Schuster: Lovie Finally Gets Smart and The Bears Win
Who would have thought that the Bears would be 6-3 at this point of the season? Certainly not me and, dare I say, not many of you. But the fact remains that after their 27-13 victory over Minnesota on Sunday, the Bears are tied with Green Bay on top of the NFC North division.
Jay Cutler had his usual mixed bag kind of game. Cutler did throw 3 touchdown passes but he also had a pair of interceptions and one of them was an incredibly poor decision when he was picked off in the end zone. He did connect with 9 different receivers and ended up with a passers rating of just over 87. That was a lot better then Brett Farve who looked all of his 41 years old Sunday. Farve threw 3 interceptions and ended with a passers rating of 44.5.
The defense played outstanding and Mike Martz mixed in again just enough running plays to keep the Vikings off balance but the best decision in this game actually came 2 days earlier. That's when Lovie Smith opted to put Devin Hester back as his kick off man. Hester repaid his coach with a pair of returns good for 100 yards and nearly went all the way on a 68 yarder. Hester also returned a pair of punts for 47 yards and hauled in one of Cutler's TD strikes so he definitely was the games MVP.
Why did Smith put Hester back as his kickoff man? Who cares. The better question is why did he ever take him off that duty and why did it take him so long to put him back? Simply put, Hester is the best EVER at returning kicks. Yes he's pretty good in the punt return area too but when given a chance to get a head of steam on kickoffs, Hester has a pretty good chance to break one.
So whether it was a smart move, a revelation or just a blind squirrel finding a nut, lets' give Smith some credit for making the right decision. And, oh yea, let's hope he's smart enough to stick with that decision.
