2005 Season Highlight

Winning the NFC North

Coming off the back of a really poor season in 2004 when everything that could did go wrong 2005 was a damn fine one to behold if you are a Chicago Bears fan. An NFC North title, a sweep over the packers and getting a bye week in the post season.

So what was the best moment of the lot? Well according to the vote it was winning the division. Before the season Dr Z of SI predicted we would go 3-13 and be drafting very high up in 2006.. Noone else was paying us any attention. Outside of Beardom there wasnt any thought that we'd challenge for a Wildcard berth let alone win the division. Then we went 1-3 after losing to the Skins (by two in a close game), Bengals (turnovers killed us) and the Browns (a game we should have won) and Dr Z was smiling like a bastard in his cubby hole somewhere. Our lone win was a drubbing of the Lions 38-6.

Two words seem to sum it up. They came from Mike Brown after the Browns game.. "We Suck".

Boy were the Vikings ever in the wrong place at the wrong time. The following week it all came together. On defense Urlacher had two sacks, Tilman and Chris Harris had interceptions. On offense Thomas Jones rushed for 89 yards and two touchdowns, and Orton passed for another two (both to Adi's love Desmond Clark). Even Edinger cheered us up by missing a 52 yarder and getting one blocked.. On we go lads much better.

Next up were the Ravens. Two defensive teams without offenses make a low scoring game. Ortons touchdown pass to Marc Edwards was the only touchdown in a 10-6 victory that took us 3-3.

Tank Johnson sacked Ravens QB Anthony Wright twice in the fourth quarter to seal the win. Then its onto Detroit with a 3-3 record. Orton threw for 230 yards and 1 Touchdown (capping a 99 yard drive with a pass to Moose for the TD), Thomas Jones rushed for 72 yards and Mark Bradley caught for 88 yards. Anyone remember Garcia throwing a lateral that Hillenmeyer picked up and ran back for a touchdown, only for it to come back because of intentional grounding? Mariuccis lobbying of the referee came to nothing at the end when Peanut intercepted a Jeff Garcia pass in overtime to return it 22 yards for the touchdown..

Onto the Saints and in an ugly game we won 20-17 behind Cedric Benson and Adrian Petersons running. The two combined for 137 yards and a touchdown after TJ got knocked out of the game in the first half.. In the end Robbie Gould kicked the winning field goal with 6 seconds to go after Orton hooked up with Moose for a 22 yard play to set it up..

Next is the play of the season from Nathan Vasher against the 49ers. No idea how long this link will last, but here it is.. The 108 yard FG return. 3-0 down against the lowly niners and then Vasher shows up to do this.. On you go lad, and take those Bears with you 17-9 we win in the end to go 6-3.. At this point noone saw us as contenders, after all we havent really played anyone yet have we?

Enter stage left the Carolina Panthers. The 7-3 highly fancied Panthers with Steve Smith came into town expecting to show the Bears to be pretenders. The media leading up to it felt that this was what would happen.. I think the following quote from the team covering the game for the Panthers sums it up nicely.. Taken from Horny Bears post "Panthers Radio" 22/11/05..

"Anyhow, going back to that last drive, after the 8th sack which ended the game one of the commentators turned to the other and said ...." well I guess that answers the question of what does a 300lb bear eat ..." "whats that" was his chums reply ...."anything he wants" came back the punchline. "

After the 13-3 beating up of the Panthers we then visit the Buccaneers who at that time were riding high on the back of their defence. A week after sacking Jake Delhomme eight times and forcing two turnovers in a 13-3 victory over Carolina, the Bears sacked Simms four times and used the Tampa Bay quarterback's fumble at his own 1 to take an early lead on Orton's 1-yard TD pass to John Gilmore. The 13-10 win over the Bucs had Dr Z locking himself in his office mumbling about the flaming redhead told him to do it. 8-3 now and rolling onto the playoffs... top five pick indeed.

The following bit here is in a different colour.. Amongst the other things that have gone on it might not have won the award for highlight but its not far away... We'll have it in the colour of Favres uniform after our dee had finished with him just to highlight it more...

Favre got sacked twice, hit god knows how many times (27 incomplete passes, i would guess most were hurried throws) and intercepted twice. Peanut returned one 95 yards to set up a Field Goal and Vasher took his 45 yards to seal the victory... hhhmmmmm wonder if i could find another pick of Favre on his butt after being roughed up a bit more... Here you go....

Forget that Orton was woeful that day and didnt convert one 3rd down. TJ broke the 1000 yard mark and we beat the Packers. Thats good enough for me.

Okay moving on a bit we then head to Pittsburgh. We missed the injured Brown and Harris in a big way up the middle and Bettis pounded us in the snow. The Steelers won 21-9 and gave us the most convincing beaten we had endured in the season so far.

The following week the Bears faced Atlanta. Rex Grossman made his comeback from injury by replacing Orton in the third quarter. Orton was 2-10-12 in the first half.. 12 YARDS in total.. Rex came on and the offense seemed to believe in itself. Grossman went 9-16-93 in the time he played but with TJ running for 91 yards it was enough. Rex was a bit charmed as well when he was intercepted on the Falcons 1 yard line only for Keion Carpenter to fumble it to Gage. TJ ran in the recovered ball and we were 10-3 up.. With our defense that was enough with two more field goals added later on..

Back to this colour again.. Christmas Day 2005. Game in Green Bay against the Packers. Our starting QB is returning and if we win the division is ours.. So when Favre gets picked off four times, Longwell misses two field goals and Lance Briggs returns an interception for a touchdown to put us 24-7 up thats a serious present from Soldier Field.. Unfortunately Favre got his stuff together and bought them back to within 7.. Then our defense made a stand.. In the last series they had Favre spiked on first down. Then was sacked. Then was sacked. Then Chris Harris picked him off as time expired.. Merry Christmas Bears fans...

"This one really hurts, because we didn't want them to win the division on our field," Packers defensive tackle Grady Jackson said. "This season feels like a bad dream."

That was as good as our season got. Our reserves then lost to the Vikings, but at least Tice got the sack.. Then we came close but ultimately two slips by the secondary and an unfit Mike Brown cost us dear agains the Panthers. On the bright side we scored three times on offense.

What a season.. Sweeping the Packers and Lions and winning the NFC North..

Sep 11 - at Washington L (7-9)
Sep 18 - Detroit - W (38-6)
Sep 25 - Cincinnati - L (7-24)
Week 4 BYE
Oct 9 - at Cleveland - L (10-20)
Oct 16 - Minnesota - W (28-3)
Oct 23 - Baltimore - W (10-6)
Oct 30 - at Detroit - W (19-13)
Nov 6 - at New Orleans - W (20-17)
Nov 13 - San Francisco - W (17-9)
Nov 20 - Carolina - W (13-3)
Nov 27 - at Tampa Bay - W (13-10)
Dec 4 - Green Bay - W (19-7)
Dec 11 - at Pittsburgh - L (9-21)
Dec 18 - Atlanta - W (16-3)
Dec 25 - at Green Bay - W (24-17)
Jan 15 - Carolina - L (29-21)

"Division champs.
Written off and given a high draft pick by all pundits at the start of the season and then we made them eat their words.
Divsion champs.
Boy does that sound good!" Midway Monster 24/01/06 in the voting thread.

" When asked how he felt about his first start in almost 15 months, Grossman pointed to the hat and replied: “I feel like a division champ.” " Flea Boxing Day 2005 - post from "Some Great Quotes"

"like i said knew our defense was good and didnt rate any of our opposition saying that i didnt expect us to win as many games as we did but winning the division mattered more to me than winning the money " Smiler New Years Eve 2005 - post from "Back before the season started"

(Runners Up: Beating the hell out of Favre AND sweeping the cheese)

Macca