Watching the Bears beat Minnesota in overtime Monday night should have felt great.
The division rival Vikings were playing for a chance at the top seed in the NFC, while Chicago had nothing to play for. Led by longtime rival Brett Favre, the Vikings were supposed to roll right through the hapless Bears en route to a first-round bye. They didn’t.
Jay Cutler looked like the QB the Bears traded for and the Bears’ defense finally looked like a cohesive unit. Devin Aromashodu had the game of his life and made us all wonder why he wasn’t on the field all year. It wasn’t even Robbie Gould, the most consistent Bear week after week, who won the game for the Monsters of the Midway. No, after Gould missed a 45-yarder for the win, Hunter Hillenmeyer pulled a Peanut, punching out the football at the end of an Adrian Peterson run and Nick Roach dove on the loose ball to give Chicago a second chance.
More unbelievable than a Robbie Gould miss was what came next. The Bears won on a big-balled play call by the usually ho-hum, uninspired Ron Turner. Cutler to Aromashodu for a 39-yard game-winning TD on the FIRST play of the Bears’ third overtime drive. Ballsy.
The win should have made me feel good. And I guess it did, for a moment. It was nice to see the team play with some pride. It felt good to see the Bears’ defense make big plays and it was sure comforting to know that “good” Cutler is still in there somewhere.
But after the initial glow of the win wore off–just minutes after the final TD, in fact–the game became utterly and completely depressing. Where have these Bears been all year? How good would that win have felt had the Bears been playing for something–anything?
The win didn’t answer any questions for Bears fans, in fact it just brought up more of them.
No Spain, No Gain 