The Bears' D was, as advertised, AWSOME. But the Cincy Coach decided before the game he was going to play THAT kind of game, i.e. - ball/clock control, run at 'em up the middle, etc.
The weather was a significant factor as well... rainy, muddy, long grass (they didn't cover the field - on purpose) and if you watched the game, the WR's were slipping every time they tried to make a cut. No excuses , just trying to explain.
Also, with 1:30 left, we had 1st & goal at the 3.... Coach took a knee... no need to rub anyone's face in it. Be sure he knew he was going to get the standard "6 to's and ONLY 24 pts??!!" criticism... still, a pretty classy thing to do.
Played at Soldier Field (in Chicago) and very loud fan base (altho they got kinda quiet in the 4th qtr <grin>)
I think your team has a big task ahead of them, but this is a home game for us (Cincy) against an underrated team. Ask KC how that feels... (they were undefeated coming here 11-0) and looked way past us. Huge moral victory... I think that marked our true "believe in us we're on the rise" turning point. That scares me about this game.
Anyway... our coaches are the true architects of this team. What a nice change for us. Ok... having Palmer/Johnson/Johnson/Houshmandzadeh/Perry/thornton/etc. is nice too...
WHO DEY!!!