At the start of the 2012 season, I may have had my hopes for the Bears a little high. I argued that the Bears might be the most balanced team in the league this year, potentially featuring an elite offense, defense, and special teams!
For the first half of the season, in which the Bears got off to a 7-1 start, it looked like I might have been right. But red flags started going up out of the gate. The offensive line just wasn't protecting Cutler very well, and Mike Tice's offense too often looked like the anemic offenses under coordinator Mike Martz. Although not ruled out for sure, it didn't look like Johnny Knox would be playing this year, and Devin Hester just doesn't have the same spark he once had. Early in the season, it seemed as if the Bears might have to rely once again on their defense. That defense shocked the league by being more effective than the offense, with both cornerbacks (Tim Jennings and Charles Tillman) earning Pro-Bowl honors for forcing turnovers and scoring touchdowns! Things were looking good at 7-1, but there was a bad feeling in my gut that this all looked too familiar.
Starting the second half of the season, that feeling became justified. Once again, the injury bug started biting the Bears. Alshon Jeffrey and Earl Bennett were both the victims of multi-week injuries, leaving Brandon Marshall as the team's only true threat in the passing game and allowing opposing defenses to send everything they had after Jay Cutler and Matt Forte. Cutler and Forte also suffered temporary injuries, and backups Jason Campbell and Micheal Bush were ineffective against the 49ers.
I'm getting too used to seeing Urlacher in street clothes.
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Tags:football, Chicago Bears, DA Bears, NFL, NFC North, Minnesota Vikings, Seattle Seahawks, San Francisco 49ers, Jay Cutler, Brandon Marshall, Matt Forte, Alshon Jeffrey, Earl Bennett, Johnny Knox, Brian Urlacher, Charles Tillman, Tim Jennings, Henry Melton, Julius Peppers, Devin Hester, Lovie Smith, Mike Tice, Mike Martz, Peyton Manning, playoff
It's a debate that's been going on for a decade: Is Tom Brady better than Peyton Manning?
Tom Brady has more championships, so the conventional wisdom would say that yes, Brady is superior.
But I think this week's season opener proves otherwise.
This Sunday marked the first time since 1997 that Peyton Manning was not the Indianapolis Colts' starting quarterback.
Championships aren't the only measure of quality for an NFL quarterback. Remember, Dan Marino never won a Super Bowl. He's easily the best player in Super Bowl era of NFL history to have never won a Super Bowl, and he's one of - if not the - best quarterbacks in history. And Manning does in fact have a ring! He won it against my Bears in 2006. But if somebody was going to beat the Bears in the Super Bowl, I'm glad it was Manning. The guy deserves it!
So how else can we compare them?
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