HarveysWBs

And there’s more special teams. Our script has been written for decades

Wilson is not a good pass blocker. Yeesh

Doubs is a bloody hero.

Johnson is really overthinking this thing. Thankfully.

It really is this organization’s MO. I don’t know what would fix it. They could hire the most no-nonsense staff in the world and I’d still think they’d just go brain dead in the clutch.

There’s the Nixon penalty

In routes open all night.

Love not using his feet there is puzzling

Suffice it to say, LaFleur could make himself a little coin here in this half.

What would Valentine say he does here?

Well that’s not ideal

They certainly shouldn’t.

Eh, 55 at Chicago is tough. But you always wonder with this team, is that where it turns?

Holding? Nah? Ok

Huge if true

Really miss Kraft here. Love isn’t a sneak guy.

What a bizarre rule

And put more minutes on the Bears D

And Gary almost jumped. Can we cut him at half time or…

Moral victory on that FG allowed.

No Tom is a disaster. The offense is so middling at best when he’s been out, I would revise my expectations to less than 50% win odds on that news alone, even before accounting for the Packers choke factor. Yet another playoff game missing a marquee OT…

Thankfully, I don’t live in Chicagoland, but nevertheless still solidly in “Bear country” to the extent that I’ve endured more than enough mouth from the knuckle-dragging majority the last couple of months. After an early childhood of Bear fan obnoxiousness, it has been a rather lovely thirty year silence (Cubs fans notwithstanding, of course) and I’d dearly like it to resume. Heres how I think this one *should* go: If (and this is a huge if) Love, Tom, Rhyan, Watson, Reed, and Jacobs all stay upright, there’s more than enough firepower there to put up points against a defense that isn’t a great run D and plays a lot of man coverage. Wind was a worry earlier this week, but if it stays in the forecasted 10-20mph range, I wouldn’t expect a meaningful limiting of the vertical pass game. LaFleur and Love (and Jacobs in the red zone) need to get theirs, and there’s no excuse not to. Score 28+ in regulation and I think it’s probably a done deal. But this is what I *fear*: The Bears can win, and it’s not hard to see how. In-game injuries aside, if Love has an off day, if the receivers get focus drops, if a couple fluke turnovers happen—the Packers can certainly beat themselves. But the Bears can also force the issue by using their greatest strength (running) against Green Bay’s most glaring vulnerability (interior defensive line). That may not be enough for the Bears to pull away, but as we know, their formula is to keep it close late and roll the dice. If it’s a one-score game with under seven to play, and it once again comes down to Johnson can’t hide Williams and Hafley can’t hide his corners—who wins that matchup? First time HC and first time QB in the playoffs probably shouldn’t have an edge, but I wish I could report I was more confident. Bottom line, I’ve become conditioned to expect maximal pain. What would that look like in this year’s playoffs? I suppose if the Packers somehow made the Super Bowl and lost, I’d be really bummed because of how hard the franchise has been grinding to get back there. But more realistically, losing this game would just hurt more than in Seattle/LA/Philly/SanFran or anywhere else. I want this one bad, so I suspect I’m not going to get it. But then again, I did get to see the Cubs fly the L, so there’s just enough hope there…to make it hurt even more.

Harbaugh is a very good coach, maybe even a great one. But setting aside the fact that I think LaFleur is all but assured to return barring a major breakdown in contract negotiations, I don’t think Harbaugh is right for where this team is currently. In his favor, Harbaugh brings a rock solid reputation. I’d wager that he would probably clean up some of the penalty and focus issues we’ve seen recently, and almost certainly improve special teams (though the fact that he got fired partially because his kicker missed a gimme is kind of ironic). This might be enough to convince me if our team had a late-career, all-time QB in place (like mid to late 30s Favre or Rodgers) and we just needed a steady hand at the helm. But if a change must be made, this team, which is still fairly young and still needs Love to grow to reach his ceiling, needs an offensive mind. Harbaugh might get lucky and find one to be his OC (assuming the team doesn’t cheap out and foist somebody like Steno on him as OC and play-caller, which would fit their track record with assistant coaches). But if he chooses good assistants, they would constantly be poached, and we’d be back at square one repeatedly. The obvious answer is to go find the next great offensive mind and just make him the HC, which keeps the most important phase in the game in great shape. Harbaugh just isn’t right for this team’s life cycle, in my estimation. He’s like (an admittedly better) John Fox, who you hire if you have Peyton Manning, but that isn’t our situation. It just doesn’t look like a fit to me.

What a stupid, fantastic fourth quarter of a football game. Unbelievable stuff.

Oh yeah, I'm definitely not making any record predictions here or anything. I just think that should be a fun set of opponents. Certainly several measuring-stick matchups to be found in there, I would expect.