Well, we all know what happened in this game. I don't like complaining about the other team being dirty or the refereeing being bad (i.e. not in favour of the team I support) because it's usually just as true for both sides, but there's no getting around the fact that the Lions were getting whipped and reacted like petulant children throwing a tantrum. Lions head coach Jim Schwartz led from the front, blaming the wind. The wind. As the saying goes, losing in sport doesn't build character: it reveals it.
Jump for the best of the 2,300 comments from the in-game thread (and a spot of culture)!
Lester told me to put this relevant extract from Rudyard Kipling's "If" back in and I dared not disobey:
If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
...
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: 'Hold on!'
...
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man, my son!
(How many thought you'd ever see poetry on WCG? Dane might ban me for this. And now, on to the content proper.)
Waiting for the challenge on the second (Burleson) fumble to be ruled in our favour...
gafferland: The ruling on the field isn't the only thing that's standing right now.
Spongie: Don’t take Viagra during games!
gafferland: If the defense keeps playing like this I won't need to
awfullycontrary
BEARSFAN19: I missed the kickoff, who recieved first?
runningman: Lions
David in Maine: Lions
frenchbears113: Lions
awfullyquiet: Lions.
emdub: Bears. I just like being contrary.
I got tired of seeing "TWSS" all the time (mostly from the same person and once from me) so I decided to give it a rest unless particularly amusing. This got by on a technicality.
no.fair.weather.fan.here: gonna be hard with this wind...
awfullyquiet: twhs.
Allie really doesn't like those advertisements...
TheotherDane: A jewelry commercial... Where's Allie?
Fire Ron Turner: rubbin' one out
awfullyquiet: Seriously.
Not that we take him for granted, but he's the best of all time.
crackedcactus: Whadda I miss?
David in Maine: Hester being Ridiculous....
crackedcactus: Normal Sunday then. Awesome.
Never complain about Martz' playcalling with the word "naked"...
Fire Ron Turner: Not naked pitches with less than a yard to go...
Jonathan Thompson: What about full frontal male nudity? One step ahead of you bruh
"Harbaugh mode" would be an interesting new feature for the next Madden. "If it's in the game"...
CurtisEnisFan: Harbaugh, this is the NFL! You can't just assault other coaches and onside kick it after every score like in video games.
I don't know about you, but I eagerly await Coach Wiltfong's post explaining why a veteran WR in his 6th year who has had 6 career starts and 52 career receptions for 731 career yards is our best overall WR, and why Martz is stupid for not using him in place of, say, Earl Bennett.
Shuggs: Sam Hurd is our best overall WR.
Trey23: Truth
By way of comparison, I like to include a little of the Worst of the In-Game Thread every now and then. It helps us appreciate the Best that bit more...
Trey23: Why didnt Taub unleashe the fake on 4th and 3 there? [Edit: Fudge] you Taub
BOBdaBEAR: cuz Dave TOUB is the ST coach
Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight!
Basketball Smurf: Jim Schwartz better calm the f down. Don't make Lovie take off his hat!
Allie: or move his face!
Spongie: Whoa, whoa, let’s not go crazy here.
The T-Train speaks truth.
Hugh Heavens: I'm still trying to wrap my head around what just happened. Apparently grabbing someone by his neck and tossing him down is good ol tough football.
Timothy Hockemeyer: it's easy to understand. You just have to act like the nfl rules committee and look at it from a different perspective. Apparently the optimal view point can be found by placing the crown of your head against your own rectum and pushing.
If the scores were reversed and one of our guys was down, Suh would probably have run over to twist the helmet off him and then Stafford would start a fight...
guy incognito: Btw...notice the sportsmanship from our squad. A few players went to check on Pettigew after the pick because he got sandwiched and was down.
Hee!
juperee: Stafford's body language is
Basketball Smurf: that of an unperiled leader
juperee: Oops. I was trying to type a comment, but I was picked off by the enter button.
Occam's razor works for me.
Shuggs: Why is Sam Worthington doing the MW3 commercial when he was in Black Ops?
Spongie: I can only imagine they're paying him.
Final entry isn't from the in-game thread, but rather a rather telling pair of quotes posted by Jessica312.
When the Bears lose: "We're playing like [expletive], that's what's going on," Urlacher said following the Bears’ 24-13 loss to the Detroit Lions at Ford Field on Monday night. "We're not playing good."
When the Lions lose: "It was the wind more than it was anything else. The one interception he threw it moved about three yards on him, after he threw it. And it was very unpredictable wind. Ya know, it was gusting, ya know sometimes, seemed like it was gusting at all the wrong times. Ya know, same thing with the kicking game. All of a sudden it came time for a field goal attempt and it seemed like for them the wind died down, then for us it would kick up." – Jim Schwartz
Says it all really, doesn't it?
Next up: the Chargers. I bet the commentary will talk about how "fired up" Rivers gets and then cuts away to Cutler "pouting"! See you in the in-game thread.....