World of Beer is my new favorite place. The bar, which opened in November on the corner of Bayard and George Street in New Brunswick, has all sorts of different beers and more televisions than seems necessary. It's amazing. It's also where I watched tonight's Bears/Packers game.
I entered World of Beer at around 4:15 pm wearing my Mitchell and Ness throwback Walter Payton jersey with my brother Joel in his Jay Cutler jersey and his brother-in-law Amriel, who's a Giants fan. Our server, who was lovely, came up and asked how we were doing.
"Better now than I will be in about half an hour," I replied.
"He's being self-deprecating towards his team," Amriel clarified.
With Aaron Rodgers, Eddie Lacy and Randall Cobb all playing in the game, my expectations as a Bears fan were very low. One of the worst defenses I have ever seen going up against a perennial MVP candidate, his favorite target and a rookie of the year candidate running back seemed a little unfair. I thought Chicago would be blown out of the water and finish 8-8 with a mid-first round pick while Green Bay would win its third straight division title.
Then the game actually started. The Bears went three-and-out on their first drive (which started at the opposing 42), then got a raw deal on a call when they tried to down the ball close to the Packers' end zone. When the Packers started moving the ball with relative ease on their ensuing drive, the outcome seemed inevitable. On third and goal from the Chicago five yardline, Rodgers would hit Jordy Nelson, or Randall Cobb, or James Jones, or Andrew Quarless, or Donald Driver, or Javon Walker, or Antonio Freeman, or Bubba Franks...1 and the Pack would go up by seven. He instead hit Chris Conte (who plays safety for Chicago) who made a legitimately good defensive play by breaking off his man and the Bears escaped without giving up any points.
"That pass had the Mark Sanchez seal of approval," Amriel mused.
It didn't matter that the Bears drove 80 yards following that interception for a touchdown. The Packers eventually responded when Jarrett Boykin returned a "fumble" for 11 yards amid the confusion because he did. It didn't matter that Jay Cutler hit Alshon Jefferey for 67 yards that led to a one yard touchdown run to put the Bears up 21-13. The Packers responded with a seven play, 80 yard drive to pull back within one because of course they did. Finally, on fourth and 10 from the Bears 48 yardline down by one point, Rodgers escaped from the fingers of the Chicago pass rush and hit a wide-open-from-busted-coverage Randall Cobb to put the Packers up for good because of course he did.
I was obviously still rooting for Chicago, but even as they led until the 32 second mark, there was always the nagging thought that I was hoping against hope. I am conditioned not only from years past but from watching the 2013 Chicago Bears to know that the odds were very much against them winning. It would not have mattered to me whether the Bears were winning by one or 100, or whether lost by five or by 50. I knew what was going to happen.
"If you told me that the Bears would need a stop from their defense on a final drive to win the game, I would put money on them losing," I reflected after the game. "If you told me they would score 28, without telling me the Packers score, I would know that that would not be enough."
Such is the story of the past few years of the most historic rivalry in the league. The Bears, after relying on the defense to bail out the offense time and time again (which didn't work), can field a legitimately scary NFL offense. It just so happens to coincide with a declining and porous defense and a period of relative dominance from their chief rival. Both the Bears and the Packers dealt with injuries and inconsistencies in 2013, but with the postseason on the line, the Packers proved that, for the time being, they still maintain the upper hand.
1. I blanked out for a minute there. What just happened? ↩
Sunday, December 29, 2013
Monday, December 16, 2013
The Bears, Free Coffee, and... Rooting for the Packers?!
If you couldn't tell by the title of this blog, by the header or by the theme that generally connects all of my posts, I'm a Chicago sports guy. I pull for the Bears, which, this season, has been exciting, infuriating, nerve-wracking and hilarious1, sometimes all at the same time. Despite that emotional tumult though, I still enjoy cheering for my team. A main part of being a Bears fan is rooting almost as hard against the Packers as I do for Chicago. I'm angry at how good Aaron Rodgers is, I am amused by the fact that their defense is almost as bad as the Bears' this year2 and it makes me happier when they lose. Under normal circumstances, I would be thrilled with the fact that the Rodgers-less Packers have not been good and probably won't make the playoffs while the Bears have a legitimate shot at the division title. However, something about this season has brought up a series of very unusual reactions.
First off, I'm not even sure how invested I've been in whether or not the Bears win this year. The defense has been hit by so many injuries3 and hasn't been able to stop anybody. The offense has been inconsistent under first year quarterback whisperer Marc Trestman and might as well just kneel down in short yardage situations. There's a lot to look forward to in future seasons with Alshon Jefferey hauling in anything thrown within 50 yards of his gargantuan catch radius in just his second season,4 the offense showing flashes of brilliance and rookies on both sides of the ball playing pretty impressively. But, as they're constructed now, the Bears are booking a ticket to a first round shellacking against either Carolina or San Francisco if they even win the division. I'd almost rather they go 7-9 and have a higher pick in the draft than have them get embarrassed in the playoffs.
In yesterday afternoon's Cowboys/Packers game, Dallas seemed firmly in control of the game going up 19 as the third quarter wound down. Tony Romo looked like he does in every month before December and despite leading his team to its first touchdown of the day, Matt Flynn was generally looking like the Matt Flynn that lost his job to Russell Wilson (excusable), Terrelle Pryor (less excusable) and rookie Matt McGloin (not excusable), and served as the emergency backup to Buffalo's Thad Lewis and Jeff Tuel. As I fulfilled the blogger stereotype of sitting in my mom's basement, I found myself rooting for the Packers from the beginning. Even once they had gotten down late, I was counting the possessions and figuring out what they would have to do in order to come back.
Now, you might be thinking to yourself, "but Benjamin, you were just telling me three paragraphs ago about how much you dislike the Packers! Have you been lying to me this whole time? Can I ever trust you again? How do I even know what's real anymore?" You wouldn't be wrong. All you'd have to do is scroll up a bit and see that that's exactly what I said. But there's more to it than that. Against any other team, I would have been quite happy that the Packers were being dismantled. But they were playing Dallas. And the Cowboys are currently the only other team in the NFC East challenging the Eagles for the division title.
To be fair, this shouldn't matter to me. I'm not an Eagles fan, and while my parents are, until this year I never really cared about whether or not they won. My girlfriend has been living in lovely Rosemont, Pennsylvania since June attending a grueling and inhumane post-bac program at Bryn Mawr College so that she can go to med school and be successful.5 For those who don't know, Rosemont is located right around 25 minutes from Philadelphia, and apparently the Dunkin' Donuts in the area offer a free coffee the morning after an Eagles' win.
Obviously, Philadelphia isn't the same team as Green Bay. But by beating Dallas, the Packers just gave the Eagles a better chance to take the division, which means more opportunities for them to win and for my girlfriend to get more free coffee. And more free coffee usually means a happier Sarah. And a happier Sarah usually means a happier Benjamin. I guess you could say then that I wasn't rooting for the Packers as much as I was rooting for free coffee.
1. Sometimes I watch the games and laugh at how woefully bad the run defense is. I was laughing for the majority of the game against the Vikings a couple weeks ago because it was legitimately one of the worst played/coached games I've ever seen.↩
2. Even with significantly fewer injuries to key players↩
3. And wasn't even all that good in the first place↩
4. Remember how he used to be fat? It makes me so happy and I love everything about that picture↩
5. For the life of me I have no idea how she's doing it. At the moment she's finishing up finals in biology, organic chemistry and physics all at the same time. The fact that she hasn't gone completely insane can only be explained by some sort of sorcery.↩
Sunday, December 1, 2013
The Blackhawks,Transplant Fans, and Homes Away From Home
The Blackhawks clinched a 5-2 victory over the Phoenix Coyotes earlier tonight in which all four lines scored goals. Rookie Antti Raanta won each of the past two games in the first two starts of his NHL career. Chicago finished off its seven game road trip spanning two weeks with six consecutive wins.
After Chicago dominated the majority of the third period, the "let's go 'Hawks!" chants became deafening with about two and a half minutes left in the game. The crowd erupted when Marian Hossa potted an empty-netter with 45 seconds left to seal the victory. Thousands of red sweaters smiled and cheered as they exited the arena and went home.
Did I mention this game took place in Phoenix?
As a transplant fan, I have conflicting reactions when I try to fully rationalize the sheer magnitude of the Blackhawks' fan base. The only game I've been to in recent memory took place in Nassau Coliseum two years ago. All jokes about Islander fans aside, I estimate about a third of the attendees were in support of the road team. I cheered with those who were near me1 and eventually Patrick Sharp came through with the overtime winner.
Last year I returned to Chicago for a basketball game with WRSU with a different kid who also happens to be a big Islanders fan.2 We flew in on Friday and had a full weekend with the game not taking place until Saturday afternoon. Luckily for us, the Hawks were hosting San Jose on Friday night in what was set to be a tight contest between Western Conference powerhouses. Unluckily for us, we were both very poor college students3 who could very much not afford 80 dollar tickets. We settled for watching the game in a bar whose name I can't remember in the city around other fans. The bartender rang a bell each of the four times when the Blackhawks cued the Dagger and I, along with everyone else came away happy with the 4-1 victory.
Watching that game, in that city, surrounded by like-minded fans, was an awesome4 experience. I haven't really ever felt that way, considering I've never been to any Chicago sports game at home. I had it a little bit at some Rutgers home games, but I always felt like the fans were divided by their professional allegiances rather than united by the college program.5 I can only imagine what it would have been like to join the other 21,824 in attendance at the UC that night.
The Blackhawks in the current hockey landscape have developed a national brand. There is always a large contingent of Chicago fans at every road arena, and, sometimes, that group fully overpowers the local crowd turning into what feels like another home game. I feel very lucky to call myself a member of such a committed faction of supporters outside the Windy City. I'd like to think that we make every road game, back-to-back and circus trip just a little bit easier, and we've been rewarded for our efforts so far with two championships in four years, with hopefully more to come soon.
1. 'Near' in this case is subjective, considering the closest people were several rows away. Again, this is Nassau Coliseum we're talking about.↩
2. I was sports director of the WRSU, the students radio station at Rutgers. We were there for a men's basketball game at DePaul in what was then a matchup between two Big East cellar-dwellers. God that game was boring.↩
3. As opposed to now, when I'm a very poor college graduate.↩
4. I don't use this word lightly in this situation. I was actually filled with the emotion called 'awe.'↩
5. One particularly cold night game against USF I happened to be wearing a Chicago Bears coat. A girl further down in my row decided that rather than enjoy the atmosphere in the student section she would yell angrily at me about the Bears who were playing the Eagles that week. She was mean.↩
After Chicago dominated the majority of the third period, the "let's go 'Hawks!" chants became deafening with about two and a half minutes left in the game. The crowd erupted when Marian Hossa potted an empty-netter with 45 seconds left to seal the victory. Thousands of red sweaters smiled and cheered as they exited the arena and went home.
Did I mention this game took place in Phoenix?
As a transplant fan, I have conflicting reactions when I try to fully rationalize the sheer magnitude of the Blackhawks' fan base. The only game I've been to in recent memory took place in Nassau Coliseum two years ago. All jokes about Islander fans aside, I estimate about a third of the attendees were in support of the road team. I cheered with those who were near me1 and eventually Patrick Sharp came through with the overtime winner.
Last year I returned to Chicago for a basketball game with WRSU with a different kid who also happens to be a big Islanders fan.2 We flew in on Friday and had a full weekend with the game not taking place until Saturday afternoon. Luckily for us, the Hawks were hosting San Jose on Friday night in what was set to be a tight contest between Western Conference powerhouses. Unluckily for us, we were both very poor college students3 who could very much not afford 80 dollar tickets. We settled for watching the game in a bar whose name I can't remember in the city around other fans. The bartender rang a bell each of the four times when the Blackhawks cued the Dagger and I, along with everyone else came away happy with the 4-1 victory.
Watching that game, in that city, surrounded by like-minded fans, was an awesome4 experience. I haven't really ever felt that way, considering I've never been to any Chicago sports game at home. I had it a little bit at some Rutgers home games, but I always felt like the fans were divided by their professional allegiances rather than united by the college program.5 I can only imagine what it would have been like to join the other 21,824 in attendance at the UC that night.
The Blackhawks in the current hockey landscape have developed a national brand. There is always a large contingent of Chicago fans at every road arena, and, sometimes, that group fully overpowers the local crowd turning into what feels like another home game. I feel very lucky to call myself a member of such a committed faction of supporters outside the Windy City. I'd like to think that we make every road game, back-to-back and circus trip just a little bit easier, and we've been rewarded for our efforts so far with two championships in four years, with hopefully more to come soon.
1. 'Near' in this case is subjective, considering the closest people were several rows away. Again, this is Nassau Coliseum we're talking about.↩
2. I was sports director of the WRSU, the students radio station at Rutgers. We were there for a men's basketball game at DePaul in what was then a matchup between two Big East cellar-dwellers. God that game was boring.↩
3. As opposed to now, when I'm a very poor college graduate.↩
4. I don't use this word lightly in this situation. I was actually filled with the emotion called 'awe.'↩
5. One particularly cold night game against USF I happened to be wearing a Chicago Bears coat. A girl further down in my row decided that rather than enjoy the atmosphere in the student section she would yell angrily at me about the Bears who were playing the Eagles that week. She was mean.↩
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