It's Just a Game...

I don't blame Marion Barber for losing the game. He carved out tough yards through the whole game and put the only touchdown on the board. He's a third-down back that's been asked to play the feature role, and up until the very end of the game, he did a great job. Yes, those two plays gave the Broncos the chance to do what they did - and kudos to the Broncos for playing those fortunes perfectly - but if we had even one more field goal in 60 minutes of play, they wouldn't have mattered.

To put the blame solely on Barber is unfair. One of the subtle things you lose when a Jay Cutler is out is that veteran clock awareness. My guess is that Cutler tells his crew to stay in bounds in the huddle and Hanie doesn't. How many times have we seen Jay call a timeout to avoid a penalty when he sees his own guys lined up incorrectly?

In fairness, I don't blame Hanie alone. The head football coach allowed a change in the defense for the last, and most important, drive of the game. They went to a prevent, which actually prevents nothing. More importantly, forget about the connection between Tebow and the Lord - it's his connection with his team that makes him the focus of all this attention. It might also be the catalyst to better play from his team. The fact that he's a rookie and throws as poorly as he does, but yet the Broncos refer to him as their leader, that says something.

Here's the sour grapes: I saw multiple, egregious instances of holding on Broncos offensive plays. I had an inclination that Tebow had run over the line of scrimmage when he threw that touchdown pass, but I assumed it must not have been the case since Lovie didn't challenge it. In retrospect, it might have been worth it to contest that, but the Bears might also have been out of timeouts by then. (I don't remember.)

Regardless, I wrote off the Bears earlier in the season and they came back to surprise me with a long stretch of wins. There are not many games left, so I think it's fair to write them off for good at this point. Hanie is not good at all (more indictment of Jerry Angelo) and it's too late in the season to pick up someone who can both learn the system and be safe or even effective. What I said then is that the Bears are not a quality team based on their lack of depth. Still true.