Sounds like either a water park or some kind of “girls gone wild” video, but wet and wild is a really good way to describe what happened in the future exclusive home of the Chicago Fire on Sunday afternoon in the Niners Bears game. It’s too early to tell folks “we told you so”, but… let me tell you this: it sure feels better to be a team that needs to get a lot better with a 1-0 record vs a team that needs to get a lot better with a 0-1 record. This is the NFL baby… a win is a win is a win. Only 17 chances for these; any that you can squeak out, you take it.
Sure, people will blame the rain for what happened on Sunday. The Bears only won because of the weather… that only they were playing in. Sure, did it help thwart the Niners comeback attempt in the 4th quarter; heck yes it did! They had zero chance to recover from the 9 point deficit, let alone, try to kick a field goal to help in the efforts; even Robbie “we miss you and thank you for beating the Packers last year” Gould couldn’t make one in these conditions. Heck, reliable Cairo missed 2 fricking extra points?!?! It was certainly wet up in there. It rained like an absolute bear on Sunday morning, and picked up again in the 4th quarter. These wet conditions surely did help create a memorable moment as the clock hit triple zeros; of course I’m talking about the Justin Fields and team slide across the turf to celebrate the 19-10 win over the Niners.
The wild part about Sunday is how the Bears won. The way the Bears won this one is something that I can’t recall seeing in a long time, and it has nothing to do with the weather. The Bears made adjustments… in game!!! What world are we living in? After watching the first half, the painful first half, although we did learn a lesson about some obscure penalty that would only be called against us, I’m sure more than one of us was thinking… here we go again. We’ve seen inept offense performances many, many Sundays. The first half was more of the same. I was so used to this type of game, when the 2nd half started, I settled in for what I thought would be a really great nap. Yet, play after big play from the Bears kept me from falling asleep; I didn’t mind. The Bears made some adjustments; they didn’t continue to bang their heads against a brick wall for the remainder of the game, accepting the loss, waiting until practice and next week to come up with a better plan. No, they said, hey, why don’t we try to win THIS game? The Niners certainly looked every bit the great defense the first half; that one safety was playing out of his mind. And I like the fact that the Bears stuck with the run, although it wasn’t producing results… yet. Yeah, the second half came, and the results started coming… the second half came, and Justin Fields helped use his athletic ability to make some plays. The Bears turned around in dramatic, shocking fashion, scoring 19 straight after being down 10-0 to get the season opening W. So much more to say… I haven’t even talked about our defense yet!!!
I’ll leave it with this for now. The Bears aren’t a great team… yet. You need to start somewhere. Like I saw in some of the postgame locker room videos… you build a foundation. You establish something where you always play hard and you never quit. I can get behind a team like that. You improve your skills; you add talent along the way… you get better. I can’t tell the future, but after one game, and I know in the NFL the swings from one week to the next are dramatic, it certainly feels like the Bears have started down the right path, and I’m here for it. Bear Down!!!
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