I just finished watching the Bears game and I am exhausted. I completely lost my voice from screaming and I'm about ready to pass out... and this was all in the comfort of my own living room.
I think I may have to get used to not only a roller coaster season, but for every single game to be a roller coaster. The Bears still haven't quite put together a complete game yet. The offense has had some awesome halves of football. The defense has had some awesome halves of football. But it seems like its really tough for the Bears to get both sides of the ball to be great at the same time.
Today, the Defense was sensational during the first half. They forced 3 turnovers and gave the offense the ball three times inside The Raiders 30 yard line. All the offense could get out of those possessions were 6 measly points. That is a recipe for disaster. Luckily the defense had one more turnover in them and this time the Bears offense was able to turn it into a touchdown.
After a horrible first half offensive performance, Bears Head Coach Ben Johnson was interviewed as he came out to start the second half. normally i just get annoyed with these interviews as there is no way a coach is actually going to say anything. They are actually quite silly. But this time the sideline interviewer decide to annoy Johnson and it was so funny that I watched it three times. For some reason, after Johnson admitted that the offense "did nothing" the first half. Then he said the Bears needed to "hit the reset button" to which the interviewer inexplicably responded, "you need to change what you're doing". Johnson responded "You think?" and smiled... but you could tell he was annoyed. Luckily he did what he said and the offense hit that reset button.
The Bears offense actually looked capable the second half while scoring 16 points. The most impressive thing is that they made an adjustment on how the blocked raider defensive end Maxx Crosby who had been wrecking the game. This is not something the Bears have done for the past 25 years or so. they made an adjustment and it paid off.
Caleb Williams was especially impressive on the bears final drive. He lead a 12 play drive that resulted in a touchdown but a missed 2 point conversion. During that drive, Williams did an excellent job both running and passing. It was impressive and very encouraging to see.
But even with all that positivity, the Bears still had to prepare for the worst. With about 40 seconds left, the Raiders Daniel Carlson lined up fort a very make-able 54 yard go ahead field go. About 10 years ago, this would have been a literal and figurative "long shot". But in today's NFL anything under 60 yards is routine. But luckily for us Bears fans, we will never know if the kick would have been good or not because back up corner back Josh Blackwell put the tiniest of fingertips on the field goal to send it helplessly falling to the 30 yard line.
The first half I spent screaming at the Bears offense. The second half I was screaming for the, But that last block was the end of my voice for a while. it was totally worth it.