Thread: The good news about the Bears: Now they'r re

The good news about the bad Bears: Now they're ready for the playoff
Ugly as any of the first 15 games, loss to the Packers did no damage to the Bears' playoff viability

David Haugh In the Wake of the News January 3, 2011


GREEN BAY, Wis. — As Lovie Smith finished rationalizing the Bears' 10-3 loss Sunday to the Packers at Lambeau Field, a familiar cry of Cheeseheads could be heard through walls thinner than sliced cheddar.

"Bears still suck! Bears still suck!"

Chicago cynics will feel the urge to join the chorus after the Bears gave up six sacks, scored three measly points and looked like a one-and-done Super Bowl wannabe.

Resist it.

Ugly as any of the first 15 games, this one did no damage to the Bears' playoff viability.

If you thought the Bears were good enough to beat the Eagles or Saints before kickoff — not exactly a Lambeau Leap of faith — then nothing happened that should change your mind. If you thought the Bears have been more lucky than good all along, then you were saying "I told you so" long before Nick Collins picked off Jay Cutler to clinch the Packers' playoff berth.

Cutler throwing two interceptions against the Packers doesn't mean he can't get as hot Jan. 16 at Soldier Field as he was in his last game there. With a few schematic tweaks, the same offense that gained a mere 227 yards against the Packers has shown enough resilience to morph back into the unit that exploded for 78 points in its two games before Sunday.

Local temperatures were in the 50s Friday and single digits Sunday. Compared with the Bears offense, winter weather in Chicago is consistent. That was a fact before the Packers drove it home.

The Packers didn't exploit anything. They survived. They did what they needed to do. Congratulate Mike McCarthy. But frost bite will last for some of the 70,833 fans longer than effects of this loss will linger for the Bears.

This is all I learned Sunday: Pack a lunch next time because the Packers stopped serving food at halftime.

I already knew the Bears offense will stop scoring if it stops worrying about balance as much as Mike Martz did against the Packers, when he reverted to a 70-30 pass-run ratio that invited the blitz. I suspected a Bears defense that struggled in December could get its act together. I realized the Bears aren't the same team when the opponent successfully punts away from Devin Hester.

The suggestion will be that the worst-case scenario unfolded for the Bears, that Smith risked injury by playing his starters in a so-called meaningless game — and his team still lost. That's wrong. The worst-case scenario would have included an ambulance and MRI machine. Outside of injuries Smith doesn't consider serious, the Bears will head into the postseason healthy.

Are the Bears any better for having gone all-out to win a game that would have accomplished only ousting their rivals from the playoffs? Confirming the need for offensive balance and experiencing a playoff-like atmosphere makes the answer a resounding yes.

But let that debate percolate over coffee Monday morning and fill your drive time. The better question is: Are they any worse?

They aren't.

"We just made too many mistakes," tight end Greg Olsen said. "We were playing our asses off. We were competing."

Before the game, Smith stayed consistent with the message that if the Packers treated it as a playoff game, so would the Bears. His players said as much. Showing so much respect for the opponent and the game earns Smith his due.

"Knowing that we had the bye week, we weren't playing for an awful lot. But we wanted to just keep momentum going," Smith said. "As we told you all week, 16-game schedule season-wise, it's a great opportunity for us to get into the playoff mode."

"Playoff mode" for the Bears also means chippy. The edge they left Wisconsin with is sharper than it would have been if they hadn't expended so much effort and come up empty-handed.

With his familiar scoff, Smith said he never considered pulling Cutler, even though you had to wonder sometime between the fifth and sixth sack whether Cutler had an HMO or PPO.

"Why would we do that? There was a game on the line and we were trying to win the game. That was never part of the mindset," Smith snapped.

Later, in a way Smith has patented, he turned an innocuous question about whether the defense got its swagger back into a perceived slight.

"You say 'get it back.' Did we lose it?" he said. "I don't think we lost it before. Teams are going to score points on you, but the defense has played great ball all year."

From Lovie to the last man out of the locker room, the disappointment was real, the defensiveness familiar.

Yep, the Bears look and sound ready for the playoffs after a day well-spent.