Schuster: Successful Season Or Not?
By David Schuster --
Just about anytime you are one of the final four teams left standing in the NFL the feeling is that it was a successful season. The glass half full outlook is that even if you lost in the conference championship you were just one step away from the Super Bowl and the future should look bright. But is that the case with the Chicago Bears? They definitely exceeded expectations by winning 11 games in the regular season, capturing the NFC north crown and having home field advantage for two playoff games. But the glass half empty look is that the Bears were a team that had every break imaginable, beat a lousy Seattle club in their only playoff win and the arrow is not pointing up.
Why might the pessimists be on the right side of the ledger? Well you can easily point to the holes that are still on this roster. The offensive line is still a huge question mark, the wide receiving corps is still lacking, the defense isn't getting any younger and the franchise quarterback is still as up and down as a balloon.
Jay Cutler can drive any football fan mad. You still have no idea what you are going to get out of this guy. When he's good he's really good but when he's bad...WOW...look out! On Sunday he was bad long before he got injured and when your quarterback is bad you really stand little chance against quality opponents. A lot of people, both during and after the game, questioned Cutler's toughness and now you can add that subject to many others in regards to the mercurial Q.B.
You can also question the head coach whose decisions in Sunday''s game (again) brought many of his detractors to the fore front. Why not kick a field goal when you had a chance? Why punt instead of going for a 1st down when you needed a spark on offense and why in the world would you have Todd Collins as your back up quarterback...much less be on the roster? Lovie Smith's contract extension? That should wait for another day....a much later day.
So in spite of 12 overall wins and playing deep into January this team has more holes then a piece of Swiss cheese. Are you optimistic that they will get as far next season as they did this? I'm not.
