Day: December 10, 2013

It was a lazy (and very early) morning after reviewing the recording of the Bears game.   That is, until Brad Biggs at the Chicago Tribune popped this eye opener into his article this morning (the emphasis is mine):

“If [Josh] McCown can be plugged into [Bears head coach Marc] Trestman‘s system and perform like this, who’s to say the Bears won’t opt to bring him back and draft a player for the quarterback whisperer to get his hands on? It would likely be a much cheaper option than re-signing [injured starting quarterback Jay] Cutler.

“One general manager texted during halftime Monday night and predicted just that — the Bears will look to re-sign McCown and draft a quarterback.“

I suppose you always take what league sources say with a grain of salt because they all have their own motives for feeding quotes to the press.  But this one strikes too close to home to be dismissed.  This anonymous general manager is echoing what many, if not most, Bears fans are thinking.

Cutler has a lot of talent.  But he has a lot of limitations and the Bears offense will always be limited with him at quarterback as well.  As has been documented over and over again, the Bears will likely have to take a big cap hit to keep him once he hits the open market.

It won’t be Teddy Bridgewater but the Bears could reach for a mighty good late first round/early second round-type quarterback from where they’ll probably be drafting.  And it looks like they’ve finally got the kind of coaching staff that could develop him.  Indeed, why else would you choose to go in the direction of a quarterback-freindly offensive head coach in the first place?

No matter the motives behind the comment, the GM is right.  The Bears have been setting themselves up in order to be capable of drafting and developing a quarterback from the moment Trestman was hired.  Economically and strategically it makes a lot of sense and they could very well go in this direction.

Defense

1. No surprise.  The Cowboys came out running and the Bears stacked the box with 8 and 9 guys.  The Cowboys ran over them.
2. The Bears continue to have problems at linebacker.  I know these guys are young but it might be time to take a look at the coaching staff here.  To have to watch these guys over run the play time after time is pretty frustrating.
3. The Cowboys failed to execute in some important situations.  As pointed out by color man Jon Gurden, it seemed that Tony Romo was having a hard time getting on the same page with DeMarco Murray on two or three occasions.  It hurt them at some critical times.

Offense

1. The Cowboys just aren’t equipped to play the cover two.  They can’t get pressure and their defensive backs were totally mismatched when covering the Bears receivers.  They went to more blitzing and single coverage in the second half, the right thing to do, but then the Bears adjusted and started running them over.  That’s a pretty bad defense right now.
2. I think defenses forget about Earl Bennett with the other big receivers that the Bears can put on the field.  He seems to be able to sneak in for those big catches like the first touchdown of the night.  He’s an interesting weapon that is probably under utilized.
3. It was nice to see the Bears scoring in the red zone tonight
4. Time after time the Bears were converting in long yardage situations.  There was a lot about the Cowboys defense not to like tonight they should really be most ashamed of the job they did on third and long.

Miscellaneous

1. I love Jon Gruden.  He’s constantly teaching the fan about football.  He and Cris Collinsworth are, for my money, the two best color men in football.  What a shame that their talents are buried at night when most fans are all but asleep at held time.
2. I loved that the Bears played a relatively clean game penalty wise.  Everyone, including the special teams cleaned it up.  That was a big reason for why they executed the way they did.
3. I thought the field was in pretty good shape considering the mud pit it was not that long ago.
4. The Bears defense once again was poor against the run.  There was absolutely no reason for the Cowboys to do anything but hand the ball off to DeMarco Murray all night.  I’m afraid that this is the kind of effort the Bears are going to need consistently out of their offense if they are going to continue to win games.  Fortunately they were up against a defense that in retrospect was the best imaginable matchup for them.  The Cowboys want to play cover two but they just don’t have the personnel for it.  They don’t have the four man pass rush nor do they have the defensive backs to play it.  They have a long road to go if Jerry Jones will have the patience to stick with it.  Even against a good zone defense, the Bears match up pretty well.  Most teams know by now that they way to beat them is with tight, man-to-man coverage, especially when Jay Cutler is at quarterback.  That didn’t matter because the Cowboys aren’t equipped to play that either.  In any case, this game was a testament to what the Bears offense is capable of if they don’t shoot themselves in the foot with penalties and mistakes.  They did a wonderful job tonight.  That’s good because the Bears are going to badly need them to keep it up.