Bears look lifeless early on

Bears look lifeless early on
December 23
Chicago Tribune columnist David Haugh
"On a night when the official 2-degree temperature at kickoff made it the coldest Bears game in history, Lovie Smith's team played lousy enough early to get the third degree at halftime.

"I understood why we were getting booed," Smith said of his spirited talk after the Bears' 20-17 overtime victory Monday over the Packers. "We really didn't show up at all."

Coming out of the locker room before the third quarter, Smith shared with WBBM-AM 780 that he had challenged his players by asking them, "Which team was playing for a playoff spot anyway?"

"We embarrassed ourselves," Smith said of the first two quarters.

On the Smith scale of rants, it was a 9. He sounded hot enough to increase the temperature on the sidelines to double-digits.

Good thing Smith's frozen fingers weren't too numb to grasp reality or else the Bears might not still have a chance to grab an NFC playoff spot.

"It woke us up," defensive end Alex Brown said. "He told us exactly what we needed to hear."

As a result, the Bears still are in the NFC playoff hunt — a place nobody who watched the game's first 53 minutes expected them to be.

With a chance to earn a spot in the postseason, the Bears looked early on like they had their minds on the off-season. If revenge is a dish best served cold, the Bears didn't put it on the menu against the team that had beaten them by 34 points a month ago until the final course.

But it tasted sweet as ever after Robbie Gould nailed a 38-yard field goal through the uprights in the south end zone to keep the Bears' playoff hopes alive.

"I don't know if I've ever been prouder of a team," Smith said.

The Bears still need to win at Houston and have the Vikings to lose to the Giants in the Metrodome to win the NFC North. Or they need the Raiders to beat the Bucs and the Eagles to beat the Cowboys to earn a wild-card spot. But only a fool would say the Bears can't sneak into the playoffs now.

This flawed 9-6 team defies logic. The Bears lacked urgency until 7 minutes remained yet showed a sense of purpose when they needed it most.

On fourth-and-1 at the Packers' 4 with 3 minutes 41 seconds left, Matt Forte got 1. The same Forte who ran the first 31/2 quarters as if he were running in ski boots."
Lnk