• Upon further review, I have changed my mind about the biggest thing to come out of this game. Immediately after the game, I thought it was about their defense finally getting a stop and Jeremy Langford. Now, I think it was about Alshon Jeffery. He was awful at the start of the game, with a dropped touchdown, another dropped pass on third down and a pick-six that he should’ve prevented. He put the team in a big hole. In the past, we’ve seen Alshon disappear after those moments. Then something happened. It’s as if he grew up before our eyes. He was different. We saw him pounding his chest and talking after the play. He was pissed off and he was going to dominate. Maybe it doesn’t happen that way if Jason Verrett doesn’t hurt his hamstring, but I’m not sure that mattered. He just may have taken the step the Bears dared him to take by not extending his contract before the season.

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Call it what it is: This game was terrible and hard to watch. But, for the first time in three weeks, the Bears came out on top of the poorly-played game and there were a couple good signs. Rapid fire…

• There are two big stories in this game. Two stories that could have a big impact on the Bears future: Their defense got a stop when they needed it and Jeremy Langford looks damn good.

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• Before getting into football talk, I want to thank everyone who for their kind words after the passing of my father. It was obviously a difficult week, made more difficult by the Bears.

• We all want to believe the Bears are a drastically different team because they have John Fox leading the way instead of Marc Trestman, but in their last two games they have played almost exactly like they did under Trestman. I get there is a lack of talent, but they have just as much as the Lions and the Vikings, there’s no excuse for them to lose either of those games the way they lost them.

• If the Bears and the Vikings were to swap quarterbacks, the Bears would have the first pick of the draft and the Vikings would win the Super Bowl.  Don’t listen to what you read on Twitter, Bridgewater is bad. Meanwhile, there aren’t 10 quarterbacks in the league who are better than Jay Cutler right now. There may not even be five.

• So, why did Adam Gase decide to take Cutler out of the game for most of the first half? Look at the Bears first six games and they were at their best when Cutler was moving around and making things happen. I get that he didn’t think they could block the Vikings’ front four, but by continuously throwing slip screens, he gave them no chance. As soon as he stopped doing that, the Bears started moving the ball. It isn’t difficult to figure out.

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Administrative Note: This piece is presented without edit. Don’t care if there are spelling mistakes or grammatical errors. Andrew is part of the DBB family now and it just made sense to send the words directly from him to you.

Growing up in Wisconsin I got asked how I became a Bears fan just about every other day. The answer I gave was always the same: “The Curse was passed on by my father.” The joke usually gets a chuckle, but it’s the truth. I’m a Bears fan because my dad is a Bears fan. I relate the Bears with my dad and on Tuesday morning, my dad passed away unexpectedly in my house.

I’m not going to bore anyone with the details. Cancer is cancer. It’s a bitch. Dad was diagnosed in early 2014. Everything seemed to be going great until a couple of months ago. It took a turn for the worse and last week we were told he had a few months. The doctor was wrong, he died six days later.

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• Before we make Adam Gase the head coach of the Dolphins or anyone else, can we at least have him fix the red zone offense? The spread-style scheme he runs is great at getting the Bears close, but they still need to be able to power it in the end zone once they’re there. It’s more difficult to create mismatches when the defense doesn’t have to cover as much space.

• It’s not all on Gase. The Bears have been getting their butts kicked at the point of attack when the other team is able to play their base or goal line defenses. You also saw Cutler miss a throw to Royal and Marty Bennett drop a perfect throw, both would’ve been touchdowns. Players have to make plays.

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• The Bears have two wins because they have a good coach and a good quarterback. You were told that they would win some games for that reason, I know you were because I’m the one who told you. (Pats self on back).

• Through five games in 2014, Matt Forte had 118 touches. Through five games in 2015, he has 120. I don’t know when we should start worrying about over-usage, but he looks damn good right now. He isn’t the only one getting the ball a lot, the Bears backup running backs have combined for 26 touches after totaling 42 last year. Fox wasn’t kidding when he said he wanted to run the ball, the Bears are 12th in attempts after finishing 30th last year.

• Coming into the game, there was a debate about which team had the better quarterback. That debate is dead. You saw on Sunday why turnovers aren’t the end all, be all when it comes to quarterback play. The guy still has to be able to make plays. Smith can’t. Cutler can.

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• Sitting in the Kapow Terrace in the north end zone, my favorite part of watching the game in person was watching Cutler go through his reads and the way he moved in the pocket. The touchdown pass to Martellus Bennett was 100 percent Cutler. The way he manipulated the defense was brilliant. That’s why the fourth quarter interception didn’t make sense. He was one step ahead all game and all he needed to do was go to his next read and he would have found Eddie Royal all by himself, likely for a touchdown. He had done it all game, why not on that play?

• All three of Cutler’s interceptions this year have been on passes attempted to Bennett. Is that coincidence? Bennett’s lackadaisical attitude on passes headed his way has to drive the coaching staff nuts.

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Note From Jeff: We are going to keep experimenting with the Wednesday space until Andrew feels right. Today is a massive tone change. Hope you like it.

• Oakland rookie receiver Amari Cooper has been awesome this season, which should make Bears fans excited about Kevin White’s potential. Bob McGinn of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel does some great pre-draft work  having scouts rank the players. Cooper came in as the top-ranked receiver totaling 12 first-place votes and 88 points, while White received seven first-place votes and 82 points, way ahead of the rest of the field.

• It sure looks like Mel Tucker is coaching the Bears special teams. Players make mistakes that lead to big plays on the field, but when different players keep making the same mistakes, it’s a sign that the coach isn’t doing a good enough job of coaching them. The Bears allowed two 40-yard kick returns in Week 1 and have allowed return touchdowns in consecutive weeks. This comes after last year when the one thing they did better than anyone else was cover kicks, leading the league in average allowed yards per return.

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Looking Back

It wasn’t all bad.

Really, it wasn’t.

Without their best wide receiver and with a makeshift offensive line, the Bears drove down the field against one of the best defenses in the league and scored touchdowns twice.

Then Cutler got hurt.

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Looking Back

As nice as it was for the Bears to look like a professional football team and compete with a  team we all expect to be playing in January, the Bears still lost and nobody should be happy about that.

The Bears had their chances and didn’t execute. They followed the recipe almost perfectly. They kept Aaron Rodgers off the field, running for nearly 190 yards and dominating time of possession early on. But they didn’t make enough plays. That’s what decides the outcome of games.

Outside of Cutler and Forte, the Bears didn’t have a single player make a big play. While James Jones was jumping over Bears defensive backs and Eddie Lacy making one-handed grabs, the Bears got nothing. The biggest play was made by Clay Matthews, perfectly reading Cutler’s eyes for an interception. A good reminder that defensive players get paid too.

One thing that was clear is that the Bears have confidence in their coaching staff. They know they’re going to be put in a position to succeed and it’s up to them to come away with the win. In Week 1, they didn’t.

Looking Forward

It’s hard not to look at the Cardinals and wonder what if Phil Emery had hired Bruce Arians instead of Marc Trestman? Arians wanted the job, he practically begged for it, but Emery went in another direction and it cost him his job.

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