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Monday meanderings: What more could Chicago Bears fans want than for quarterback Jay Cutler to pass for more yards than New Orleans Saints QB Drew Brees in Sunday’s matchup at Soldier Field? Or for Alshon Jeffery to set a record for receiving yards by a Bear? Or for the Bears defense to end Brees’ streak of consecutive 300-yard passing games and holding tight end Jimmy Graham without a touchdown catch? What more? Oh, right. A victory. The Saints prevailed 26-18 to remain unbeaten and drop the Bears to 3-2. Well, you can’t have everything. Tough lesson to learn.
Something for those who didn’t stay up Sunday night for the San Diego Chargers-Oakland Raiders game on TV. OK, something even if you did.
* Jeffery had 10 catches for 218 yards. Harlon Hill set the Bears record with 214 at San Francisco on Oct. 31, 1954. Trick or treat? Hill’s last yardage that game came with 30 seconds left and produced his fourth TD of the contest and a four-point Bears victory. Hill was a rookie — a 15th-round draft pick — in 1954. He attended the University of North Alabama — except the school was known as Florence State Teachers College in those days. In case you were wondering. And even if you weren’t.
* Anyone who wants to explain why Cutler threw to Jeffery over the middle in the closing seconds of the game — with no timeouts left — is welcome to do so. OK, a reason other than the element of surprise and/or not-too-shrewd play-calling.
* Bears receiver Brandon Marshall was thrown to five times vs. the Saints. He had four catches for 30 yards and a TD. He says he is upset the team is losing (two games in a row). Something says if the Bears had beaten New Orleans with Marshall having the same statistics, there’s a good chance he still would be upset.
* Cutler had a quarterback rating of 128.1. He had been 26-1 in games in which he started and had a rating of 100 or better. In case anyone wants to tell you how useful numbers can be for projecting results.
* The best thing about the Bears’ loss is no one will have a lot of time to whine about it because their next game is Thursday. OK, really the best thing is knowning the Bears’ opponent Thursday night at Soldier Field will be playing the New York Giants, who have given up the most points of any team in the league (182) and are 0-5.
* Even better news for the Bears is the Giants quarterback is Eli Manning and not his older brother Peyton Manning. Eli threw three interceptions and leads the league with 12. Peyton also threw an inteception as Denver defeated Dallas. The interception was Peyton’s first of the season for the 5-0 Broncos.
* From our department of shameless self-promotion (not to be confused with our department of regular self-promotion or our department of shameful self-promotion), may we offer this: “Sports & Torts” — the interview program co-hosted by David Spada and Elliott Harris on Talkzone.com — is urging you and everyone else to vote at podcast.com for the Peoples Choice, Best Produced, Best Video Podcast and Best Sports Podcast. Go to podcastawards.com and type in our show name and URL. Here is the URL: http://www.talkzone.com/shows/155/1660.html.
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