Bears, Cutler Pass Test With Victory vs. Falcons

October 13, 2014 @ admin → No Comments

Monday meanderings: When it concerns victories in the NFL, they don’t award points based on degree of difficulty. So the Chicago Bears’ 27-13 victory at Atlanta is worth the same as the Green Bay Packers’ 27-24 comeback victory at Miami and the Detroit Lions’ 17-3 victory at Minnesota. All of which means the Bears are 3-3, while the Packers and Lions are 4-2 in the NFC North. The statistical-analysis department around here doesn’t get much more astute than that.

Video below of Aja Dang. Not a bad way to start the week.

* Speaking of statistics, Bears quarterback Jay Cutler went 26-of-38 for 381 yards with one touchdown to Packers QB Aaron Rodgers’ 24-of-42 for 264 yards and three touchdowns. Feel free to compare and contrast the two players. Anyone taking Cutler over Rodgers likely is a devout Bears fan and/or a member of the Cutler family. That said, Cutler did have a good game (isn’t any game without an interception and with a victory a good game?). And it didn’t hurt that he was able to do it against the Falcons (2-4), who have allowed the second-most points in the NFC and have lost three in a row.

* Speaking of Cutler, up next for the Bears is a home game against the aforementioned Dolphins. For the record, Miami () committed three turnovers and did not force one vs. Green Bay, which had the ball for 37:12 of the game. In case anyone was wondering (and even if they were not), that’s not exactly a recipe for success.

* Speaking of success, the St. Louis Cardinals evened their National League Championship Series with San Francisco by winning Game 2 5-4 on a ninth-inning leadoff homer by Kolten Wong. Meaning he has more NLCS homers — game-winning or otherwise — than all of the Chicago Cubs’ prospects combined. OK, that’s not fair. He has more postseason homers than all of the Cubs’ prospects combined. OK. still unfair, but you can see where we’re going with this.

* Speaking of rookies, Cardinals right fielder Oscar Taveras had a pinch-hit, game-tying homer in the seventh. Meaning he has more NLCS homers than … well, you can see where we’re going with this (if you don’t, please see previous paragraph).

* Speaking of Cards rookies with NLCS homers, right fielder Randall Grichuk does not have one. He did have a run-scoring single in Game 2. And he has beaten out Taveras — one of the top prospects in baseball — for the starting job. In case anyone was wondering whether the Cubs were the only franchise with young players.

* Speaking of young Cardinals, first baseman Matt Adams hit an eighth-inning homer for a 4-3 lead. Rest assured, Cubs fans, that if Kris Bryant, Jorge Soler, Javier Baez or any of the franchise’s other stars of the future had homered, it would have gone much farther. So there’s that consolation, no? Probably not.

* Speaking of the Cardinals, catcher Yadier Molina suffered a strained oblique and could miss the rest of the postseason — even if St. Louis reaches the World Series. In which case A.J. Pierzynski could see some playing time. Meaning White Sox fans would have a player to root for — because of having played for the Sox and because a Cardinals triumph would tend to torment many Cubs fans.

* Speaking of the Cubs, your humble correspondent saw a photo on Facebook of some folks, including members of the Ricketts family, with shovels and piles of dirt at Wrigley Field. I imagine it was of some sort of ground-breaking ceremony rather than an attempt to bury the seasons that Chicago Cubs fans have had to endure under the family’s ownership.

***

Here is where to go for a daily dose of non-gratuitous video (thanks to the occasionally enlightened editorial and video departments at ElliottHarris.com):