Sunday was the Chicago Bears vs. Carolina Panthers NFL playoff. "Playoffs" are like finals but in the NFL the teams are divided into pools of four teams each. The pool winners meet in the playoffs, which is sort of like World Cup soccer I guess.

I went with Zillah, Brett, and Mary-Beth to Mickey Finn's to watch it on the big screen. Brett is an expat who has embraced the American lifestyle. Not only does he possess an impressive knowledge of beer brewing, beer appreciation, and beer in general, he also has a sound understanding of the rules of NFL, which he passed onto me.

The game was pretty boring. Chicago was failing to successfully distribute the ball forward and as such most of their play was buggerizing around within the 10 yards. The highlight of the game for me was when a Carolina forward received a perfectly placed throw from their quarterback, dummied the last defender, stepped around him and scored a touchdown. However displays of skill and flair like this are routine in an AFL game. I don't know how the Americans stay interested.

As for who to blame for Chicago's defeat... The Bears quarterback, Grossman, was conspicuous in not hitting his targets. Apparently this was his first game after a while of not playing NFL matches. However I think the main problem was their forwards not providing good leads for him to throw at. Additionally, if the quarterback is not well defended, he doesn't have enough time to make a good throw. Urlacher for Chicago was solid and a few times ran some yards in the right direction. Smith for Carolina was devastating and tore holes in the Bear's defense. Whoever was marking him just couldn't get close enough.

Although the Bears at one point managed to narrow the score gap, given their infrequent and limited attacking plays, I never seriously thought they were close to winning. Final score 29-21.