Bears Offense Gets the Runs

Sean Jensen‘s game story for the Chicago Sun-Times had this interesting nugget:

But the Bears offense could only muster a field goal. They did get inside the Packers’ 5-yard line but couldn’t score the touchdown, settling for a 30-yard field goal after left tackle Frank Omiyale gave up a sack to linebacker Erik Walden.

Afterwards, Omiyale extended a hand to his befallen quarterback, but Cutler rolled and got up by himself.

It was unclear, though, if Cutler snubbed his lineman.

Either way, the Bears offense has had better days.

And they seemingly got worse throughout the game.

They certainly did.  If Cutler did snub Omiyale I don’t think there’s are many fans in Chicago that would condemn him though Cutler was far from perfect himself, throwing one horrible interception in the end zone.

But the offensive line struggled badly yesterday, especially in the second half.  And when you come right down to it that’s where the game is played.  Many will see Cutler’s reaction and look to the poor pass protection and they’d have a point.  But that wasn’t really the major problem.  The major problem really developed when the Bears becomes one dimensional when they stopped running.  Brad Biggs at the Chicago Tribune explains:

“The crowd noise had nothing to do with the play selection, though, and what’s surprising is Martz got away from what had been working well. The Bears trumpeted the fact they had been so balanced offensively, then they went pass crazy. Martz called 47 drop backs and 18 rushes despite the fact the game was never out of reach.”

The Bears came out running in the third quarter and got a reasonable start.  But generally speaking the second half was a waste land of sacks and long yardage after the first possession.  Once a team knows you are going to throw, they can come at your quarterback with everything they’ve got.

The pass protection wasn’t good and it needs work.  But for the Bears, it wasn’t so much the pass blocking that put Cutler on his back.  It was the lack of a running game that did the offensive line in when it counted.

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