Look at This But Not At That

In Sunday's Bears game, the Bears got "screwed" on a bad call by the refs. See, the Lions' Jeff Garcia, about to go down be sacked again, threw the football at no one to try to avoid being tackled. The Bears scooped up the seemingly live ball and ran it into the endzone for an apparent defensive score.

After some grotesque hemming and hawing and lobbying by Steve Mariucci, the refs declared it had not been a lateral pass, but a forward pass. The Lions were penalized for intentional grounding. The Bears lost a replay challenge and a time out.

All day yesterday in the papers, radio and blogs, all you heard about was this play. How the Bears were lucky to overcome this screwjob.

Why the silence on the play in which the Bears got the same break and prevented the Lions from getting a defensive score?

See, no one is talking about the play where Thomas Jones caught a swing pass, took three steps, and then fumbled as he was hit. The refs called that play incomplete. I don't think I saw a word in ANY of the papers about that play.

Selective memories, I guess. How about far and balanced? The Bears got a break and got screwed. It was all moot because the game got to overtime. Therefore, nobody got screwed.

Now, let's see the Bears finish their imitation of the San Diego Padres and worst division in their sport.