Without the Samoan safety, the Steelers let Bruce Gradkowski pick them apart on his way to a game-winning TD pass with :09 left to play, as well as supplying all kinds of “the last time” stats in regards to the Raiders.  Of course, almost any Raider win is going to be chock full of “the last time” stats, including “the last time” they won a game.

But this particular game included 5 lead changes in the 4th quarter, even though Pittsburgh was only 2-5 in the red zone.  It’s hard to imagine that the final period went down like that and the Steelers didn’t win.  That’s 4 in a row, now including losses to the Chefs and the Raiders in that stretch.

Another crazy game was New Orleans and the R*dsk*ns, with New Orleans winning a game they never led in until the final gun sounded in OT.  It was playing like a classic trap game for the Saints – big win in the previous week against a high-profile opponent, and then playing down to a lesser opponent on the road.  Then the 4th quarter happened.  Washington missed a chip-shot with less than two minutes to play that would have put them up by ten, and it was all downhill from there.  Depending on your allegiances, it was either a complete meltdown by the ‘Sk*ns or a heroic comeback by New Orleans.  Saints coach Sean Payton seemed determined to punish the D.C. Football Franchise by sending his offense back onto the field after “icing” timeouts directed at their kicker.

The Saints had been set up for a FG attempt with 7 seconds left by an interception thrown by D.C., when Jim Zorn tried the classic “Ice the Kicker” routine, to which Payton responded by putting Drew Brees back out there to try to pick up more yards.  It didn’t work – Brees threw incomplete and the Saints missed a 55-yarder that put the game into overtime.

In OT, Zorn again tried to “Ice the Kicker” by calling a timeout that was so close the officials’ whistle didn’t even come before the snap.  Instead of attempting a 33-yarder that wasn’t a sure thing, Payton marched his offense back onto the field, which promptly ran the ball down to the one-inch line.  As if that wasn’t bad enough, Zorn again called a timeout before the chip-shot attemot from the 1, which of course didn’t work.

The Saints karmically kicked the game-winner, and I pronounced that if I were Sean Payton, I would have greeted Zorn at midfield with either a loogie-lubed handshake, or simply Happy-Gilmored his ass by shaking with the left, pulling his jacket over his head from behind with the right and then punching his teeth out with his arms defenselessly pinned down by his shirt.  What a punk.  I guess it’s not enough that your team has a blatantly racist and offensive mascot, you gotta play like a dick too.

Capping off the Week 13 Wackiness was Miami beating New England and New York beating Dallas. The latter game really isn’t a shock, but the Patriots losing kinda was.  Or was it?

Mike Florio pontificated of the fishy line movement on this game right before kickoff, wondering why exactly the spread had moved from favoring the Pats by 6.5 at the start of the week to a push in most books by kickoff.  It was pretty strange, and the speculation was that Brady was not playing and insiders had the info that the league and media didn’t.  That turned out not to be the case, but the public was correct in some fashion, betting heavy on the Dolphins to beat the spread and Miami ended up winning outright.  Hmm.

BEARS HOMER SECTION

Is this really even worth it?  Yep, Chicago beat St, Louis today, with our $50,000,000.00 QB completing all of 8 passes for 143 yards.  Matt Forte, lead rusher for the NFL’s dead-last running attack, was able to muster 91 yards against the NFL’s dead-last running defense.  Way to go, boys!

Team President Ted Phillips, thoroughly enjoying this tripe

The Monsters of the Midway rip-roared their way to an anemic 248 total yards of offensive production, and I no longer have the energy or patience to even rip this pathetic squad, let alone try to spin a victory against a crap team into something Bears fans should care about.  The only thing I will say is that this team’s 3 victories that have happened since the long-ago month of September have come against Detroit, Cleveland and St. Louis.  In those 3 victories, Jay “$50,000,000.00 Extension” Cutler has averaged 169.2 yards a game.  Whoo-motherf*ckin’-hoo.

I will however say this: in 6 weeks, when my team is packing up their belongings and going off to their Hawaiian or Jamaican villas for the month of January, I will be pissed that my season is finished.  With only 4 games left for my Bears’ season, I must appreciate the fact that I am a fan, and have something to do on Sundays instead wait to go to bed.

If I may finish with one final statement for this week, it is “Go Cardinals!”

Email: nick.thomas@flyingpigskin.com

Jay Cutler at Chicago Bears training camp - Online Photo

The time is finally upon us. Training camps are underway, and the speculation, machismo, and rhetoric of the NFL media starts to ramp up.  I enter the season with a new quarterback at the helm of my team, beatable division rivals, a promising young tailback, and…something…to look forward to on defense, I guess.

It’s a foreign sensation as a Bears fan to go into a season excited about the quality of the offense while deciding to ignore the problems on defense.  Typically it’s much more the other way around. But I’ve managed to convert nicely.  In fact I spent an entire picturesque Saturday watching Jay Cutler highlights from 2008. My jaw moved to the ‘dropped’ position upon watching this highlight early in the binge.

I vaguely remembered the game. It was Week 2 and I didn’t see it, but I recalled the image of Jay Cutler with the slapstick fumble in the last minute of the game. I recall ridiculing him, as an open discussion regarding who was more despicable – Jay Cutler or Phil Rivers – had broken out between my lady and me (Cutler usually won). I didn’t remember Cutler getting up and throwing the game-clinching touchdown and 2-pt. conversion.  

The fumble will remind any Bears fan of You-Know-Who, but his poise afterwards sure won’t. I know Cutler throws picks, and bad ones sometimes, but I’m past it. I’ll take the guy who has a rocket arm and who doesn’t fumble two snaps a game. And who doesn’t throw picks for TD’s to D-Ends. Or post 0.0 passer ratings in crucial division home games late in the season.

Indeed the quarterback position has me pumped.  But then I am deflated like a guy wearing a purple Brett Favre jersey when I look at the defense, particularly when I get an eyeful of the secondary.  They’ve replaced Mike Freaking Brown with Josh Freaking Bullocks, and their underachieving cornerbacks are barely making it through camp.  

I like what Rod Marinelli brings to the table as a D-Line coach, but the players are as suspect as they were last year, when Chicago did a pretty decent impression of The Three Stooges trying to go through a door at the same time.  They blitzed more than any team in the league and rarely even got pressure.  As the Bears’ D-line improves, so do the Bears.  Nate Vasher and D.J. Moore will look like world-beaters if Tommie Harris (uh..), Mark Anderson, and Tank Johnson Israel Idonije can return to their Super Bowl season form.

Bears fans, let everyone else underestimate what Cutler will do with Matt Forte, Devin Hester, and Greg Olsen. Don’t worry. They’ll be fine.

NEXT UP: MINNESOTA VIKINGS