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Empty Win for Bears Over St. Louis
Published: December 6, 2009
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Greetings, Bears fans. So we won today. We beat a team with one win by eight at home in a game that wasn’t decided until 17 seconds were left in the game.
Forgive me for not streaking down the street screaming “We Won!” A win is a win, but shouldn’t this one be filed under the “moral loss” category?
Granted, we did some things well; it was nice to see us decide to play defense on third down this game.
But for the most part, nothing we did today made me feel like we can win more than one game the rest of the season (I love playing the Lions twice a year). Let’s take a quick look at the stats.
We had 126 rushing yards on 35 carries against the 28th-rated rush defense in the league. It was nice to see us establish the run and stick to it.
On our second touchdown drive, we ran the ball 10 times and passed it three times.
We still didn’t have any breakout runs, though. Forte had a long run of 15 yards, and Bell had a long of just 9.
Remember just two years ago, when we all knocked Benson for dancing around too much in the backfield and not being able to break the big one? Forte is slowly slipping into that same category, whether we want to admit it or not.
You can point fingers to the O-line if you want to, but just look at the other side of the field. The Rams O-line might be worse than ours but Stephen Jackson doesn’t seem to have a problem running the ball this year.
Comparing Forte to Jackson is unfair, but the point is that it isn’t just our O-line’s fault that we are not running well.
In the passing game, Cutler had a very Ortonesque line: 8-of-17 for 143 yards and a touchdown. Cutler should have had a better line, he had a couple balls dropped and no one can deny that the third down pass to Bennett wasn’t a pass interference.
We had success throwing the ball deep early in the game. We should have stuck with it, but you can’t argue against the strategy of running the ball when you have the lead against a team whose offense wasn’t doing anything.
Now onto the highlights.
Forte fumbles the ball in our own territory. For the rest of this article I am going to call him Cedric Benson V2.0 or 2.0 for short.
Tommy Harris gets called for being offsides. It’s annoying, but at least he’s attempting to do something. Oh, how the mighty have fallen.
Cutler tosses a deep one to Hester for 48 yards. Now that’s what I’m talking about. Hester went up and made a sweet grab. When I saw that pass go up I was gonna be happy with anything that wasn’t a pick.
Pass interference on Knox…and Ron Turner reintroduces our best play into the game. Throw a deep bomb to our fastest receiver and pray for the penalty. This play worked great for us in the 2007 season.
2.0 breaks off a one-yard run for a TD. It took him three tries, but hey, at least he didn’t fumble. CHI 7, STL 0
Hester calls for a fair catch on our seven-yard line. Even kids in high school know you are supposed to put your heels on the 10-yard line.
Terrific catch and run between Cutler and Bennett. Got him right in stride and he was able to out run most of the defense. Bennett’s speed is often overlooked because of Knox and Hester. Fumbled at the end, but he was lucky enough to fumble out of bounds.
Gould’s kick is good from the nine-yard line. This might not be the end I wished for, but points are always better than turnovers…more on this later. CHI 10, STL 0
On the defensive side, we’re playing really well. Our pass rush is getting to Boller and we have contained Jackson really well. No complaints here.
Another punt downed inside the 10. We are lucky our D is containing them, because otherwise this game could have gotten out of hand for us.
2.0 rushes the ball three times for eight yards. We have to be able to get out of that bind. This won’t be the last time we get pinned down this season, let alone this game.
We have to call a timeout because we don’t have enough men out on the field. Bell was the culprit. Rookie mistake, but you hate to see him make it in this situation.
About fives minutes of mediocre football. Nothing to write home about.
The volcano ends up being in the right place at the right time and takes the pick back to the 16. Good to see our defense getting turnovers again.
Can someone who isn’t certifiably insane tell me why we tried that fake field goal? Do we really need to start getting cocky now and say that we can beat the Rams with only 10 points on the board? Always take the points.
Our defense lets up a bit and lets the Rams drive down most of the field. Rams only saw one third down this drive and the D stepped up. They played well in the red zone and that’s what counts. Rams get a short field goal. CHI 10, STL 3
A very frustrating end to the half. We have one timeout and bring in a QB utilized for end-of-the-half drives. We get sacked and then run out the clock. Are we now in a war of attrition with the Rams?
The defense forces a quick three-and-out, and Hester runs the punt backwards three yards. Back to the 2008 Bears. Somewhere, Brian Urlacher is smiling.
Short field leads to a Rams field goal. They gained 19 yards in total—with 15 of them being on a facemask. I wish we could play the Rams twice a year as well. CHI 10, STL 6
Knox has a sick return. This guy has speed and moves…but wait, penalty on the play. Our A.P. held a guy on the 34—a huge 49-yard swing.
2.0 has a great start to the drive but sputters out in the red zone. We have to to be able to punch it in when we are that close. Luckily, Cutler and Bennett bail us out.
Am I the only one that was surprised that a pass play in the red zone actually worked? CHI 17, STL 6
Bears and Rams exchange a couple of three-and-outs. It can’t be stressed enough how boring, painful this game was to watch.
Rams get an impressive 50-yard field goal from Josh Brown. Tip your cap to someone who can make a kick of that length in Soldier Field. CHI 17, STL 9
Bears spend most of the rest of the game running the ball with 2.0 and Bell. They break off some pretty good ones. We only attempt a few passes here, but mainly we were trying to run down the clock.
We knew that the Rams couldn’t do much with the ball in their hands. The game ends when Boller overthrows Gibson on a fourth-and-10 pass.
That’s about it. We won the game. Bears fans can only savor this for a minute before the grim reality of getting killed by the Packers next week sets in.
Read more NFL news on BleacherReport.com
The C.U.T.L.E.R. System
Published: November 30, 2009
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For those of you who don’t watch the show “It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia” on FX, the “D.E.N.N.I.S System” is a patented method of how to get a girl to love you and then completely break her heart. The C.U.T.L.E.R System is very similar to this, except it involves a city instead of a girl. Let us begin.
