Lightning In A Bottle - My first running diary - 2nd Half

9:21 – Alright, second half is underway. Let’s see if the Bears can turn this thing around. It can’t get much worse than it did in the first half.

9:24 – Cardinals go three and out to start the second half….good start.

9:25 – Does anyone else find those “Man Law” commercials funny? They always seem to make me laugh…no matter how homophobic that tend to be at times.

9:30 – Kornheiser mentions his fantasy team (one hour and forty-eight minutes into the broadcast, that is amazing restraint on his part)….only he talks about Rashied Davis instead of Berrian…close enough.

9:35 – Bears blow a huge red zone opportunity, but at least get some points out of it. They finally had a really good looking drive where they moved the football in chunks. Hopefully this is the start of something. 20-3, Cards.

9:37 – Can someone else explain to me the point of the Jimmy John’s commercial with the Japanese businessmen? I just don’t get it.

9:43 – Roughing the kicker penalty keeps Arizona’s drive alive. This just isn’t Chicago’s night. I wonder how Ashton and Demi are doing? Can we get a shot of them? Or has Demi stormed off crying because Ashton destroyed that phone she was playing with after Grossman’s last fumble?

9:52 – With Rackers adding his third field goal of the night to make it a 20 point game again (23-3), I declare this game, over. With only two minutes left in the third quarter the Bears have only had three possessions in the second half and they can’t stop tripping over themselves. They need a miracle to win this thing in the form of big plays and turnovers. Two things they haven’t been able to produce tonight.

10:01 – THERE WE GO!!! Mark Anderson blindsides Leinart, forcing a fumble, and Mike Brown runs it in for the score. This thing is still a ways away from being a ball game but at least the Bears made something happen. End of the 3rd quarter: Cards – 23, Bears – 10.

10:10 – Mike Brown is being carted off. This worries me more for the future than it does for the rest of the night. But Michelle Tafoya says it’s a sprained foot, so he should be fine; especially with a bye week coming up.

10:19 – Every time I see one of those DLP commercials I have to wonder….what’s with the friggin elephant? You have this cute little girl talking about the wonder that is high definition television and she’s always with this elephant that does nothing except stand there being an elephant. Not a dog that barks to bring her point home, but an elephant. What is that?

10:22 – On a personal note, every time I see the teaser for SportsCenter, they show a clip of the brawl that took place over the weekend at the Orange Bowl between Miami and Florida International. I have actually seen a brawl quite similar to that one between my Western Illinois Fighting Leathernecks and the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers in the second round of the 2002 NCAA I-AA playoffs. And this happened after the final play of one of the best games I have ever witnessed. The chaos was the same, the stupidness of helmets being used as weapons and actual weapons (a sledgehammer to be specific) being used in the fight were all there as well. Maybe some of you heard about it, it made national news for a few days after. Ryan and I were actually the broadcast team for the game and we were in complete and utter shock as we watched the whole thing unfold. There were about eighty players on the field just flat out going at it despite any coach’s efforts to break it up. It was a nightmare.

10:29 – Did this just happen? Darrell Dockett takes Grossman’s ricocheted pass out of a linemen’s hands and rumbles it all the way down the field for a touchdown. I’ll be back that love seat’s got a date with my alley.

10:33 – Finally a break (or just a delay to inevitable). Replay shows Dockett’s knee did touch the ground. None the less, Grossman’s third interception, the fifth Bear turnover, and the nail in the coffin. Even though there is 9:18 to go, the Bears just can’t get anything going.

10:39 – Ugh. Grossman’s 4th pick of the night is a result of his absolute refusal to take the underneath routes and forcing the ball downfield (wow, Theisman just said that word for word, scary).

10:41 – Oh wow!! The Bears officially make it a ball game after Urlacher rips the ball out of Edge’s hands and Peanut Tillman runs it in for a touchdown. It’s being challenged by Denny Green for some reason…..but the refs call it an unchallengeable play, the touchdown stands. 5:00 to go, the Bears are only down six, 23-17. The defense is insane; they just won’t allow themselves to lose this game.

10:46 – Taunting call against J.J. Arrington….could the Cards be unraveling?

10:47 – Here’s the difference between a fan and a fanatic. A fan will wear his favorite player’s jersey to the game…..a fanatic will wear a freakish outfit that includes a neon clock featuring his team’s insignia attached to his chest. And of course he has to be a Bear fan. I just shake my head when I see things like this.

10:49 – I gotta agree with the guys in the booth. I really like the fact that the Cardinals are still playing to win instead of playing not to lose. Kudos to them for that.

10:50 – Leinart’s pass on 3rd and 12 is incomplete and the Bears will get the ball back with good field pos…..GO BABY GO!!!! DEVIN HESTER!!!! TOUCHDOWN BEARS!!!! Can you believe this?!! 23-3 in the second half, six turnovers and somehow the Bears are winning this thing 24-23!! But Arizona gets the ball back with just under three minutes and two timeouts. Oh god…I think I just woke the whole neighborhood up. The funny thing about all of this...I know my father (who works the 6am to 2pm shift) is in bed, I know he is. If the Bears can hang on and win this thing, I’m waking him up.

11:03 – RACKERS MISSED THE FIELD GOAL!!!!!! Despite the best efforts of Matt Leinart who drove the Cardinals into field goal range, Neil Rackers misses his second field goal of the night and this one really costs them. The Bears will sit on it and win this thing 24-23. Gotta call Dad….be right back.

11:13 – Okay, I’m back. Before I could call Dad, my buddy Fritz called me so we could scream like school girls together. He lives out in the Quad Cities which is probably a good thing. If he and I were watching this game together it would have been insane with the screaming and hollering. I made the call to my Dad and sure enough, he was in bed asleep. He was a little too tired to get excited. In fact all he kept saying was, “Unbelievable.” I gotta go scream some more, I’ll be back.

11:21 – Alright, I’m done screaming. Final thoughts on the game: My heart goes out to Arizona. They came out with the right game plan and they dominated the best team in football for the entire game. Their defense was awesome for the whole game and had no part in this loss whatsoever. The Bears won this game coming from behind by twenty and did it turning the ball over six times and not scoring an offensive touchdown. They also had the ball half as much as Arizona which is just a credit to Chicago’s defense. They were on the field for nearly forty minutes and at a time when they should have been wearing down, they were at their most dominant and won this game despite their offense’s performance.

As far as the big picture is concerned, I think both teams are going to be fine as the season goes along. I just hope Arizona can recover from this before they play the Raiders next week. Leinart is for real and he is going to do special things in his career. I’m pulling for him. The Bears, on the other hand, may still be the best team in football, but they obviously have a lot of work to do and the bye week couldn’t come at a better time. At the same time, the Bears needed something like this, a back to reality kind of game. They were supposed to win this game in a laugher and almost came out on the wrong end of an embarrassing loss. Now they have two weeks to fix the problems that took place tonight and take their frustrations out on San Francisco in two weeks.

11:41 – Wow, what a night. Well, I hope you enjoyed reading this because except for the last few minutes, I sure as hell didn’t enjoy writing it. I look forward to your feedback and your comments. And if anyone knows where I can get a good deal on a new love seat, e-mail me at larrydyeriii@yahoo.com. Anyway, good night all….and oh yeah, GO BEARS!!!