With the Bears winning their game against the New Orleans Saints on Thursday night, Bears fans had a chance to practice being Cardinals fans on Sunday afternoon. The Minnesota Vikings were in Arizona to take on the Cardinals, and since the Bears needed Minnesota to lose two of their final three games to reach the playoffs, there's no doubt a lot of people were hoping the Cardinals would pull off the victory.
Those fans weren't very happy with what they saw. Despite the fact that the Vikings were without their starting quarterback and had to rely on Tarvaris Jackson -- who started the season as the Minnesota QB before being benched after only two games -- who is kind of like Rex Grossman if Rex Grossman were five times worse than he actually is. Somehow, someway, Jackson torched the Cardinals secondary for four touchdown passes, and Minnesota won 35-14. With the loss, the Bears now need to win their final two games and the Vikings must lose theirs. In other words, the Bears don't have much of a chance to make the postseason and could be eliminated before they take the field again against the Packers a week from tonight.
Though there is a slight glimmer of hope for the Bears. After hoping that Minnesota's Williams Wall would be suspended for testing positive for a masking agent, a judge in Minnesota filed an injunction against their suspension which would allow both Kevin and Pat Williams to play for the rest of the season. Well now it seems as though karma is a much more powerful force than a Minnesota judge could ever be, as Pat Williams is going to miss the next two to six weeks with a fractured shoulder.
Being without Williams in the final two games of the season could be a huge blow to the Vikings, as he is the heart and soul of their defense, and is an integral part of everything they do to stuff the run. Now they'll be without him as they prepare to face the two best rushing teams in the NFL: the Atlanta Falcons and the New York Giants.
While football is a team sport in which the whole is generally more important than the individual, Williams' absence is sure to be felt in the coming weeks. Let's just hope it's felt here as well and the Bears can squeeze into the playoffs.
