Chicago Bears: Last Sunday’s victory meant everything
I was there, Bears fans. I was there when it happened.
I was there at the 2013 NFC North impromptu championship game. When Chris Conte had a brain fart and forgot they were playing Cover 0. I watched from the 100-level seats near the south end zone in Soldier Field as Aaron Rodgers found Randall Cobb in stride and stole our souls (again). Julius Peppers was about a foot away from sacking him; a perfect insult to injury. The Chicago Bears were that close.
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Perhaps we could have foreseen all of the misery. The gut-wrenching 2011 NFC Championship game, where Brian Urlacher had a pick-six in his hands but was shoe-string tackled by Rodgers. Caleb Hanie’s efforts that followed weren’t quite enough to rally the offense in a failed comeback attempt.
Or the following season saw a 7-3 start crumble from a broken Jay Cutler thumb because he tried to prevent a pick-six (how ironic). All because Johnny Knox slipped and fell on his route. This organization was only beginning to enter a playoff-less black hole.
The short and easily forgettable Mark Trestman-Phil Emery era saw some dark, defenseless days. As Chicago Bears fans, we soon knew what true pain was. Minus a couple quality victories, John Fox hardly much to alleviate any of it.
The image of Rodgers stomping the Bears’ guts out until the end of time was firmly etched in my mind as a state of normalcy. Even when he’d be hurt or was working with a lame-duck supporting cast, he’d find a way. That was simply a testament to how truly transcendent his talent was.
When would that dominance end? Were we destined to have Hall of Fame Packer quarterbacks light the NFL ablaze until the end of time? What about Chicago? Would they ever have a chance to turn the rivalry around?