With the kind of viciousness Chicago would support if he were a Bear, Lions defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh violently slammed Jay Cutler into the Soldier Field sod hard enough Monday night to shake a football city's fan base.
Suh's over-the-top celebration offended me more than the hit, which was clean but so forceful that Cutler lay still for several minutes suffering from a rib injury in the second quarter of a 13-7 victory over the Lions. As a stadium held its collective breath with the Bears' franchise quarterback on his back, a debate that had nothing to do with presidential candidates swept across the lakefront.
Was it a dirty play?
With Suh, the temptation always is to say yes without worrying about a consensus or a replay. Suh doesn't get to the ball in a bad mood. He arrives deranged, intent on inflicting bodily harm on the poor sap he happens to catch. This time, it happened to be Cutler, the recipient of the WWE-style rag-doll treatment. But this time, Suh picked on a quarterback tough enough to return for the second half and show mettle nobody ever should doubt again.
"I was outside the pocket,'' Cutler said. "It's football."
Suh's tackle of Cutler looked bad because it was. It appeared to have crossed a line but it didn't, as several of Cutler's teammates agreed.
"That's football,'' Bears coach Lovie Smith said. "Nobody's trying to hurt anyone or anything like that. Suh's playing hard trying to win the game.''
From the quarterback destruction to his choreographed display, the sequence simply represented Suh doing what Suh does: seek, destroy, showboat. To counter, the Bears did what they do defensively — and that was the biggest difference in a game that will be remembered best as the one Cutler avoided catastrophe.
On a night Suh went for the knockout, the Bears nearly pitched a shutout.
"We're a pretty well-coached team,'' Brian Urlacher said of the 5-1 NFC North front-runners.
Indeed, the defense forced three turnovers inside the red zone and used a 15-day layoff to rethink just how basic it wants to be. Forget all the talk about how the beauty of Smith's Cover-2 lies in its simplicity. If the Bears defense was so simple, why did Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford look so flummoxed?
"We play Cover-2 every snap, right? That's what I hear,'' Smith said sarcastically. "We did what we normally do.''
OK, but holding wide receiver Calvin Johnson to three receptions for 34 yards required creativity that defied Smith's inflexible reputation. Not only did the Bears have cornerback Charles Tillman shadow Johnson with Pro Bowl persistence, but Smith tweaked his nickel personnel by adding a package in which Kelvin Hayden replaced D.J. Moore.
The rationale: In certain offensive formations, the Lions lined up Johnson in the slot — a mismatch for Moore. Instead of having Moore play cornerback, where his smallish size invited mismatch opportunities, the Bears used the 6-foot, 195-pound Hayden on the perimeter against the Lions' smaller receivers.
"The different packages made (Stafford) kind of confused, kind of rattled,'' cornerback Tim Jennings said. "We wanted to mix it up.''
That was obvious after free safety Chris Conte blitzed on third down one play after a linebacker blitz had rattled Stafford. One series later, the Bears dialed up a blitz for strong safety Major Wright. Everybody got into the act on a night the Bears' defensive front outplayed the Lions' vaunted front four. Did Lions defensive tackle Nick Fairley suit up?
Pressure from rookie end Shea McClellin created a sack for Julius Peppers. Tackle Stephen Paea showed excellent agility supplying push up the middle. End Corey Wootton showed up yet again. Lance Briggs was Lance Briggs. Urlacher resembled a linebacker in his 20s on the occasional blitz up the middle, once deflecting a Stafford pass.
Even when the Bears' pass rushers didn't get to Stafford's body, they got inside his head. On one third-and-11, Stafford overthrew wide receiver Titus Young after Young had sneaked behind the defense. That's what running for his life will do to a young quarterback.
Meanwhile, the Lions were the Lions. The NFL's most undisciplined team lost three fumbles and the benefit of the doubt on two personal-foul penalties. Officials flagged defensive tackle Corey Williams for hitting Earl Bennett from behind on a judgment call. They penalized Alphonso Smith for a horse-collar tackle of Brandon Marshall that fit the definition of borderline.
Both penalties looked debatable. But when a team carries the reputation the Lions do, you lose those arguments.
The Lions didn't lose because they played dumber or dirtier than the Bears. They simply weren't better than a team suddenly playing as well as any in the league.
Twitter @DavidHaugh
