Bears @ Steelers: All Kinds of Ugly

If emotions truly were roller coasters, I spent most of this game yakking my guts out.

I was pretty well psyched about it.  Heath Miller was coming back.  Le'Veon Bell looks like he is a week away from returning.

Then they started playing.  This is the point where you are nearing the top of the hill, the clanging of the old, chain-driven lift reaching a crescendo.  It crested the hill, and immediately went into a series of convulsions, as the Bears moved the ball in chunks that never let them get to a third and long.  Ultimately, it was three to nothing.

Then it was our turn.  Seven total plays later, we had fumbled and the Bears were up 10-0.  And the awesome just kept coming. A Steeler punt, followed quickly by a 55-yard run by Matt Forte and a nearly perfect goal-line stand was just that -- nearly perfect.  Touchdown Bears.  17-0 with two minutes left.

In the first quarter.

We finally got on the board with a figgie early in Q2.  Then, while driving, Grandpa Cotchery executed the world's slowest curl route, resulting in a pick-six and a 24 to 3 lead for the Koalas.  But we finally answered back with what I believe was the first time we have scored a touchdown before halftime this year.

The Bears held us once again, but someone on their punt coverage team decided to obliterate our punter, giving us new life and, oddly, sparking what nearly would become a comeback.  Nothing but punts happen on both sides from here to the half, meaning we at least had stopped the bleeding.  24-10 at the half.

Then fate kicked us in the cajones once more.

We got the ball after the half, which Felix Jones promptly fumbled two plays into the drive.  We did not, of course, recover.

Chicago, of course, added three more points as a result.  27-10.

At this point, Big Ben took it upon himself to ignore whatever plays Todd Haley called, and led us to a matching field goal.  While it sounds pretty mundane, it shocked the the heck out of all of the players, making them realize that they are allowed more than nine points in a game. 27-13.  Chip...chip...chip away...

Some strange things started happening though.  The defense began making stops, and the offense sustained drives.  Another touchdown made it 27-20, and we had a game.

Then a field goal. 27-23!

But then a drive that should never have happened occurred. On 3rd and long, LaMarr Woodley nearly has Cutler for a sack but is being held.  Cutler scrambles for 13.  A painfully obvious false start is not called either (the left guard lifted his rear end up about 6 inches, then dropped it back down, and the snnap followed immediately).  It wend bad from here and ultimately resulted in a touchdown that was initially ruled incomplete and overruled by review.  Now, I am not an official, but in order to overturn you need irrefutable evidence.  Not a single angle shows the receiver going to the ground and maintaining possession. Not one.  Yet it was overruled.  34-23 and all ugly is breaking loose.

Still with time, Ben tries to continue the magical night he was having but iss strip-sacked, and the ball is run back for a strip-six.  The only silver lining was that we blocked the extra point.  Four minutes and seventeen points is not insurmountable, but it becomes so when your desperate QB throws a second INT.  Game over, 40-23.