This is bananas…and it’s not.
It is because all Power Polls, abbreviated or otherwise, are generally a waste of time. What wouldn’t be a waste of time would be a 10-year audit of all such rankings from across legit sports media, juxtaposed with the *real* post-season performances of said ranked teams.
It is because it’s early, and it’s an odd season already bruised by replacement refs and more-than-usual parity. For example, The Packers (his #8 team) are a 4-2 team that just put a felony-level hurting on the once-best Houston Texans (his #2 team). In their house.
It is because, well, it just is.
It’s not because, due to obscuring media obsessions (Cutler’s cutlerness, etc.), Chicago’s notably increased state of desperation for another Super Bowl, not to mention the hanging malaise left from the second half of 2011 (the Thumb, the other injuries, Forte, Angelo, Martz, Forte again, etc.) we in Chicago don’t seem secure in believing—much less, saying—that we’re good.
Because we are. The Bears are a good football team.
The best? Who knows. Who cares. As Barnwell outlines aptly for Grantland.com, the schedule for the remainder of the season is incredibly tough.
If they are, they will be.
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2011 Bears: All ThumbsSir Isaac Newton once declared the anatomy of the human thumb fundamental proof of the existence of God. Too bad Newt never had to palm America’s favorite prolate spheroid—aka The Pigskin—drop three steps and rifle a strike to a streaking receiver. Bummer he never had to cradle the rock like a newborn while following a 350-pound blocker toward a game-changing touchdown.
If he had, he might have noted a few shortcomings in the structure of said digit. The thumb is short. The thumb is stubborn. The thumb is vulnerable. Such a righteous digit should not be so easily injured.
There is one particular thumb that, after being broken this fall, caused Chicago sports fans enough consternation to induce hysterical fits of googling: “broken thumb,” “thumb anatomy,” “thumb surgery + recovery,” and “NBA lockout.”
You know what happened next, even the part about how Kristin Cavallari could not, in fact, kiss it and make it better: L, L, L, L, L, W (against the Vikings.)
Bears GM Jerry Angelo, whose thumbs were, metaphorically, the ultimate determinants of the team’s failure or success, is the season’s primary casualty. Offensive Coordinator Martz was next, although he was spared a front-facing termination and allowed a philosophy-based resignation.
Where do we go from here? To find out, let’s go back to Nov. 20, 2011, a telling game that included some of the most encouraging—and unfortunate—plays of the season:
It was another mild day in a Chicago winter that had no bite.
The Bears were 6-3, getting stronger by the week, and looking at an easy stretch of schedule against the mediocre AFC West. They held at least a tiebreaker advantage over their primary rivals for the wild-card spots, Detroit and Atlanta, both of whom they had defeated earlier in the season. The hot-and-cold San Diego Chargers, coached by the masterfully mediocre Norv Turner, were in town.
Before we get to the play that would change the season and lead to this week’s high-level shakeup, let’s talk about two much more promising plays that had many fans thinking, Hey, this team might be, you know, good.
The first: Early in the third quarter with the score knotted at 17, Cutler threw a bomb down the left sideline. Johnny Knox appeared well covered, but the sneaky-quick receiver created some separation, adjusted to the back-shoulder toss, made the grab, and was tackled at the one-yard line for a 42-yard gain. Perfect throw, nice route, and, on the next play, a Cutler sneak for the touchdown. Maybe the passing game isn’t such a radical concept after all?
The second: With less than five minutes remaining in the third quarter, Cutler drove the Bears back into Chargers territory. Forced out of the pocket, he looked for an open receiver. Knox broke off his crossing route near the goal line and booked it to the back of the end zone to snare an expertly placed ball that only he could catch. The Bears had a two-touchdown lead they would never relinquish.
These were big plays for the Bears, and for Knox.
It has long been clear that Knox has the speed to be a serious receiving threat in the NFL, but it wasn’t clear he would ever grasp the nuances of playing the position—a deficiency Cutler was never shy about highlighting in profane fashion on the sideline after pass plays failed to connect, no fault of his own, he clearly believed. Now, after making real, crucial plays that required adjustment and instincts, it appeared as though Knox and Cutler were finally simpatico. With a healthy Earl Bennett moving the chains, Roy Williams showing signs of life as a (secondary) possession receiver, and especially considering RB Matt Forte’s All-Pro efforts between the tackles and in the flats, things were looking up for the Cutler-led offense.
The 31-20 win over San Diego made it five in a row for the Bears. Few in Chicago were questioning the skill or toughness of the team’s quarterback. Jay Cutler was getting shit done.
Many Bears fans believed Cutler was the guy last season, especially when he almost single-handedly scuttled the Seahawks with a series of clutch throws in the second round of the playoffs. Doubt crept into our collective brain after the Bears lost a frustrating, over-tweeted NFC Championship Game that featured Cutler’s controversially injured knee, a body part that went relatively unmentioned by Newton.
But make no mistake, on Nov. 20, 2011 the Bears had their quarterback. They were on the verge of a big-time passing game—the kind you gotta have these days to win in February. And for those Chicagoans still concerned that Cutler lacked the emotion and energy to lead this team, Cutler had started getting more vocal this October (see the 23-second mark).
I know. They have teased us before. Not so much in the ‘50s, ‘60s or ‘70s, but for a while in the ‘80’s it appeared Jim McMahon would lead the Bears to greatness through the air. But even then, his best teams were truly about ball control: defense and running game. And, besides, McMahon couldn’t stay healthy.
Erik Kramer took a run at it in the ‘90s and enjoyed one glorious season of passing fancy. In 1995 he piled up an impressive 29 touchdown throws, completed more than 60 percent of his passes for the third consecutive year and amassed a remarkable (for the Bears) 3,838 passing yards. Unfortunately, the Bears went just 9-7.
But in 2011, finally, the Bears had a good defense, a powerful running game, a thoroughly modern quarterback and…then came the thumb.
It was midway through the fourth quarter with the Bears continuing to aggressively call pass plays despite an 11-point lead—no mercy, just like Tom Brady’s Patriots. For 50 years the Bears had protected leads with conservative running plays, but now they were throwing their way to victory. Good for you, Lovie. Bring it on.
Knox lined up wide to the left again and ran an intermediate curl. Cutler released his pass a moment before Knox made his cut and Chargers cornerback Antoine Cason picked it off. Cason headed back the other way with blockers in tow.
Cutler raced down the field, got an angle on Cason, and managed to slow him down before going down in a heap. Matt Forte came in after Cutler and pushed Cason out of bounds at the Bears’ 16-yard-line.
Oh, by the way: Knox slipped. If he hadn’t, no interception, no thumb. (NOTE: Some have opined that, because he slipped, it’s Knox’s fault that Cutler was injured—post hoc ergo propter hoc. This attempt at logic makes me want to break my own thumb.)
Actually, “the play” was a classic example of how ridiculous it was for fans and dimwitted NFL players to suggest Cutler wasn’t tough enough after he was knocked out of last season’s NFC Championship Game against the Packers. If you watch Cutler play enough games, you know he loves to mix it up. He loves to hit.
After sealing the game with an interception of epic fathead Philip Rivers, the next step for fans and pundits was to start speculating about what the Bears might do down the stretch. 11-5 seemed more than doable, and as invincible as the Packers seemed, the Bears were looking dangerous, too.
Then came word of Cutler’s injury, a Bennett’s fracture—Edward Hallaran, not Earl—of the first metacarpal, which meant surgery to insert pins, a cast for four-to-six weeks, and a slim chance of Cutler returning during the regular season. We never saw him again.
From there, it got worse.
With Cutler out, Mike Martz forgot how to call plays. Cutler’s replacement, Caleb Hanie, didn’t help matters. Hanie played so badly that some pundits actually suggested the team consider signing Brett Favre…or possibly George Blanda.
Two weeks after the thumb, Matt Forte went down with a sprained knee and would not return.
A week after that, Knox suffered a frightening, season-ending back injury—but the Bears’ season was already a washout.
General Manager Jerry Angelo got the boot for, most immediately, failing to employ a decent backup quarterback. Other reasons include his middling-at-best record in the draft, his controversial handling of the Matt Forte contract situation, and a general sense that considering the defense fielded at Soldier for most of the last ten years, the Bears have underperformed.
A few hours after the Angelo news broke, Mike Martz joined the long line of offensive coordinators to take blame for a failed season.
But all is not lost.
A young offensive line had its ups and downs, but, all in all, outperformed—and that was without first-round draft pick Gabe Carimi, who missed the whole season due to a knee injury.
The leaders of the Bears defense held up well for yet another year. The 30-plus brigade led by Lance Briggs, Brian Urlacher, and Julius Peppers didn’t make as many big plays as they would have liked, but they certainly played well enough. They have some juice left.
So what happens now? The October-November stretch should inspire the Bears’ as-yet-undefined brain trust to make a full-on commitment to the passing game in the off-season. A big-time receiver (free agent Vincent Jackson is the fans’ choice) must be acquired. Depth must be improved on the line. Forte will hopefully be locked up. And, of course, Cutler must return to full health.
Maybe next year we should take a look at the backup quarterback spot, too. Make a little upgrade. I’m just saying. You don’t need to be Isaac Newton to figure that one out.
Lastly, all this talk about thumbs got me and my editors thinking hard about other notables. After a little research, we agreed on our Top Thumbs:
THE ALL-THUMBS HALL OF FAME
1. The Fonz.
2. Borat.
3. Siskel & Ebert.
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