Whoa! Was that every bit of ugly that I thought it was?
The Badgers have yet to put together an impressive first half this season. They come out in games looking flat and they let other teams hang around too long. This weekend, they let Illinois get a big enough lead that they couldn’t come back from it in the second half. I don’t know what Bielema says or does during halftime, but he really needs to start doing it before the game starts.
Conversely, Mike McCarthy needs to stick with what’s working. Check these stats 19-22/243 yards/1 TD/0 Int. Those are nice QB stats for a game, right? Okay, how are those stats for a half? Pretty freakin’ amazing! So, you’re the head coach. You’re ahead by 10 coming out of the half and you should be ahead by 24, but your rookie WR can’t seem to find the handle on the ball today. What do you do? Is your first reaction to take the ball out of the hands of the guy with those stats? Neither is mine.
Granted that was one ugly and stupid pass Favre threw to Urlacher. But, he shouldn’t have been in that situation in the first place. Your ability to run the ball in the first half was an aberration and you as the head coach should realize that. The Bears expected the Packers to pass so the runs worked. When the Bears expected the Packers to try to chew up the clock, they couldn’t run the ball to save their lives. Favre attempted a mere 5 passes in the 3rd quarter. The momentum was lost and offense was stuck. Go with what brought you there. The Bears certainly weren’t expecting pass in the second half and Favre was hotter than a snake’s ass in a wagon rut. Give him the damn ball!
Not that the Packers in general deserved to win that game. 5 turnovers (last one really doesn’t count other than Driver miss timed his jump because he was there and the pass was on the money), a boat load of penalties and some boneheaded moves by the guys on the sidelines. The fact that the Packers still could’ve won that game shows you how bad the Bears actually are. That defense can get slice up with the short passes and that offense is horrible.
So both teams have a loss now. Maybe it will be a good reminder to both of them that nothing is guaranteed and they need to start early and finish strong. The talent is there in both (although the Badgers defense needs some help) teams. Can the coaches harness it and use it properly? Post season aspirations depend on it. We’ll see if Bielema and McCarthy are up to it.
