Some thoughts on yesterdays game, while wondering if anyone will ever tackle Adrian Peterson (Min)…

• Ugh.
• When I revised my thoughts and picked the Bears for four wins this year after seeing how bad they were, this was one of those wins.  Now - I see the Bears maybe beating Detroit in a couple weeks, but that’s about it.  There’s noone else on the schedule that should lose to the Bears.
• In fact, the Bears are probably four players away from being the worst team in the League.  Maynard and Gould are still just about automatic.  Olsen is looking like a real good pick.  And that Hester guy.  They are the only players keeping the Bears above the Rams as the worst team in the NFL, and I think the Bears might just lose if the game were in St. Louis.
• So what was good about yesterdays game?  Hester, certainly - they need to figure out a way to get him the ball more.  Muhammad made a nice catch in what looked from the sideline like quadruple coverage and got the Bears back w/in 7.  But that’s all I got.
• What was bad?  Let’s break it down as always.
• Offense - wasn’t as pathetic as normal, and actually had some success running the Ball.  Benson was doing a pretty good job against what has been a very stout run defense.  But then they stop using him.  I’m still not sure why Wolfe needed to be in there for that one series in the second quarter, completely killing any momentum they might have had.
• Speaking of Benson, every time you think he might be turning into something, every time you think ‘well, he’s a young back, maybe he just needed multiple starts under his belt’, every time you think he might not be a complete waste of a pick, he goes and drops a wide-open - and I mean WIDE OPEN - pass right to him.
• Even with that, he was still running the ball well, but they stopped giving the ball to him the way they were in the first half.  And while Benson can, apprantly, get some yardage on a sweep on occasion, they need to use that occasionally instead of every other running play.  Benson is going to be at his best running off-tackle.  He just doesn’t have the speed to consistently make the corner on a sweep.
• Not a lot of flat-out drops amongst the recivers today.  Some on a few passes that weren’t really on target, so I don’t know they can be considered ‘drops’, but overall, no real complaints about the recievers.
• I like Olsen a lot.  The Bears need to use him more, which also should free up Clark on double TE sets.  Much like Hester, they need to get him the ball.
• Hester.  My goodness.  The Vikings *had* to know they might go deep to him, and yet they somehow let him get past the entire secondary anyway for the briefly-tying touchdown.  Don’t use him on end-arounds - I just don’t see that working much.  Use his speed.  And use it not only to get him the ball, but to free up others.
• Also can’t say the offensive line was horrible.  They still weren’t as good as last year, but at least they weren’t worthless.
• I have nothing good to say about the defense yesterday.  Well, that’s not true - at least they didn’t let Adrian Peterson (Min) set the record for rushing or total yards.  But that’s all I got.
• Coverage was awful.  Tackling was awful.  Pressure was awful.  Line was awful.  Secondary was pathetic.  Linebackers were eh.
• Is there any chance we can use the lemon law to get whatever we paid Washington back for Archuleta?  He’s awful.  He may be the most worthless player on this team.  I have yet to see him make a good play this year, although I suppose it’s possible he made a nice handoff of some Gatorade to a fellow player on the sideline.
• While losing Mike Brown was bad last year, we seemed to be deep enough to withstand it.  This year, it seems to be an absolute season-killer.
• Special teams - they had a couple good plays, that being a field goal and just the fact they have Hester and the Vikings were dumb enough to kick to him - but other than that, they didn’t play well.  They weren’t covering kickoffs well at all yesterday, the worst job being on the last kickoff after managing to tie the game.  Just bad all around.
• They would have been better off letting Peterson (Min) run it back for a touchdown, taking the kickoff, and trying to get Hester deep again.
• And while players deserve a lot of blame yesterday, the coaching was just as bad.  No adjustments made at halftime for a guy that was running through them like a Pop Warner team.  They trot out Wolfe for ‘his series’ even though Benson was actually somewhat effective to that point, and then get away from the running game altogether.  Tackling.  Kicking off to Peterson on that last kickoff.  I could go on, but you get the point.
• The fact the Bears lost - at home - to a team that is just not that good simply proves that the Beare are worse than not that good, and that last week in Green Bay was a mirage.  Quite frankly, any additional wins this season should be considered a bonus.
• Finally, Adrian Peterson (Min) ruined my birthday.  This was the first time I’ve been able to go to a game on my actual birthday, and could always be the last, since even when my birthday falls on a Sunday, you always have a slightly less than 50% chance of getting a home game that particular weekend (with away games and the bye week taking up the other side).  So for ruining my day yesterday, I’ll use my birthday wish for a season-ending knee injury to said Peterson (which is down from my wish yesterday for a carerr-ending knee injury).  Oh, and I’m now back to having the Vikings as my least favorite team in the league.GO BEARS (For that top-three pick, cuz that’s all  you’re good for this year)

GO BEARS (for that top-3 pick, since that’s all you’re good for this season)

Some thoughts on last nights game while wondering if the Bears will ever give up on Benson…

• Three words.  Ho.  Lee.  Crap.
• I’m shocked.  I haven’t been this shocked about a Bears win since the Bears won up in Green Bay the day after Payton died on the blocked field goal attempt.
• The Bears were clearly the inferior team BY FAR the first half.  The only reason they were even ‘in’ the game was due to Tillman’s efforts in stripping the ball twice.  If not for Tillman, this game is probably the blowout a lot of people - including myself - expected it to be.
• The offense was simply horrible in the first half.  On both turnovers, they couldn’t even get a first down.  Granted, they were helpful from keeping the Packers from scoring more points, but to not even get a first down on both those fumble recovories was just sad.
• Why do we keep giving Benson the ball?  He had one nice drive, where he got the touchdown, but that’s it.
• Now, I will say that because they kept giving Benson the ball, even though he was doing very little with it, the play-action pass to Clark for the winning touchdown was open.  But that had more to do with giving the running back position the ball than Benson.
• I remain convinced the Benson was the worst draft pick the Bears have made since I started paying attention to them.
• Griese did a much better job last night.  It seemed that last week was definitely a case of rust rather than just being bad.  That’s not to say he won’t have his weeks where you realize why this is his fourth team, but play like last night - at least in the second half - will keep the Bears in a lot of games.
• The offensive line, while still not great, was better last night.  Griese didn’t seem to be quite as much under attack as last week.
• Hey - the Bears actually realized they have Tight Ends!!!  Now if they can just remember that.
• Nice to see Olsen get his first TD.  Not sure if he would have come in bounds if he wasn’t pushed at all, but I’ll take it.  And just a great play by Clark on the winning TD.
• Lovie Smith is now 4-0 in Green Bay.  Whatever else you want to say about him, that’s awfully impressive, because Lambeau - whether the Packers are good or not - is a damn tough place to play.
• The WRs weren’t really heard from much last night.  Which is good - means they weren’t dropping passes.  Berrian being out w/ some sort of toe injury probably helped that somewhat.
• The Defense was all sorts of bad in the first half.  But they were as good in the second as they were bad in the first.  Or, maybe Green Bay just played that badly in the second half.   Probably a little of both.
• Still, none of that probably would have mattered if Brett didn’t have a ‘Farve’ moment (ESPNs words, not mine) and thrown the ball right to Urlacher.  Not a good decision on his part.
• Once again, great job by Tillman in the first half creating two fumbles.  He was the only good player for the defense in the first half.
• And outstanding job by Maynard following the play on his punt and recovering the fumble - and doing all of it in bounds.
• Hester obviously didn’t have a lot going on last night, as the Packers were clearly kicking away from (or over) him.  But the one punt return late in the game was still impressive.  Inside the 10, and 4 guys coming unblocked towards him - and he still manages to get through that line and up to the 20.  It wasn’t a huge return, but there are very few people in the league - if there even is anyone else - that can do that.
• And even when Hester doesn’t get kicked to, he still puts them in good field position.  If teams want to give the Bears the ball outside the 30 every time just to avoid kicking to Hester, I’m perfectly OK with that.
• Please hurry back, Vahser.  Manning is clearly lost at CB.
• Outstanding job by McGowan on the last play of the game.  Driver was right there for the ball, but McGowan just went up and took that ball for himself.  Can’t believe it was that close, but they/he got it done.
• Special teams had problems on kick and punt coverage again, but other than that were solid.  I was disappointed we couldn’t get a kick blocked for the fifth week in a row, although Urlacher was damn close.
• Ron Turner gets a lot of crap from, well, everyone over his play calling, and deservedly so (at least in my opinion).  But the two plays he called for the last two touchdowns - going for the jugular right away on the pass to Olsen after the Urlacher INT and the play-action to Clark - were some of the best play calls I’ve seen out of him in a long time.
• Finally, regardless of the fact the Bears won last night, I’m not convinced that they’ve turned some sort of corner.  I think Griese will be OK now that he has a couple weeks behind him now (or, at least, he can’t use rust as an excuse), but Benson is still awful, the offensive line play has been mixed at best, and even the defense hasn’t seemed quite as good as they did the first few weeks.  I think the Packers lost the game last night more than the Bears won it, but a win is still a win.  I do think the Bears should be able to beat the Vikings this week, but at this point, I still don’t see them getting to 8 wins for the year.  I hope I’m as wrong about that as I was in predicting the game last night.

Still, since they won last night, GO BEARS!!!!