Bears in Five: Surprising Season Opener Win at Indy

The unexpected happened. The nearly unbelievable happened. Sunday night the Bears flipped the switch on their time machine and took us back to 2005. And when the dust cleared they stood victorious over the Indianapolis Colts, 29-13, in a Super Bowl rematch that was supposed to be a mismatch. So we recap the Bears week 1 in five easy steps.

1) Matt Forte…I think I love you

Matt Forte’s debut with the Bears was everything you could’ve asked for and more. 123 yards on 23 carries that included a majestic 50 yard TD run where he made several Colts defenders, including former defensive player of the year Bob Sanders, look bad. And to top it off he also threw in a couple of nice grabs and 18 yards receiving. When the Bears drafted Matt Forte I thought he looked like a bigger version of Thomas Jones, it looks so far like I might have sold him short. I can’t wait to see what he does for an encore.

2) Hey, that looks familiar! Good defense!

Two sacks, a fumble recovery for a TD, a safety, a key forth and short stuff, and consistent pressure… I would like to thank the Bears defense for reminding me what good defense looks like. It was just hard to see how they were going to suddenly stop the Indianapolis Colts after getting lit up by J.T. O’Sullivan and Brady Quinn. But Bob Babich and company put the NFL on notice Sunday night that they were back, healthy, and angry. The ability of Brian Urlacher and Lance Briggs to be up on the line of scrimmage on nearly every snap forces teams to expect blitz and when they don’t come they do a great job of getting back into coverage, it was a thing of beauty.

3) Superman’s kryptonite? Over-confidence

Devin Hester is by definition ridiculous. He does things on returns that we have never seen before. He escapes crowds of defenders with Houdini like skill. But every once in a while his supreme confidence in his ability to bring any kick back leads to what happened on the 2nd half kickoff. Hester’s decision to play possum 7 yards deep in the end zone and then bring the ball out nearly cost the Bears when he was tackled at the 3. The Colts forced a 3 and out and used to good field position to score their only TD, which cut the Bears lead to 15-13. I know this is the price we pay for all the other amazing things he does, but this one was almost ridiculously costly.

4) Same Neckbeard. Same Orton. Same result.

Kyle Orton is what he is. He’s not a gun slinger, or a pro bowler, or a future MVP, but he is consistent. He is consistent in his decision making and in his lack of mistakes and right now that’s all the Bears need. Right now he is taking us on a magic Neckbeard ride back to 2005 when he was 10-4 mostly by virtue of not messing up too bad. Some things have changed in the last three years though and more is going to fall on his shoulders. But for right now he’s notched his 13th win as a Bears starting QB and he should be looking for #14 next week with some of the progress he’s made and maybe even a big play. He’s got to have something hidden inside that beard.

5) It don’t mean a thing…

If the Bears can’t build off of this win and start the season 2-0 with another victory in Carolina. Because if you asked me going into the season the odds that the Bears were 1-1 after two weeks I would’ve said pretty good, and at the time I thought this was at best a 9-7 football team. So if the Bears were to squander away this chance to head into their home opener vs. the Buccaneers undefeated it’ll seriously diminish the dismantling of the Colts. Now the Panthers aren’t going to make it easy coming off their own upset over the San Diego Chargers, but if the Bears are going to be a playoff contender this is a game they need to win.