Let us start this by recalling something a Packers fan left us prior to this game:

I guess the eating is going to be done by their side today.

The Bears will miss the playoffs, but they got the next best thing.  They swept the Green Bay Packers and in a big way.  The QB spot is still a sore spot as Orton threw for 101 yards, 1TD and 0INT. Adrian Peterson had a good game with 102 yards and 1TD.

As was last year defense and special teams won the game.  Corey Graham ran back a TD on a Charles Tillman blocked punt and Urlacher had a 85 yard INT return for  a TD.

Favre threw for only 158 yards and had no TDS and 2 INTs.  Grant had 100  yards, but 66 of that was on his one TD run.  The Bears kept him in check the rest of the day.

The Bears still played spoiler even though they lost.  With the Bears going down, Detroit, Philly and Arizona along with the Bears are out of the play off race.

I really don't want to look at the stats, the offense was horrible.

The defense and special teams both played well enough to win.  Urlacher in particular had a good game with an INT, a fumble recovery and 2 sacks.

More on this one tomorrow.

The Bears tried really hard to win this thing in the first half, then they tried really hard to lose it in the second.  Unfortunately, they did the latter.

Today had a lot of promise, Grossman came out looking good and for the most part stayed that way.  He did have some overthrows and still has no idea how to step up in the pocket, but again he didn't lose this game.

This game was about crappy offensive line play, missed opportunities and penalties.

In the first half the Bears walked away with three FGs, all three could have been TDs, had it not been for untimely sacks and all too often false starts and a horrible personal foul on Terrance Metcalf.

Grossman finished with 296, 1TD and 0INTs and made some big throws, including one that would have been a sure TD on a long pass that Devin Hester dropped.

Peterson seemed to mimic the results Benson was getting totaling 67 yards on the ground.  I guess the difference is Peterson is a better receiver as Grossman and Peterson hooked up a few times to move the chains.  Peterson led all receivers with 7 catches for 82 yards.

The defense played both fantastic at times bringing the turnover back to Chicago and awful at times allowing Derrick Ward to top 100 yards in the fist half.  He finished with 154 and 1TD.

The Giants consistently kicked the ball out of bound and gave the ball to the Bears on the 40 though not on purpose, but the Bears did little to make them pay for it.

Again, the Bears are not mathematically out of it there is very little left the Bears can do.  If they didn't need a ton of help before now they need pretty much a miracle to make the play offs.

The Bears have been apart of two of the most exciting games this season, the first sadly was Adrian Peterson's break out game.  That game had 5 touchdowns over 60 yards and this game.  Two return TDs for Devin Hester which included a juke of Chicken Poop and the other right over him.  It also had some great catches for TD including Berrian's for the tie and Denver's Tony Scheffler who hauled down a catch among almost the entire Bears secondary.

Grossman had another efficient game with 193 yards with 1 TD and 1 INT.  If Grossman can maintain this type of play, this offense can put some points on the board, unfortunately that comes with a big IF.  Benson was off to another good start with a 5.6 average on 8 carries for 47 yards, but went down early and did not play again.  He was later seen on the sidelines on crutches, more on that later.  Peterson had 45 yards with a 2.6 average, but had some man size runs.  One for a TD with with half of the Broncos D on him and a big first down run in OT.

The defense still has a way to go before they can claim to be anywhere like they used to be.  Over 300 yards to Cutler and 98 the latest Schmoe Denver stuck back there.

Charles Tillman had an INT and a blocked punt.

Garrett Wolfe also got in the act with a 25 yard run.

The Bears move to 5-6 and are one game out of the playoff race, granted there are 7 teams with 5 wins, but Detroit has a brutal schedule remaining and they will fall and with Manning having his usual late season breakdown the Giants likely will as well.

I really have not looking forward to talking about this game.  Never has there been a Bears game where my pre-game hopes and excitements were met as the game started, and never have they faded so quickly.  Our team is on life support and suddenly we are one loss from having the plug proverbially pulled.  The prospect of us escaping the next two games unbeaten is slim, let alone winning out on the season.  After last nights game Denver looks good.  The Giants have proved that they can be dominant at times.  Washington looks all but done, but I don't know if we can beat them on the road.  We should get Minnesota, but Green Bay will be tough with them jockeying fro home field advantage with the Cowboys.  Then New Orleans could be fighting for their playoff lives at the end of the season.  We do not have an easy road by any stretch of the imagination.  

However daunting out schedule looked, I have never been so giddy about an offense like I was this week.  It really set in when the game started.  I couldn't wait to see Grossman back in action.  I can't help it.  I have always been a fan of his, but then as the game started the unthinkable happened.  Benson went off and I couldn't get over it.  He ran like a possessed man.  Suddenly, he looked as if his ability to doge two defenders and out-run a defensive back were quite tangible and not a mere figment of our imaginations.  His run was a nut shot to Seattle, but unlike Bas Rutten, the Bears couldn't finish the job.

Furthermore, more players and personnel keep attaching themselves to the hate train.  What is the hate train you ask?  I will tell you.  It is a monstrosity in my mind that is fed by the insubordination and shenanigans by any given member of the Bears organization.  The train has grown large, especially this week with the coaching staff leading the charge.  I will get to that later time, because I don't like to start with the negative aspects of a game.  In fact, its almost too much for me to deal with.  After the jump we will look at the game.

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The Bears didn't have to have this game to make the playoffs, but they sure could have used it.

Benson had what I believe is the best run of his NFL career breaking off a 43 yarder for a TD. He had 46 yards on 10 attempts for a 4.6 yard average outside that run.  Adrian Peterson went 11 yards including a TD.

Grossman had an alright day throwing for 266 with no INTs, but also no TDs.

Grossman was moving the ball around fairly well.  Bernard Berrian had 9 receptions for 102 yards. Mushin Muhammad had 71 yards and Olsen had 43.

Devin Hester had 4 kickoff returns for a total of 116 yards.

I don't know how much ones takes away from a game like this.  On the plus side Grossman played well, but that doesn't exactly mean he is on the road to recovery.

The defense didn't do much of anything to inspire confidence allowing 337 through the air and 103 total on the ground.

With Detroit, Minnesota, New Orleans and Carolina all taking the loss the Bears had an opportunity to make some head way in the NFC playoff race.

It looked bleak at times and when Brian Griese went out it looked worse, but with two TDs late in the 4th quarter the Bears get the win and move to 4-5.

Grossman who came in to fill in for the injured Brian Griese played decent throwing for 142 yards on  10 passes for a 10.1 average which in Chicago is big news.  He had a 52 yard TB pass to Bernard Berrian and no interceptions.

The run game again looked like nothing special.  Benson had 76 yards on 29 carries for another whopping average of 2.9.

Berrian and Mushin Muhammad both had 4 receptions for 80+ yards.  Desmond Clark, Cedric Benson and Adrian Peterson all had multiple receptions.

The Bears defense showed a little of something that they used to have allowing only 108 in the air and 113 combined rushing yards.

Ogunleye had 3 sacks and Briggs had one.  Danieal Manning had on INT.

This was a bad game; all around bad game. Sure some players did alright, but all in all we were bad on both sides of the ball.  We got burned on defense and slammed on offense.

I don't know what to say.  This doesn't kill our season, but it sure does make things harder.  Brian Urlacher wanted to get at least 10 wins.  Well now that means we can only lose one game. I don't see us escaping the rest of this season like that. Tommie Harris basically said 'we must protect this house' and then lied down with the rest of the defense. Embarrassing is the best word to use for this game.

I guess the only bright spot is getting people healthy for after the bye. A revamped D could go a long way in helping our second half.  So much is wrong, and the window to fix it is closing quickly.

Coming off a big game where the offense was instrumental in providing the W sure does feel good.  As noted before, our Defense stepped up their game and allowed our offense to take the field. At first, the offense didn't look great, but did enough to get us in position for a bunch of field goals.

It was confusing to watch the Offense on Sunday. Once again, we couldn't do anything big in the beginning of the game and in the last couple of minutes we were unstoppable. Although, credit should be given to Ron Turner for trying to utilize our two big play threats in Greg Olson and Devin Hester. In both cases the only thing that stood in between us busting the game wide open was two great plays by Sheldon Brown of the Eagles.

I appreciate Turner engineering the stabs at the big plays as much as the next guy. Apparently, Turner reads this blog as well and heeded Chad's advice to employ the Bubble Screen play for Hester. These are all good things, and it is becoming increasingly apparent that Griese is one of the more competent QB's we have had in a long time and is also stuffing the Chicago Bear stat box at a record breaking pace. Now whatever happened with his head gear and weather it sheds any light on his relationship with Turner can be debated. However, for the second straight week the same phenomenon happened. The offense appears to under achieve in the beginning of the game, and when things are desperate we tear up the opposing defenses on the way to game breaking plays.

I think there were several things that factor into this situation. Check them out after the jump.

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The Defense went from abysmal to 'good but not quite great' this week. At first you had to be a bit worried when watching them go out in the first half.  They were really taken advantage of by the Eagles.  Westbrook was running and McNabb was throwing. Thankfully, they did enough for us to stay in the game and got very stout in Red Zone situations. I was very excited to see our defense excel in that zone.  We are going to face teams who have great offense's or hot players and they will get down field on us.  However, I believe that the most important things is getting stout in the Red Zone and not giving up big plays.  This week we accomplished both, and that helped keep us in the game.

Thats the short version of a long story. things looked much better for the team, and a lot of problem positions stepped up yesterday and preformed very well. After the jump we will highlight some specific players and their impact on the game.

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