Turning the House Upside Down: Bears vs. Seahawks

Flipping the House

During the Lovie Smith era, you can look at the Bears team as a house.  The defense is the foundation and the offense is the house that sits on top.  No matter how much the offense changed above ground (Shea/Turner/Martz/Tice, Orton/Grossman/Griese/Cutler, Jones/Benson/Forte), the base below (Urlacher/Briggs/Tillman) stayed the same.  No matter how  the offense looked,  we have always relied on the defense below to support the team to at least play .500 ball.  This game flipped the equation with the house holding up the foundation.   

Last week, I ended by saying, "Cutler can look in control throughout games, but I still doubt whether he has that elite quarterback ability to will his team to win in the last few minutes of a game."

I've always considered Cutler the key to the Bears becoming an elite team.  Sure the Bears can win games against inferior opponents, but can they win a close playoff game in Lambeau?  My gut told me that in a close game with Cutler needing to run a two-minute drill, the Bears would end up somewhere around midfield and end the game on a 4th down incompletion.  Cutler, at least for a week, proved me wrong.  In the last 24 seconds of the game, he and Brandon Marshall willed this team towards a victory.      

But they lost.  The Bears vaunted defense allowed a rookie quarterback to run all over them (literally) on them in two consecutive drives totaling 177 yards and 2 TDs when the game mattered most.  We've seen the defense falter before.  We've seen them give up play after play in soft prevent defense which allow opposing offenses to perilously march down the field.  However, I can't remember the last time the Bears defense seemingly fell apart so badly (a 97 yard drive, followed by a 12-play 80 yard drive) and it was the offense came to the rescue (temporarily).  For one week at least, it was the defense cracking and the offense providing the clutch plays.

Finding a Match

This was probably the most evenly matched team the Bears have played this year.  Most of the other teams, seemed superior (Green Bay, 49ers, Texans) or inferior (Titans, Jaguars, St. Louis).  The Seahawks seemed in that Goldilocks zone, which possibly informs where the Bears will eventually end up.  One good takeaway (only on fumble this week) from this game was that the Bears outplayed the Seahawks for most of this game.  They just couldn't reflect it on the scoreboard.  I remember midway in the 2nd quarter thinking, "Wow, the Bears are complete owning the game right now, yet the score is only 7-0."  Then when Seattle went in to half up 10-7, I remember thinking that the Bears won about 75% of that half, but lost the 25% which produced scoring.  In the 2nd half, its seemed like both teams played to a draw until Russell Wilson just decided to run free.  Cutler's and Marshall's heroics turned out to be a small respite, until Seattle methodically drove down the field in their first drive in overtime.  On a final note, while the game ended in a loss, this was easily the most exciting game this season.  For the first time this season, my hands were actually clammy as I listened to the last minutes of the fourth quarter and overtime.