Yeah this was a signature win for the Bears, the new staff, and Cutler. Huge win and I would've loved to have been in that locker room right after the game. Hopefully this boosts their confidence because there really isn't another game on the schedule like this one. SF, WAS, MIN, TB, DET all seem like winnable games compared to this one.
Cutler: I don't know what else this guy has to do to prove he truly has turned the corner. To win in Lambeau, and not have a single turnover speaks volumes to how far he has come. If you consider that the conditions were crappy, it was Brett Favre night, and he was playing without Bennett who has been his most reliable target to date, his performance was outstanding. He was inches from having 2 Passing TDs which would've boosted his QB Rating, and even without it, he still had a QB Rating of 90.8. He checked a bunch of plays at the line and seemed very confident in the game plan. You can tell he is in complete command of this offense.
Oline: For how good Cutler played, you would've thought the O-Line played great, but they didn't. Too many penalties and pressure. They did not do well with blitzes and even missed simple blocks in the run game (which was odd). The fact that the O-Line didn't play well even further supports how good Cutler was last night.
WRs: Alshon is a beast, but you can tell he still is not 100%. Mariani and Wilson were visible and made some big first downs, which is about all you can ask for from 4th and 5th WRs. Mariani seems better as a backup WR than a returner. Again, it will be awesome to see Alshon lining up across from White and Royal in the slot (someday).
TEs: With Bennett out, Miller and Lee were the primary guys. Miller was targeted 7 times, but only caught 2 balls. The conditions didn't help on a few, but we need more consistent play out of the TE position. I was thinking Miller would have a huge game, especially when GB was applying extra pressure, but Miller never seemed to be the hot route.
RBs: Carries were basically split, but Langford is clearly the better runner. Langford had another huge drop and he really needs to work on his pass catching in space (it seems like he is running before catching the ball). It was interesting to see Langford get twice as many touches down the stretch than Forte with the game on the line. No fumbles, which was huge in this game. I can see split duties for the rest of the season and unless Forte takes a significant pay cut, I think he is gone.
Dline: I would like to see more pressure from this group, and some better gap control on runs. There seemed to be huge holes thru the line which allowed blockers and runners to easily get to the 2nd level. I could't tell if this was a D-Line problem or LB problem, but either way it needs to be fixed.
OLB: Houston, Young, and McPhee are all starting to make splash plays, which is great to see. Acho even made a couple of nice plays as well. We need to clean up the offsides and neutral zone penalties. One almost cost us the game.
ILBs: This group disappointed for the most part. Anderson made a couple of plays, but too many screen passes against a 3-4 for big gains. They are either making plays or way out of position. I would rather have a little bit of consistency here. The jury is still out on SMC, he seemed to regress a little bit and looked confused at times covering space where no one was at while RB's and TE's were wide open in the flat.
DBs: As AZ said, by far the best group of the night. Porter, Callahan, Fuller, Amos, and Prosinski all played solid, if not great. Porter got called for a BS illegal contact, but otherwise, was huge in coverage and had the huge 4th quarter INT. I would love to have him back next year. Fuller seems to be gaining his confidence back every week, and Callahan might have had the hardest challenge (Cobb) and besides for a one slip, played solid all game. For Safety, Prosinski had the huge strip on Lacy which seemed to change the momentum of the entire game, and Amos had another strong, consistent game. This group seems to be gaining a lot of confidence, so if we can get some better D-Line and ILB play, this defense will continue to get better.
Special Teams: We allowed another huge kick return (sounds like a broken record), punting started horrible but O'Donnell did put a couple inside the 20 late, and Gould could barely get the kickoffs into the endzone (which is a huge concern) which led to the long return. This whole phase of the game is losing us a ton of field position and taking points of the board. Mariani didn't fumble but did muff a kickoff that Thompson had to down in the end zone. Thompson looked solid on his one KO return.
Coaching: One of the better coached games of the season, and Fox seemed to know when to take points and when to punt better than he did against Denver. Gase got some RZ TD's, but then laid an egg later in the game when a TD would've put the game out of reach. We need to do better when we have x and goal. I didn't like the conservative play calling late as it seemed we barely took any time off the clock and literally gave Rodgers 3 chances to win the game in the 4th quarter. 31 pass and 31 rush is about as good as you can get for balance, which I like to see.
Officiating: The Bears are clearly a marked team. We get almost every call against us. From the Slauson trip, to the Amos DPI, to the Porter illegal contact. The DPI and illegal contact, just like offensive holding can be called on every play. I watched some of the Lacy runs, and they held at the point of attack every time (fist full of jersey) and were rarely called. The league is really putting a bad product on the field in regards to the officiating. This is by far the worst year I have seen for bad calls and the Bears have been on the short end more times than not. Thankfully it didn't cost us the game.
