End of the Road: Bears miss postseason.

Even though the Minnesota Vikings won the NFC North title, the Chicago Bears still could have made the postseason thanks to the Oakland Raiders beating the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Philadelphia Eagles beating the Dallas Cowboys. But the Bears forgot to do one thing—beat the Houston Texans. Everything started out great for Chicago as usual, jumping out to an early 10-0 lead in the first quarter. Then everything went on a decline, and the Bears never recovered.

After Kyle Orton, who finished the game 22 of 37 for 244 yards and two touchdowns, connected with Brandon Lloyd for a touchdown and Robbie Gould tacked on another three points, safety Danieal Manning let the league’s leading receiver, Andre Johnson, slip behind the secondary for a touchdown to cut the score to 10-7. On the ensuing kickoff, the Texans capitalized on another Manning mistake by recovering his fumble on the return—which resulted in another touchdown by Johnson on Houston’s next offensive possession. By halftime, Chicago found themselves down 14-10.

The third quarter looked like the second, with the Texans’ offense doing whatever they wanted to the Chicago defense. Matt Schaub continued to find Johnson, who had 10 catches for 148 and two touchdowns (all game-highs), and capped off another scoring drive when Ryan Moats hit pay dirt from two yards out midway into the quarter. Chicago’s offense finally got things going on the ensuing possession when Orton hooked up with Devin Hester for a 37-yard gain, which put the Bears on the one-yard line. From there, Orton connected with Greg Olsen to cut Houston’s lead to four.

> Find a great line of Chicago Bears apparel & merchandise through Pro Football Fans & get the 2008 NFL scores here as well.

Once the final quarter of the Bears’ season got underway, Chicago still found themselves playing catch up. After a Kris Brown field goal and a Steve Slaton touchdown, Orton and the offense put together one more valiant effort to keep their season alive by marching down field to the one-yard line, were Orton plunged into the end zone to cut the score to 31-24. But a Gould onside attempt didn’t go as planned when Houston recovered it, ending the Bears’ season.

This game pretty much sums up the entire season for the Chicago Bears. They come out of the gate clicking on all cylinders, and somewhere along the line, things just fall apart. And despite the many gifts that are handed to them, they never really took full advantage of the situation. But on a brighter note, the Bears are two games better then they were last season, and found themselves only one game behind in a tight NFC North division. With Orton possibly being the long-term quarterback that Chicago has been looking for since probably Jim McMahon, a potential franchise running back in Matt Forte, and the core of the defense returning for the 2009 season, Chicago is poised to improve from this season and reclaim their spot atop the NFC North, and in the NFL.

By Clyde A. Speller
ProFootball-fans.com Chicago Bears Correspondent