Overtime for Lovie and Turner?
- Tuesday, December 29, 2009 3:43 PM
- Written By: NFL Blog Blitz
Just when you thought they'd duck and cover, the Bears came out with a well-rounded effort to all but deny the hated Vikings a first-round bye in the postseason.
From the first snap, with Tommie Harris taking down the entire Vikings offensive line by himself, something seemed different. Was it Bears pride? This was a "step up" game where the Bears had every opportunity to surrender (just as they have far, far too many times this season), but they somehow brought it together just enough to earn a hard-fought emotional victory.
We'll find out over the next week's comments whether they were doing it -- at least in part -- to protect Lovie Smith. The early signs are they did, because a team that's given up on its coach would have laid down in overtime when the Vikings had the ball -- especially after the Bears blew a game-winning field goal attempt.
Whether or not the Bears performance will be enough to keep Lovie on the sidelines -- or Ron Turner in the booth -- remains to be seen. Betting is that at least one will be gone, and Turner seems the appropriate fall guy.
But if the Bears come out flat in Detroit next weekend, we'll be back to square one, and this week's nail-biter of a win -- great as it was -- ought not to have ever gotten that close. There's not a large margin of error, so the Bears had better keep it going and end on a high note in the Motor City.
-- THOMAS TYRER
