Mojo Rants and Ciphers:

 

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Coaching Indictment:  It appears Turner assumed Lovie would take the field goal so when Lovie surprised us with his daring, Turner evidently did not have another play ready other than the same stumble up the middle.  Someone, even Orton, should have called a time out when that came over the earphones, unless Ipanema is playing in Orton's helmet too?  Is that a green dot or a green thong on the back of his helmet?

 

Scheme Indictment:  Approaching the two minute warning as the Vikes were driving, while the Bears were using their last two time outs to get the ball back for no one knows what good THAT would do, why in the Seven Hells were we blitzing while having the secondary play a prevent defense?  Frerotte just kept dumping into the open, or a running lane was open, and they marched down for another 7 with 0:48 left in the half.  It's not the players' fault when the staff combines THE blitz with THE cushion!!!

 

Coaching Indictment:  So we DO get the ball back albeit not like they planned, AND THEY CALL A RUN PLAY AND THEN WALK OFF THE FIELD.  Atlanta could have scored 4 field goals in that amount of time and had 4 seconds to spare.  The Bears won't even try.  Game over.

 

So where does that leave us?  Needing to finish 4-0 without a doubt. I'm pretty sure we beat a woeful Jax, a tired and cold Saints, and win the vendetta, but the Texans look like a tough Week 17 road challenge to finish 10-6.

 

After Head to Head of 1-1, Division is the next tiebreaker and Min will beat Det, so we must win vendetta to both finish 4-2 in Division.  Next tiebreaker is Common Opponents and that's where the going gets tough.  The Vikes have already beat our last four opponents - they beat Jax in Week 10, Saints in Week 5, the pack in Week 8, and the Texans in Week 7.  We have to beat them all or lose the 3rd tiebreaker.

 

Because on the other hand, the Vikes will beat Detroit; we did not play Arizona so it don't matter to the Vikes and that will be a must win home game for Arizona after they beat St. Louis and Minnesota at home before traveling to New England before returning home to beat Seattle and finish 10-6 to win the NFC West Division.

 

Bears and Vikes now tied at 8-6.

 

Then the Vikes have Atlanta at home and we already lost to them.  Vikes win and clinch Norris because it DOES matter to them and because 8-4 Atlanta will have had to win a tough road game at New Orleans, a tough home game against the Bucs, travel to Minny, and then get to finish at home against St. Louis to finish 11-5 in the NFC South.  11-5 is important to them because the 9-3 Panthers will lose at Tampa, win at home against Denver, lose at the Giants who will still have the Cowboys in their rearview at the time, and then have to pull it out at the Saints in the finale to finish at 11-5 in the NFC South.  9-3 Tampa will beat Carolina at home, lose on the road at must win Atlanta and not care because they finish at home against the hapless Chargers and Raiders to win the NFC South at 12-4.

 

If Atlanta loses to Tampa before playing the Vikes, the Vikes will beat them even more easily.  Bears are toast because those frickin’ 11 seconds makes Vikes 8-4 against common opponents and Bears 7-5.  Then Vikes don't need Giants game and finish 10-6 beating our best 10-6.

 

But they're likely to beat Giants too and finish 11-5 because rearview mirror Dallas at 8-4 wins at Pitt tired from New England, making their next game at home a must win against the Giants.  Then Cowboys are at home against a tough Baltimore and then finish on the road at Philly to end 10-6 most likely.  That means the Giants beat Philly at home to go 12-1, save the punishment at Dallas, win or lose at home against a Carolina coming off wins against Tampa and Denver, leaving them not giving a shit in Week 16 or 17 on the road at Minnesota to finish at 12-2 or 13-3, either one clinching home field.

 

But if Vikes somehow lose against Atlanta and they're 7-5 and we're 7-4 common . . .Vikes need a win against not caring Giants to finish 10-6. Because 4th tiebreaker is Conference.  Vikes are 5-3, Bears are 5-5. Say Bears finish 7-5 because they have only two Conference games left. Vikes go 6-3 against Detroit.  Arizona loss makes it 6-4.  Say win Atlanta go 7-4 somehow lose to Giants now be 7-5 finish 9-7 and force Bears to beat Houston to finish 10-6 because they lose the 4th tie losing to Houston and finishing 9-7 too.

 

Even lose Atlanta go 6-5 then beat non-caring Giants to go 7-5 finish 9-7 force Bears to beat Texans and everybody else too.

 

Sorry for the long analysis, but I GUESS OUR BRILLIANT LOVIE WAS RIGHT. IT'S A 4-GAME SEASON.  OR A 1 GAME SEASON.  MIN-ATL, BEAR-TEX.  COME ON MR. COMMISSIONER, THE BEARS' 12TH MAN.  WHOOPS.  WE ALREADY TRIED THAT LAST SUNDAY AND GOT SCORED ON ANYWAY.

 

GO CARDS!  GO FALCONS!  GO GIANTS!

 

Go Bears.

 

Mojo

12/2/2008