In must-win game, Bears must have won
The Bears’ season didn’t end Sunday night.
Of that you can be sure.
As for what other meaning it holds — Sunday’s 39-10 pounding of a terrible Minnesota team at Soldier Field — it’s probably very little.
At stake were any thoughts of a wild-card berth and maybe Jay Cutler’s life, liberty and pursuit of a concussion-free happiness.
After all, at 2-4 the Bears could have cashed it in, making for an awfully long NFL season in Chicago, filled with shrieks of terror and cries of horror well ahead of Halloween.
But their victory over Minnesota (1-5) at Soldier Field Sunday night left them at 3-3 and with bold talk and magical dreams of a playoff scenario.
“We just have to stay the course,” said head coach Lovie Smith. “There’s a lot of football left to play.”
It was classic Bears desperation. On the verge of being irrelevant, they found just what they needed, a woeful Vikings squad at just the right time.
“Hopefully, that’s who we are,” Smith said. “All three phases showed up.”
Good thing because they’re back to .500 and in order to dream about the postseason, this was as necessary a victory as they’ll collect this season.
Since the existence of the four-division format in 2002, five of the 18 NFC wild cards (28 percent) have made it in with 9-7 or 8-8 records, though there haven’t been any the last two years as the NFC’s best have been better.
The bad news for 2011 is that one of the wild cards is almost certainly gone to Green Bay or Detroit. The good news is the final playoff position is very much in play as only Tampa/New Orleans (4-2) and Washington (3-2) are above .500.
The problem is that it’s difficult to imagine the Bears playing much better than .500 the rest of the way, which would leave them with an 8-8 mark.
And two of the teams they’ll likely have to beat for a wild card would be Tampa and Philly (2-4), the two teams they face the next two games, keeping their playoff hopes on the line.
But the Bears are only talking about playoffs today because the Vikings were so stunningly bad Sunday night.
Kicking to Devin Hester is dumb enough, and he made them pay again with a 98-yard kick return for a TD.
“The shocking part for us,” Cutler said, “is people still kick to him.”
But the Vikes also allowed Hester to do the only thing he can do on offense, which is sprint down the field as fast as possible and hope he accidentally runs into a Cutler pass.
He did that as well, and it was good for a 48-yard TD throw on the Bears’ third offensive play of the game.
Still, there’s nothing quite like watching Hester run the 100 and widen the gap the final 30 yards.
“There’s never been anyone like him,” Smith deciphered correctly. “We are all kind of witnessing history every time he touches the ball.”
If that weren’t enough, the Vikings also gave up a safety to the invisible draft choice, Stephen Paea, and let Roy Williams catch a few passes.
As for the rest of the team, Donovan McNabb played like an old man, the Vikings special teams were even worse than their quarterbacking, and the Bears pretty much dominated in every way.
The only question was whether Cutler would survive, and he nearly didn’t, getting smoked helmet-to-helmet on a deep drop with Mike Martz insisting on throwing even up 26 points in the fourth quarter.
Hester, however, didn’t survive, leaving in the fourth with a chest injury after getting hit on a pass play late in the third.
What’s baffling is why Smith would allow Martz to risk the health of Cutler or Hester with a big lead, considering the loss of Cutler to the offense or Hester to the return game would mean the end of the season to the Bears.
But it’s hardly a new question.
And it certainly won’t be the last time it’s asked this season.
brozner@dailyherald.com
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