28 December 2008

It all went our way, and we STILL blew it

With a 31-24 loss at the hand of the Houston Texans, the Bears put the cap on a 9-7 season, and really didn't look like a playoff team out there. Most of the miracle to get the Bears into the playoffs had already happened, with the following happening in Week 16:
  • Dallas losing to Baltimore 33-24, becoming 9-6
  • Tampa Bay losing to San Diego 41-24, becoming 9-6
  • Minnesota losing to Atlanta 24-17, becoming 9-6
  • The Bears winning the Monday Night Football finale against the Packers, becoming (you guessed it!) 9-6
I'll give you that the Ravens might be a better team than the Cowboys, but the Bolts (currently 7-8) over the Bucs IN Tampa Bay?! And the Vikes couldn't even protect their own Dome against a Falcons team that had already locked up a playoff spot.

So going into Week 17, all the Bears needed was a win and:
  • A loss by Minnesota (to NYG) for the NFC North
  • Losses by Tampa (to Oak) and Dallas (to Phi) for a Wild Card spot
OK, so the Vikings DID win against the Giants, but in ANOTHER game in Tampa, the Bucs lay an egg and lose to the 5-11 RAIDERS 31-24. The path was set! The door was open!! All the Bears had to do was go into a Reliant Stadium that was actually heavily speckled with Bears fans and beat the 7-8 Texans. Could they do it? NO. And what do they do? Give up 31 goddamn points. So much for a vaunted defense.

And since this was written before the Dallas-Philly game, I'm gonna go out on a limb and say Philly wins, which would have given the Bears the 6th wild card spot.

Oh well...I guess Illini Basketball is on the upswing. They should get into the Top 25 after that win against Mizzou.

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