Our defense looked terrible. They were on their heels the whole game. They disappointed a lot of people in Chicago who were looking for another win over a heavyweight team. It didn't happen and exposed more issues.
Week 15
If the Bears thought that the last week was cold and snowy they were in for a treat. This week they had to play the Vikings outdoors in the middle of a blizzard almost. It was terrible conditions, but the field was taken care of well and the Bears played better than the Vikings did. Cory Wooton took down Favre early in the game and we found out this week that this blow was the blow that ended Brett Favre's career.
Week 16
Now we were playing another power team from the AFC East and we weren't going to let what happened to us last time happen again. This game the tables were turned. The offense played very well, but the defense did not play well at all. The thing about this game is that it showed us that when one side of the ball doesn't play well the other one steps up. Most of the season the defense was stepping up for the offense, but in this game the offense stood up for the defense. It also proved that we could actually win a game at home.
Week 17
I already talked about this week so I will make it short and sweet. I like the fact that starters played the whole game. It showed that the Chicago Bears never give up and they never stop fighting just because they have nothing to fight for. We weren't going to lose that game because we didn't try. We were going to try and however it turned out we were okay with that.
Overall I'd say this was a great year for the Bears. A lot of players hit huge milestones and the team hit a huge milestone. We are back in the playoffs for the first time since we went to the Super Bowl. We are doing a lot of things right, but during our bye week we have a lot to work on and I think we will. We are going to go into the playoffs prepared and hopefully win our first game and be in the NFC Championship game.
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