With Super Bowl week upon us, we are continuing our countdown of the Chicago Bears’ greatest playoff wins of the Super Bowl era. They’ve had 11, we are counting down the top 10 (Sorry Bears 16, Saints 6, you didn’t make the list). Where does your favorite game rank? You’ll find out before Super Bowl 60 kicks off on Sunday.
What went into ranking these games? I think what team they beat matters. I think how they won matters. I believe individual performances within the game matter. Was it dramatic? Did they blow the opponent out? What made the game interesting or compelling from a Bears perspective? All of these factors went into determining how these games should be ranked.
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Number nine on this list was when Smokin’ Jay Cutler was on fire.
The 2010 Chicago Bears were kind of Lovie Smith’s last ride with the Bears. It was his final division title, and the last time one of his Bears teams would make it to the playoffs. And of course, Lovie would be dismissed two years later.
But the 2010 club won 11 games and won the NFC North. They had a strong enough season that they earned the 2-seed in the playoffs. This, of course, was the Caleb Haine NFC Championship game defeat against the Green Bay Packers in the NFC Championship game season, but before that game, the Bears needed a victory to propel themselves to that game, and they did so against the Seattle Seahawks.
This game finished at 35 to 24, but it was a far bigger blowout than that score indicates.
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Jay Cutler had his best day in a Chicago Bears uniform as he was fantastic, earning his lone playoff win in a Bears uniform. He threw two touchdowns, one of them a beautiful strike to Greg Olsen on a 58-yard touchdown, and he ran for two more TDs. Cutler ran hard and ran over one or two defenders on his way to the end zone on those runs.
The Bears dominated this from the start, jumping out to a 28-0 lead. Pete Carroll may have had an excellent career as the Seahawks’ head coach, but he had one of the epic surrender kicks in this game, kicking a field goal on fourth and goal with less than 17 minutes of football remaining.
The Bears would lead 35 to 10 before the Seahawks scored two garbage-time touchdowns with less than 3 minutes remaining in the game.
Cutler showed that he could perform when the game mattered, and you do have to wonder if the second half of that game plays out differently if Cutler plays. If Cutler plays and the Bears win that game, what would have happened against the Pittsburgh Steelers? And how much would that have changed the legacy of Aaron Rodgers if he never won a Super Bowl?
It is certainly fair to wonder what a more stable environment and better coaching would have done for Cutler during his tenure here as Bears quarterback.
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