Did You See That?

Did you see the way those green shirts were swarming around the ball on defense?

Did you see the aggressiveness of our kick and punt retunrers -- like guys who really want to go all the way?

Did you see the competitive fire and desire inside Aaron Rodgers?

Did you see the ball-hawking of those Packers defensive backs?

Did you see that constant in-your-face pressure the Green Bay defense put on Cutler?

Did you see Johnny Jolly's amazing interception?!

Did you see the Chillar hurdle and one-armed sack?

And then came the second half.

I'm not sure how you win the turnover battle 4-0 at home and still almost lose the game. I don't know how the most dynamic offense of the preseason could become so impotent in Week One of the regular season. I cannot understand how the Bears could lose so many defensive players to injury and still stymie our offense so completely.

It was an unbelievable game. In many respects, the Bears truly outplayed the Packers, but they just made SO many mistakes. Really, it would be embarrassing to be a Bears fan this week.

Living in southern Wisconsin, I pick up a fair amount of Chicago sports talk radio. It will be a delight to listen to a week's worth of post-mortem from frustrated Bears fans. For so much of the offseason and preseason, they were so full of themselves after the Jay Cutler acquisition. Yet Cutler turned out to be their devastatingly weak link. Their running game was productive (though under-utilized), and their defense was very effective. If they had gotten just an average performance from their quarterback, the Bears would have won that game easily.

Meanwhile, the Cutler-less Broncos are 1-0.

In the end, the Packers got the best kind of win. Winning your first game, winning your home game, winning a division game -- that's all good. More than that, though, it was an escape win: the coaching staff has plenty to correct, the players have reason to redouble their focus and effort during the week of practice, yet they still get a "W" out of it.