Sara, my daughter, is 16 this month. She went to bed at 9:00 pm. This morning I wondered if she was old enough to hear about the game. That was the most brutal loss I've ever seen. The pain--the heartache, the total historic meltdown!

The ending was unbelievable. I hate to use the word 'choked', but they did. One of the key points was right after the Bears scored to make it 23-17....when the Bears kicked off, and the Cardinal return-man got a 15 yard penalty for taunting....Cards wound up having to punt deep, and the Bear punt-returner ran it back for a TD. Joe Theismann said it very well - sometimes you just have to keep your mouth shut.

The other key point was when the Cards got conservative in getting into FG range at the end. Granted, Rackers is almost automatic inside 50 yards, but they had the time to drive deeper and either get a TD or make it a chip-shot for Rackers. Either way, it was obvious that Rackers' approach to the kick was tentative - he was nervous about the Bears breaking through and blocking the kick.

When a rookie QB becomes the starter, it's usually the team that has to be patient while the rookie grows up in the league. But the Cards have the reverse problem - Leinhart is exceptionally mature for his age, and yet he's playing on a team that can't get it done.

Oh, and happy birthday to Sara...seems like yesterday you were telling stories about the interesting things she said when she was 6. God, time flies.

Kevin