The NFL showed on Saturday why they’re the best league in professional American sports. Both Wild Card games were phenomenal, and the dramatic finishes in each game were jaw-dropping. But let’s put aside the thrilling Rams vs. Panthers finish, because the nightcap was far more interesting to Detroit Lions fans.
The Chicago Bears somehow mounted yet another fourth-quarter comeback against the Green Bay Packers in what is already a defining moment in Ben Johnson’s career as the Bears head coach. I got
a sense from most Lions fans that they were rooting against Johnson and the Bears for obvious reasons: It’s tough to watch your offensive coordinator go out there and win the division and beat the Packers in the playoffs in his first year.
But there was also a strong contingent of Lions fans out there after Saturday’s outstanding drama reminding people that the Packers remain enemy No. 1—a sentiment I happen to agree with.
So today’s Question of the Day is:
How are you feeling after the Bears’ wild win over the Packers?
My answer: I was definitely among the people rooting against the Bears on Saturday night. For me, it was less about Ben Johnson and more about the Bears being exposed as somewhat fraudulent. Their defense is bad and over-reliant on turnovers, and the last-second comebacks are completely unsustainable. In both of those senses, Saturday was a miserable failure for those narratives. I mean, this statistic is absolutely ridiculous:
And as much as I hate to do it, I have to give the Bears defense credit for changing up their gameplan out of the half, making Jordan Love look uncomfortable for the final two quarters, and holding Green Bay to just six second-half points without even forcing a turnover. As for the comebacks, they can’t keep getting away with it, right???
All of that said, I was still grinning ear-to-ear after the game. For one, I just love dramatic, entertaining football. I’ll take that result any day over the Packers beating the Bears 42-0.
Additionally, the Packers just had their hearts ripped out. One of the most pompous and smug franchises in all of sports now has to sit there and come to terms with blowing an 11-point lead in the final five minutes to their biggest rival. They have to marinate in a 1-4 record in their last five playoff games. And now they have to seriously consider whether their coach—once billed as one of the winningest coaches in NFL history—is the right guy to lead them into the future.
So I’m still brimming with schadenfreude this wonderful Sunday morning, and no amount of “did you write this article from Cancun?” comments will hurt me.
What are your thoughts on the game and the NFC North? Scroll down to the comment section and sound off!
