Always focusing on the positives, never dwelling on the negatives

...Just as every coach and player transparently pretends to do.

It's in that spirit of pretending something good happened that I extract a positive from the Bears' home blowout loss Sunday night.

That's right--Griese sucked!

Sure, the Bears may have looked horrible in every possible way (or so the statistics tell me, as I admittedly spent most of the game with my back to the TV playing Catchphrase and making terrible jokes in my parents' basement), but at least the coaching staff--after watching both quarterbacks in game action--won't be any more compelled to go with Griese mediocrity over a Grossman gamble in the divisional round playoff game.

Now, if I have to come up with a negative from Sunday night's game--yeah, I know, what a stretch--it's the lack of Orton. Talk about a slap in the face! Despite a Tim Hasselbeck-like 8-28, 5 INT combined performance from Gross-Man and Grease-monkey, Lovie Smith wouldn't even indulge us with a single Kyle Orton pass play. And to think--our viewing party had a bottle of champagne on ice just waiting to be uncorked when Kyle took the field for the first time in '06. Sadly, that bottle went wasted, as we could think of no other reason to drink champagne the rest of the night. Plus after the Orton snub, we were to despondent to have enjoyed it anyhow.

I think I speak for myself, Pat, Purdue fans, Deadspin readers, and probably no one else when I say, here's hoping 2007 brings much more Kyle Orton than 2006 did.