Bears 17 - Panthers 20
Oh, it was painful to watch the end of this game. When you end up on the wrong end of the score, you've got to hope you've gotten there because the other team flat out beat you. But that didn't happen today.
I know that a lot of attention is going to fall on Greg Olsen for his two fumbles, and rightly so. They were certainly game-changers, and not in a good way. And I'm sure there's going to be a lot of ball control work this week at practice for the young man. But I contend that those drops could have been overcome.
No, the Bears lost this game with about two and a half minutes left when they forgot who they were.
Let's go back in time - not too far. Just a month ago.
It was then that coach Lovie Smith named Kyle Orton his starting quarterback. At the time, it was sold as the safe option. Rex Grossman is too inconsistent, there's just too much instability there. But Kyle, he can better manage the offense. He's an offense manager. A conservative choice. The kind of guy who will allow the defense and special teams to shine, and do enough to keep the team on the right side of the win column.
But with two and a half minutes left to play, after a 9-yard Matt Forte run, someone decided that the Bears were an arial juggernaut. So much so that they can afford to pass on 2nd down and 1 in a game in which they're behind by three with just over two minutes left. And when the incomplete didn't serve as enough of a lesson, they repeated the folly. Leaving them one chance to take that one yard by the ground. Which failed.
Really, there needed to be three runs at that yard. We have running backs who provide different looks, who have different skills. One of them could have made it through. Yes, the Panthers would be expecting it. And as Brett Favre/Thomas Jones proved today, multiple runs at that one yard don't always work. But with where the Bears were on the field, and with the amount of time left, the runs were the right call. Nothing tricky. Just ball control. Moving the chains. Save the fireworks for another, more appropriate time.
The Bears forgot who they were. They forgot that their offense is designed to move forward slowly and steadily. They got too clever. And they lost.
They didn't have to.
CHILI DAN
