Were there an area on this website for us to offer our thoughts on the various over/unders put out by Vegas (for entertainment purposes only, of course), we would have advised taking the under -- which was in the neighborhood of 36 points -- in the Bears-Jets clash at Soldier Field.
It’s probably a good thing there isn’t such an area. Despite playing in conditions that have been occasionally snowy and persistently blustery, the Jets lead the Bears 24-17 at the half.
Almost as surprising as the overall score has been the play of Jets quarterback Mark Sanchez. He hasn’t shown much affinity for games in cold weather during his brief NFL career, but he’s figured something out on Soldier Field this Sunday. He’s 13-of-15 for 156 yards through two quarters and would have one more completion if not for a drop by Dustin Keller in the end zone just before the half. Thanks to a pretty inexcusable drop by Tim Jennings, Sanchez also hasn’t turned the ball over.
Jay Cutler has turned it over, an interception that Dwight Lowery returned for a touchdown, and also took a bad sack because of a refusal to throw the ball away. That led to a short Brad Maynard punt into the wind and a LaDainian Tomlinson touchdown for the Jets. Cutler did make a nice throw to Matt Forte to set up his own rushing touchdown to close a 21-10 Jets lead back into a one-score game, however.
The Bears have been the league’s stingiest second half defense. They’ll need to keep it up after giving up 224 yards in the first 30 minutes if they hope to come out of Sunday’s game with a victory.