- AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez
- A leaping Brandon Marshall snares a second-quarter touchdown pass last night against the 49ers. He added two more TDs later.
Last week’s season-opening overtime loss to the Buffalo Bills put some Chicago sportswriters in full panic mode, no one more than Steve Rosenbloom of the Tribune. Rosenbloom declared that “the Bears’ season is over,” and added, “Raise your hand if you think the Bears could challenge for the No. 1 overall draft pick.”
Things did look bleak for awhile last night against the 49ers, who were playing their first regular-season game in their new stadium in Santa Clara. The Bears were down 17-0 until just before half. But Jay Cutler, Brandon Marshall, and a rejuvenated defense showed they’re not ready to challenge for the top draft pick, and the Bears emerged with a 28-20 upset.
Rosenbloom’s trenchant sports analysis for the Trib, alas, is mostly hidden behind a pay wall—you have to pay a premium for such insights as “stupid” and “garbage.” He was repulsed last Monday by Cutler, “the disaster of a supposed franchise quarterback who supposedly has grown as a man and a player.” Of the defense, he wrote, “Didn’t we see enough of this garbage last season?”
On Wednesday, Rosenbloom pointed out to readers that “it wasn’t just Cutler who was bad and stupid” against the Bills. Marshall “put on a clinic of bad and stupid early and late.”
During the first half last night, Rosenbloom was still on the attack. Marshall had a sore ankle, and the Bears’ other star receiver, Alshon Jeffery, a strained hamstring, but both were in the game. “The Bears decided to play two injured receivers who can’t run or jump,” Rosenbloom tweeted in the first half. “That’s some smart player evaluation, huh?”
This was before Marshall ran to the end zone in the waning seconds of the second quarter, jumped, and, with one soft hand, pulled in a 17-yard pass from Cutler to put the Bears on the board. Marshall had two fourth quarter TDs as well. The bad and stupid Cutler led the Bears on four straight touchdown drives. The garbage defense intercepted 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick three times and sacked him four times.
“Who knew?” Rosenbloom wrote after the game. “Not me….The Bears were bad and stupid early. They were gutsy and resourceful later on, none moreso than Cutler.”
“The bandwagon has a new chauffeur today,” a commenter on his blog notes.