A win is a win is a win. Fluke plays? Bad calls? Unlikely hero? Pterodactyl attack of opposing quarterback? Whatever it takes, baby. This is the Season of Destiny.™
Sure, we'd love to have the '85 Bears stomping the faces of all who oppose us. But it's rare to have a team that dominant over the course of a season. In fact, it's hard to find an entire game where the Bears look dominant. But they do look pretty invincible on certain drives.
The Ditka Super Bears were a brick wall. This team is more like a wheelbarrow full of bricks. When they come at you all at once, they pack a punch. But sometimes, bricks fall out of the wheelbarrow, or maybe they don't land a knockout blow, or maybe the wheelbarrow tips over and crushes your own foot. Bricks are goofy that way.
This year, you take what you can get, even if it's a 4-point win over a 2-10 team. All year, the Lions have fallen apart in second halves. Sunday was no different. A penalty here, a missed tackle there, an unforgivable kick to Devin Hester here and you're toast. You'd think after the Colts' opening kickoff to Hester in Super Bowl XLI, the league might have made a note about that.
This year's Bears might be the least impressive 9-3 team in history. They're winning close and winning late. But they're winning. Like a python, they just squeeze and squeeze until you die. While that pterodactyl is swooping in and biting the heads off QBs, the Bears are taking the less glamorous approach. Short passes. Field position. The D seems to kill more by coverage than by blitzes. Honestly, most Bears highlight reels are 10-yard TD passes and the occasional sack.
If I told you at the beginning of the year the Bears would have nine wins, you would have done a cartwheel. They have nine wins in 12 games. The NFC is tight, so the final four will be huge. But if the Bears at least split the final games, they'll be in awesome shape for the playoffs.
A win is a win. One step closer.
