The Chicago Bears too full advantage of an injury ravaged Miami Dolphins winning 16-0 and in doing so inflicting only the second home shut out for the Dolphins in 40 years.
Tyler Thigpen who started the season as 3rd choice QB showed very little in a game dominated by defense, however he did produce more yards than his more illustrious counterpart Jay Cutler and given that he lost Brandon Marshall early in the game his performance was quite credible.
Star of the game had to be Julius Peppers who had 3 sacks and generally terrorized the Miami offense, and for Miami once again Carlos Dansby looked impressive. Both were acquired in the off season and their old clubs Carolina & Arizona must be wishing they had held on to them given both are having bad seasons.
So where does this leave these teams, well the Bears are improving and with a game against Green Bay still to come effectively have their destiny in their own hands. This was not a particularly impressive performance given Miami’s injury list however, its another win in the column and it wouldn’t be the first time a solid defense has carried a team into the post season.
Miami are too beaten up to compete in the ultra strong AFC East and the chances of them grabbing the no 6 seed look remote unless their squad displays some miraculous healing skills. Still they are moving in the right direction and once they sort their offense they could become a play off team again, probably not before 2012 though.
