The Bears Aren't Dead Yet

I have to admit, I thought I was going to be writing the Bears' eulogy this morning. But apparently, they just don't want to die yet, and I'm fine with it. If they want to go out and win again next week, I won't mind that either.

Last night in Green Bay the Bears didn't play great football but they came out on top in the end, and that's all that matters. Brian Griese looked a lot more comfortable in his second game under center and, aside from the one interception he threw, he did the job the Bears need him to do.

He managed the game, and when it mattered, he made a couple of great throws to Greg Olson and Desmond Clark for touchdowns.

The one to Clark proved to be the game winner, and probably the best play call Ron Turner has made all season. I fully expected Cedric Benson to get the ball on that third and two, plow into the line for four feet, then fall down and hope Robbie Gould could make the field goal.

The Packers expected the same thing as they bit on the play action and allowed Clark to get free behind the defense where Griese found him for the game-winning score.

Of course, what helped the Bears more than anything last night was the Packers. They committed five turnovers, and 12 penalties, many coming at horrible times. Everytime the Packers stopped the Bears on a third down, it seemed they were flagged and gave the Bears a first down.

I'll take a win any way we can get it, but I wasn't very pleased with the run defense in the first half. The Packers came into the game as the worst running team in the NFL, but that didn't stop Deshawn Wynn from gashing the Bears for 8 yards a clip to start the game. I'm not sure what Lovie Smith said to the team at halftime, but from all accounts it was by far the most emotional and loud he'd ever been at the half, and it worked.

The defense came out in the second half and did a good job of limiting the Packers to only three second half points.

As for what this win means for the rest of the Bears season, I don't know. Yes, it saved the season for now, but it isn't like we're Super Bowl-bound all of a sudden. After the game ended last night, Silvio texted me with a simple question I'm asking myself this morning.

"So now what? Do we get excited about the Bears?"

Well, the Sox and Cubs are done and the Bulls don't start for another month. So at this point, yeah, what the hell else do we have to get excited about?

Looking at the Bears schedule, there isn't a team on there we can't beat. But at the same time each of those teams are just as capable of beating the Bears. So at this point I think we can be excited about yesterday's win, but if the Bears come out and lose next week against Minnesota, it's all for naught.

Monster of the Midway

• Charles Tillman - I was thinking of giving this to Cedric Benson and his amazing 2.4 yards per carry, but I'm going to have to go with Peanut on this one. I didn't even know that Tillman was going to play last night, but thank God he did. His two strips of James Jones on consecutive Packer possessions are what won this game for the Bears. Or at least, allowed the Bears to win. Without those two plays the Bears probably would have been down 21-0 in the second quarter, and they wouldn't have come back from that.

Dumbass of the Day

• Cedric Benson - Seriously, 2.4 yards per carry? I know not all of the blame can go to Cedric here, as the offensive line wasn't giving him much room to work with, but the Bears aren't going to win many more games with that kind of performance on the ground. Brian Griese isn't going to win games through the air, so Cedric needs to step up. I can't say for sure that Thomas Jones would be performing that much better than Benson right now, but at the moment, that trade looks like a mistake.