Chicago Bears 2011 regular season Review: A collapse of epic proportions – NFL Special Part V
Against Seattle
Their playoff hopes were fading and it looked all for the Chicago Bears.
Three straight losses and a sputtering offence do not make good reading near the end of the season and there was no light at the end of this dark tunnel as a promising season looked to be collapsing all around.
The visit of Seattle to Soldier Field provided Chicago their last hope of salvaging their season but even after facing huge criticism the head coach stuck with quarterback Caleb Hanie and gave him his fourth start of the season.
Hanie had till now just thrown for two touchdowns and already had been picked off six times as he completely failed to power the Bears offence to victory.
The inevitable again happened, Hanie was picked off three times again and could only muster a single touchdown as the Seahawks powered to victory on the back of running back Marshawn Lynch’s wonderful performance.
The Bears went on to lose by a massive 38-14 margin and had their postseason dreams all but ended.
At Green Bay
The Green Bay Packers were unbeaten no longer having lost the previous week against the Kansas City Chiefs but still no one gave the Chicago Bears even a small chance of emerging victorious from Lambeau Field.
The Bears had lost their last four and Coach Lovie Smith had finally given in to fans demands replacing Hanie with veteran quarterback Josh McCown.
Green Bay though gave no mercy to their rivals and Aaron Rodgers completely destroyed Chicago as he passed for five touchdowns.
McCown performed better than Hanie in the game as he passed for a single touchdown while getting picked off twice but still Coach Lovie Smith could have saved his sides season if he had replaced Hanie with McCown earlier.
The Packers defeated the Bears 35-21 securing a first seed spot in the playoffs while their fierce rivals were out of the playoffs for good.
At Minnesota
With nothing to gain in the regular season for the Bears they faced a dead-rubber against Minnesota Vikings in the final game.
Chicago stuck with McCown from the start and finally ended a five game losing streak as they beat the lowly Vikings 17-13.
McCown passed for 160-yards throwing for a single touchdown pass and an interception.
The victory was meaningless since the Bears were out of the running for the playoffs and were just playing for pride.
Chicago ended the season 8-8 and the end of the regular season was the harbinger for many changes in the structure of the Bears front office.
The Future
The Bears season collapsed spectacularly in the final half of the season and President Ted Phillips fired general manager Jerry Angelo, offensive coordinator Mike Martz and quarterbacks coach Shane Day from their jobs as he ringed around changes.
The Bears retained the services of coach Lovie Smith and on Monday announced the hiring of new general manager Phil Emery from the Kansas City Chiefs.
Chicago will now look to hire some new talent in this year’s drafts and settle the contract situations of some of their star players including Matt Forte who are entering free agency as they look to return to the postseason in 2012 and return amongst the
elite franchises in the NFL.
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