Bears to Get Run Game Going as Packers Try to Stop It

John Mullin at csnchicago.com thinks that the move of Michael Ola to right tackle will improve the Bears run game:

“Coaches were clearly pleased with the results in the run game with Ola at right tackle. Matt Forte rushed for 114 yards against the Patriots to go with 33 from Ka’Deem Carey, together averaging nearly six yards per carry.

“And since Trestman laid out the intention to balance the offense better, Ola is the presumptive right tackle until further notice.

“‘We got to do a better job of [balance] because we have offensive line that can block the run and we’ve got a very good running back,’ Trestman said. ‘We’ve got to do that.'”

If they’ve got an offensive line that can run block they sure haven’t shown it the last two years. Maybe Ola can make the difference on the right side.

Its also fairly clear that running the ball is something the Bears are going to have to do if they want to beat the Packers coming off of the bye. The Saints burned the Packers for 193 yards on the ground last Sunday and Green Bay head coach Mike McCarthy sounded none to happy about it. Via Rob Demovsky at ESPN.com:

“‘We need to tackle the damn ball carrier and put him on the ground. That’s what we’ll be focused on.’

“McCarthy and his staff have the bye week to figure out if they can salvage their run defense, which has not ranked higher than 30th at any point during in the first half of the season and slipped back to 32nd (last) after Sunday’s 44-23 loss.

“‘The run defense was our Achilles’ heel clearly on defense,’ McCarthy said. ‘Too many missed tackles.'”

Missed tackles and dropped passes were problems last year with the Packers and despite devoting much of the offseason to solving the latter problem, it’s still there this year as well. We’ll have to wait two weeks to see how much help they are going to give the Bears.

Game Comments: Bears at Patriots 10/26/14

Offense

  1. The Bears came out running right away. The Patriots didn’t even disguise the fact that they knew it was coming, putting an extra guy in the box from the get go.
  2. Quarterback Jay Cutler was not accurate again this game, making his targets work for their catches when they could reach them.
  3. The Patriots did a very good job of covering the Bears underneath and limiting yards after the catch. So the Bears were having a tough time even getting their usual yards between the 20s.
  4. Having said that, the Bears did get some room for Matt Forte to catch some balls out of the backfield in the second quarter. It resulted in a touchdown.
  5. Half time adjustments included throwing the ball more to Brandon Marshall. Again. When we we be at a point where they’ll do that from the beginning and that won’t have to be an adjustment anymore?  By the way it didn’t work.  What else is new?
  6. The Bears also came out aggressive after the half. The Patriots weren’t exactly in a prevent defense but it was obvious that they were playing softer to prevent big plays that might let the bears back into the game.
  7. Nice catch from Martellus Bennett for a touchdown near the end of the third quarter.
  8. The offensive line was particularly bad in protection today. Stunts, blitzes, it didn’t matter. They weren’t picking anything up. It didn’t help that Cutler was missing some reads.
  9. Having said that, the run blocking wasn’t below average and Matt Forte had his usual good game.

Defense

  1. The Bears came out in nickel and were apparently not prepared to get run over. Which is what happened. Again. In fairness they did eventually stop the bleeding later in the first half through the end of the game though it was at the expense of their pass defense.
  2. Having established the run early, Tom Brady did pretty much whatever he wanted in the passing game with play action.
  3. What’s interesting is that the nickel didn’t even work. It was undoubtedly meant to stop the Patriots from passing to secondary receivers but the match up of Rob Gronkowski on Ryan Mundy wasn’t even close.
  4. Brady was extremely accurate hitting even well covered receivers in areas where they could catch it.
  5. It doesn’t seem fair that the Bears make a great goal line stand at the beginning of the fourth quarter, stopping the Patriots on fourth down, only to have to give up a field goal due to a field goal because of a Patriots penalty. Give the Bears defense credit for being ready for the no huddle and to run back on the field on a last second switch by the Patriots to go for it on fourth down.
  6. Chris Conte had some good open field tackles.
  7. I like Al Louis-Jean’s potential allot. But Brandon LaFell ate him alive.
  8. Not that it matters but it certainly did seem to me like the Bears got screwed on the Gronkowski touchdown near the end of the first half. Gronkowski dropped that ball.
  9. The injury to Lamarr Houston. [head shake]

Miscellaneous

  1. I had no unusual problems with Sam Rosen, John Lynch and Pam Oliver. They are what they are and they were what they usually are. Lynch was, perhaps, sharper than he was last time we saw him making, some good observations that fans might have missed. For example, he pointed out that Forte’s touchdown in the second quarter resulted from a route adjustment by the running back. He also pointed out that Cutler was staring down receivers like a rookie again this week.Then, of course, there was that wonderful moment in the broadcast when Joel Nobody sent the audience back after an update from the Houston-Tennessee game to “the Patriots versus Southwest Missouri State”. Hilarious.
  2. Some poor punting in the first quarter didn’t help the Bears offense out much. The coverage teams struggled, too. The Patriots first punt was near the end of the third quarter so not much that can be said there.
  3. The Bears didn’t have many obvious drops. Alshon Jeffery had a very bad one on fourth and 10 to stop a drive at the beginning of the first half. The Patriots got away with dropping too many this week but they’ll eventually want to clean that up.
  4. A holding call on Martellus Bennet effectively stopped the first drive forcing the Bears to pass when they were trying to establish the run. Matt Slauson got the Bears offense off to an awesome start on the second series with an immediate false start. It was all a part of a great beginning to a great game. And all part of yet another game where the Bears committed too many of them. I’m sure that the Patriots will hear about it from head coach Bill Belichick as well and they had more than their share, too.The officiating was bad. Which is the new normal. Maybe its just all part and parcel of a bad day but an awful lot of those bad calls seemed to go the Patriots’ way. They really didn’t need the help.
  5. You guys think Jay Cutler turns the ball over too much? Try Geno Smith with three INTs against the Bills. In the first quarter.Of course, that doesn’t excuse Cutler. It isn’t the reason they lost but how Cutler could have dropped the ball at the end of the first half, resulting in a Patriots recovery for a touchdown, I simply can’t understand. I know he was trying to throw the football but come on, man. Can’t you just limit the damage and get the hell out of there?
  6. As a NFL fan the phases you go through as you watch a definitive loss to a better opponent from beginning to end are very similar to the stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. I went through them all. In the first quarter and a half.After that it was all total embarrassment.

Leading the Leader and Other Points of View

Bears

  • Rich Campbell at the Chicago Tribune points out that Cutler continues to overthrow receivers and attributes it to poor mechanics. But he then offers no specifics about what is wrong with those mechanics and gives us nothing to look for. Frustrating.
  • I’m not in the business of bashing quarterback Jay Cutler. Too much. But I found this article by Campbell to be pretty amusing. He first starts off by quoting an exchange between GM Phil Emery and a fan on the Bears website:

    “Q: ‘Given Jay’s enormous contract in the offseason – how happy are you with his performance thus far? I’m a huge Jay Cutler fan, but he can’t seem to make that leap to elite status and just makes too many mistakes.’

    “Emery: ‘Jay Cutler is a winning quarterback in this league and no matter how you analyze the history of quarterbacks in the NFL, if you have a winning record you are an elite player at that position. I’ll say it again: Jay has enormous skills and he continues to improve in all areas as a football player. I know he has some throws he would like to have back, but all of our players have had plays that they would like to have back.'”

    He then quotes the statistics (only some of which I’ll include here):

    “Cutler’s teams have a 59-52 record in games he has started during his eight-plus NFL seasons.

    “The Bears, for whom Cutler has played the last six seasons, are 42-32 when he has started. Since coach Marc Trestman took over before the 2013 season, the Bears are 8-10 when Cutler has started.

    “Cutler is 1-1 in the postseason, having beaten the 7-9 Seattle Seahawks in 2010. The Bears lost the NFC championship game at home that season to the Green Bay Packers. Cutler did not finish the game due to a knee injury.”

    OK. Maybe it’s not so funny.

  • Biggs answers your questions:

    “How is it that nationally, Matt Ryan is not held to the same scrutiny that Jay Cutler is?””– Brian C., from email”

    “The difference between Ryan and Cutler over the course of their careers is Ryan has experienced sustained success. His record as a starter in his first five seasons was 56-22. He experienced two 13-3 seasons and helped the Falcons to the playoffs in four out of five years. Cutler is in his sixth season with the Bears and they have reached the postseason once. The Bears have been unable to sustain success under Cutler and that is probably the best explanation for the difference in perceptions nationally for the quarterbacks.”

    Nationally Cutler is most criticized for his tendency to turn the ball over. Even I’m surprised to see that he has 8 fumbles this year compared to Ryan’s 1 fumble.

  • Here’s another interesting response from Biggs:

    “Why is no one talking about the inability of the Bears to tackle properly?””– John J., from email”

    “This is a question I could pull out of the mailbag five or six times a year.”

    “But I think most observers would agree the Bears have been better tackling in the open field this season. Open-field tackling is difficult, for starters. When it’s one-on-one, that’s not always an easy play to make. How many times do you see tight end Martellus Bennett slip by a defender? It happens usually at least once a game. So tackles are missed on both sides of the ball.”

    I couldn’t agree more. I’m usually one of the first people to start criticizing tackles on a game-to-game basis. But you can’t do it unless you are seeing it consistently over and over again. Seeing players miss the occasional tackle is not unusual and its not a big deal. There are lots of things to criticize about the Bears this year. This isn’t one of them. Yet.

One Final Thought

Patrick Finley at the Chicago Sun-Times describes the reason given for the fact that the Bears ran so little in the first half Sunday:

“Cutler said he made the right decisions when changing plays from runs to passes in the 27-14 loss Sunday to the Dolphins, even though he handed the ball off only two times in the first half.

“He changed two runs to passes and decided to throw on two more run/pass options. One, a deep ­incompletion to Alshon Jeffery on third-and-one, stalled the Bears’ first drive and seemed to mire them in a funk that lasted the first half.”

Translation: They couldn’t pass against a run defense.

The excerpt highlights what is wrong with the media focus on Cutler’s performance last week. Most writers have emphasized the fact that Cutler has mental breakdowns which result in turnovers, something that Rich Campbell at the Chicago Tribune does a particularly good job of highlighting here. They also ridicule the idea put forward by the team that turnovers are a team statistic. But perhaps they shouldn’t be so hasty as, in a way, this is particularly true of Bears.

The Bears insist that Cutler is an elite quarterback, something that is patently absurd. The Packers Aaron Rogers is an elite quarterback. He makes everyone around him better. Cutler depends upon everyone around him to make him better. And that’s the rub.

Cutler is the kind of guy who is going to be a great quarterback when things are going well. But when the going gets tough, Cutler’s not going to get going. That’s what happened last Sunday. The Dolphins were blitzing and playing the run and the Bears receivers were getting blanketed in single coverage. The team was sinking and in those situations Cutler isn’t going to be the life raft that keeps them afloat. He’s going to be a lead weight that takes them to the bottom.

That’s why Cutler’s turnovers are a team statistic. Most media and fans are laboring under the mistaken impression that Cutler’s turnovers are causing the team to underperform. Its the other way around. Like it or not, whether you think its the way that it should be or not, its the team’s poor play that is resulting in Cutler’s poor play.

If the Bears want to get better, they’re wasting their time if they are depending upon making Cutler better first. They should certainly try but he’s 33 years old and everyone has to accept that he is what he is. The only way the Bears are going to get better is by coaching up the other positions and making them better. If they do that, Cutler will follow.

A Question of Style and Other Points of View

Bears

  • Rick Telander at the Chicago Sun-Times on quarterback Jay Cutler after the Bears loss to the Dolphins Sunday:

    “You know what’s sad? This from Dolphins intercepting safety Reshad Jones: ‘After watching film all week, we saw [Cutler] was looking where he threw the ball. He was always looking at his receivers and never looking off. We tried to take advantage of that, and it paid off.’”

    Rick Morrissey, also at the Chicago Sun-Times, says that wide receiver Brandon Marshall reportedly called out Cutler after the loss (amongst others).

  • Former Bears Blake Costanzo on Twitter. Via Morrissey:

    “[Head coach Marc] Trestman [sic] has made the bears soft. I took pride in wearing that jersey. [Mike] Ditka, [Brian] Urlacher, [Lance] Briggs. Unreal man. No respect”

  • Here’s one thing Morrissey said that I can totally agree with:

    “‘We have no identity,’ cornerback Tim Jennings said. ‘We still don’t know who we are. We win on the road; we lose at home. That’s the most frustrating thing about it. We don’t know who we are just yet.’

    “He might want to consider the very real possibility that this is exactly who the Bears are.”

    So might the fans. As Jeff Dickerson at ESPN.com put it, “This team seems to be destined to be 0.500.” My suggestion is that fans relax and deal with it.

  • Hub Arkush at chicagofootball.com after the loss:

    “Could it be these Bears think too much of themselves and that just arriving at Soldier Field should be enough? Are they playing hard enough and giving 100 percent effort?”

  • Brad Biggs at the Chicago Tribune shares my concern here:

    “The other thing that jumped out was running back Matt Forte receiving only two carries in the first half. That couldn’t have been part of the game plan in the ‘good week of practice,’ right? The offense runs through Forte and there the Bears were on third-and-1 from their own 47-yard line on their first possession. Shotgun formation? Check. Press coverage from the Dolphins? Check. So throw it deep to Alshon Jeffery with Brent Grimes in coverage? Uh, check.

    “Trestman called it the right move when Miami opted to press the wide receivers. But it was a low-percentage shot and reinforced one thing: The Bears do not always seem comfortable running the ball in short-yardage situations.”

    I didn’t have the big problem with this call that most fans had. You take your shots down field when you can and the call would have been a brilliant surprise move if it had worked.

    But I’m still bothered by the overall situation. The Bears have had trouble blocking in short yardage situations for two years now and it led me after last season to call for changes in the offensive line. The Bears opted to stick with the same five guys and they are reaping their reward.

    Its OK to take a shot down field on a play like this on rare occasions. But if you aren’t confident enough to run the ball on third-and-1 and get it the vast majority of the time its a problem. The Bears resort to passes or trap plays and other types of techniques to get leverage instead because they aren’t strong enough up front to block a run play without it. They need to be able to occasionally just blow off the ball to get a yard. Because good teams simply won’t be finessed.

  • Biggs makes an outstanding point regarding wide receiver Brandon Marshall‘s post game tirade:

    “Former Bears receiver David Terrell was a likable guy with a playful personality. But Terrell had an act from time to time like winning was more important to him than anyone else in the locker room. I’m not comparing Terrell to Marshall at all. Terrell was a bust. Marshall is a big-time offensive producer. But the idea that one guy takes winning and losing more personally than 52 others doesn’t pass the smell test. The locker room is full of professionals and it requires a professional approach. No other player wants to hear another guy in the locker room say it hurts more for him.”

    Rich Campbell and Dan Weiderer, also at the Chicago Tribune try to pass Marshall’s tirade off as something that happens every week. I don’t buy it.

  • Offensive guard Kyle Long on his criticizing the fans in a postgame interview:

    “Long backtracked Monday, telling WXRT-FM (93.1) that ‘it was wrong for me to point fingers at the fans’ and that it was up to the Bears to give the crowd a reason to cheer.

    “‘I just think (reporters) had asked everybody in the locker room how they felt about (fans booing), and a lot of the guys didn’t take the bait,’ Long said. ‘Obviously emotions are running high after a game. Obviously if we were giving them something to cheer about there would be a lot more cheers coming off the field at halftime. Hopefully the score would be a little bit closer as well.”

    The impression of both the players and the media that the fans were booing the poor first half performance as the Bears went in at half time might not be totally off base. There was certainly a lot of frustration and venting at that point. But I can tell you that, right or wrong, the fans around me were most upset by Trestman’s decision to take a knee with time left on the clock rather than taking a time out and to move into field goal position. My impression was that the reaction at the time was more about that than anything else.

  • Patrick Finley at the Chicago Sun-Times places the blame for the Bears not running the ball in the first half squarely on Cutler. He quotes Trestman as saying that the change to more of a run-based offense after half time was because the Bears took the option of changing the plays from Cutler:

    “‘We took some of the options off, and we handed the football off,’ Trestman said. ‘And we got more of what we would expect out of our offense — a good, solid drive.'”

  • With all of the talk of concern about the lack of leadership from Cutler and Marshall, (and Trestman) no one seems to be talking about the obvious void – the lack of leadership on the defensive side of the ball. This was, of course, supposed to fall to Lance Briggs but he has pretty much proven now that its not his bailiwick and I’ve yet to hear of anyone stepping into his shoes.
  • No matter how much criticism Cutler takes he still goes home after every game to this:

Just sayin’

One Final Thought

Morrissey is also questioning Trestman’s leadership style:

“Those of us who respect Trestman and appreciate his mind know that neither respect nor football knowledge necessarily makes a successful NFL head coach. There’s more to the game than X’s and O’s. There’s the matter of dealing with large, talented human beings who, because they have been coddled their entire lives, believe they can do anything they want. It takes a real leader to tell them they can’t. Allow them to run free, and, well, this happens.”

Anyone up for some Double Nickel barbecue?

Game Comments: Dolphins at Bears 10/19/14

Defense

  1. The Bears defense game out playing mostly cover 1. They were trying to stop the run with the standard 6 or 7 in the box (depending on the personnel) and they were getting run over. They eventually had to start sneaking an extra guy up into the box before putting a stopper in it.

  2. The Bears were getting fooled by the read option all day and Ryan Tannehill in particular made allot of yards with it when he kept the ball.

  3. The Bears were back to their old habit of over pursuit and it cost them badly as the Dolphins took advantage of it with a number of misdirection plays.

  4. The defense adjusted at half time and stopped putting an extra man in the box, trying again to stop the run with base personnel with limited success.

  5. Give Ryan Tannehill credit. He looked great today. He’s under fire in Miami and has a reputation for being inconsistent. He had a good game today.

  6. Jeremiah Ratliff came out like a ball of fire and had a very good game, especially early.

  7. I don’t’ know what the stats were on time of possession but the Bears defense was just plain worn out in the fourth quarter. Miami just wore them down.

Offense

  1. The Bears offense was under siege this game. The Dolphins came out with a plan to blitz Jay Cutler and with tight coverage on Bears receivers in the defensive backfield and it worked to a tee. Cutler was under pressure all game and whenever he threw to anybody they were always covered. It was an awesome effort by the Dolphin defense.

  2. I’m not sure who the first Cutler interception was to. It looked like he was expecting Santonio Holmes to cut his route short but it was so far off it was really hard to tell.

  3. Tough day for the bears offensive tackles as Cameron Wake had his way with them.

  4. The Bears did a little better in the second half when they adjusted and came out running the ball, something they didn’t do enough of in the first half. I know that the Dolphins have a very good run defense but you have to do it at least some. The Bears also started feeding Brandon Marshall and, eventually, Martellus Bennett the ball more.

  5. The Bears continue to struggle with screen plays. They must be tipping them off because defensive linemen are reading them like a book.

Miscellaneous

  1. Alshon Jeffery had a tough game with the drops.

  2. Neither team had an excessive number of penalties until the Dolphins starting committing them in droves in garbage time.

  3. Turnovers: Do I really need to say more?

  4. The Soldier Field grass looked good.

  5. Well, let’s look at the bright side. Special teams didn’t kill the Bears today. They even blocked a field goal and had a decent return with some very good blocking.

  6. The Bears looked extremely slow on both sides of the ball, today, especially on the defense. It was much more apparent live and its a serious concern, especially at linebacker. They also got beat badly at the line of scrimmage, especially on offense. These two factors were a big part of this loss. Other than that, the only thing left is to give Miami credit for coming out and playing an outstanding game. The Bears got beat by a better team today.

Not a Good Sign and Other Points of View

Bears

  • I’ll be attending the game Sunday so whatever Game Comments there will be, if any will be brief. Sorry. Its tough to take notes under those circumstances. Maybe some day someone will give me credentials for the press box. 🙂

  • Hub Arkush at the Chicago Sun-Times notes that Lamarr Houston was missing in action again last Sunday. This is becoming something of a concern.

    I thought it was also notable that at a time when most media members were handing out kudos to Michael Ola for his work substituting in for various members of the offensive line due to injury, Arkush said that Ola “struggled at times” last week. Arkush tends to be more critical than most but if you buy into the evaluation, Ola may not ever be more than a back up.

  • Another point from Arkush that will rub some fans the wrong way:

    “The rush was great once the jail break started at the end of the game, but for 60 minutes, the Bears were a B-/C+.”

    I must agree. The sacks at the end of the game made the effort look better than it actually was and the performance of the defensive line has been generally exaggerated. But to give credit where credit is due, I thought I saw more consistent pressure through all four quarters than I’ve seen all season. Its just that not all of it resulted in sacks.

  • Rich Campbell at the Chicago Tribune asks safety Ryan Mundy about the fine associated with his helmet-to-helmet hit on Falcons wide receiver Roddy White last Sunday:

    “What could Mundy have done differently on the play?

    “‘Nothing,’ he said Wednesday.”

    Wrong answer. Mundy came in shoulder first, as he should. But he came in too high and clearly hit White’s helmet with his. A couple inches lower and the hit would have been clean.

    Mundy is like many other defensive backs around the league that apparently just can’t get the message into their brains no matter how often the league tells them. You have to lower your target. That’s what he should have done differently.

  • Former Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb is slipping into bitter old man mode again.

  • Arkush thinks that the key to the game today may be the play of the Dolphins linebackers.

One Final Thought

Every single Chicago Sun-Times “expert” picked the Bears on Sunday over the Dolphins. Same for the Tribune and at ESPN. Kiss of death.

Something for Everyone and Other Points of View

Bears

  • Amongst the less than stellar performances for the Bears on Sunday against the Falcons, that of right tackle Jordan Mills stood out. Rich Campbell at the Chicago Tribune elaborates:

    “The starting right tackle committed a false start before the game’s first play from scrimmage, a harbinger of his struggles throughout the game. He was beaten for a sack and was penalized three times for 15 yards — twice for false starts and once for an illegal formation. Jonathan Massaquoi beat Mills around the edge for a sack of Cutler on the Bears’ second series. Two plays later, linebacker Paul Worrilow beat Mills to set the edge against a [Alshon] Jeffery end-around. Defensive end Kroy Biermann beat Mills late in the first half, forcing Cutler to step into a sack by cornerback Robert McClain.”

    In fairness to Mills, I’m wondering if some of his struggles are due to the fact that left tackle Michael Ola, who was subbing in for the injured Jermon Bushrod, was getting the majority of the help. Though I haven’t gone back to look, the guess here is that Ola got the most help from a chipping Martellus Bennett or Matt Forte, something that may have been more prone to happen on Mills’s side with Bushrod healthy.

  • One of the things that stood out Sunday was the nice play of the “backups” who were on the field due to injuries to the starters. I thought this quote from linebacker Darryl Sharpton was to the point. Via Kevin Fishbain at chicagofootball.com:

    “‘[The coaches] do such a great job giving everybody the confidence – they don’t treat anybody like a ‘backup’ or a secondary-kind of player – everybody gets treated with a great level of respect. That’s one thing I love about this organization.'”

    No doubt the coaches are concentrating hard on training the non-starters this year after last year’s disaster when injured starters went down and the replacements couldn’t handle the load. Its apparently working.

  • Brad Biggs at the Chicago Tribune quotes cornerback Tim Jennings on the play of nickel back Demontre Hurst:

    “‘That was a great job by Hurst,’ Jennings said. ‘He prepared great all week and he was where he needed to be. He had an opportunity to make a play and with hard work that is what happens.

    “‘It’s definitely him. It’s his job. As long as he continues to prepare each and every week and make the plays he is supposed to make, it is his to take.'”

    It’s hard to watch defensive backs on television but to my eye Hurst did a pretty good job. It’s obvious that Jennings wasn’t comfortable with the move to nickel before the injury to Charles Tillman forced him outside. Unless his play falls off for some reason its very possible that Hurst might be a permanent fixture at the position from here on out.

  • Biggs also had this nugget:

    “Demontre Hurst wasn’t the only inexperienced defensive back pressed into action. Al Louis-Jean, the undrafted rookie from Boston College who was promoted from the practice squad this past week, got four snaps when Tim Jennings was briefly shaken up.”

    This isn’t quite the minor point that it might seem to be. Louis-Jean is a tall, athletic cornerback who is exactly the type that the Bears are looking for. He couldn’t possibly have made less of an impression on the Bears coaching staff during the preseason than he did on me. I think he, too, might have a future with the team.

  • One of Biggs’s 10 thoughts after the Bears victory Sunday:

    “The best quote I got that I didn’t find a place to use after the game came from left guard Matt Slauson. ‘To have second-half swagger back was really great.’ The Bears can call it swagger when they responded with two touchdown drives after the Falcons had tied things up.”

    The key part of this was, “after the Falcons had tied things up”. The Bears defense has been a sieve at the beginning of the second half. I’m not sure what’s going on but they need to work harder to keep the ground that they are being handed in the first half. I thought the Bears offense had to work way to hard to rebuild the game from the rubble that was left midway through the third quarter. The defense has to tighten things up coming out of half time.

  • Here’s an encouraging statistic that flew under the radar. Via Mark Potash at the Chicago Sun-Times:

  • “According to Pro Football Focus, they had three missed tackles against the Falcons. That’s the fewest they’ve had this season. They had 14 against the New York Jets.”

Elsewhere

  • Biggs quotes an anonymous scout on suspended Georgia linebacker Todd Gurley:

    “First round and I don’t give a crap about the kid signing autographs.”

    One Final Thought

    Rick Morrissey at the Chicago Sun-Times assesses the state of the Bears:

    “The Bears are in that murky who-knows category. I see a 3-3 team that will be up and down the rest of the year. Many of you see a defensive line finally coming together, an offense that can amass a lot of yards and maybe, just maybe, a playoff team. Let’s agree to disagree.

    “I see a Cutler who no doubt will revert back to his maddening form. You see a Cutler who is evolving into the precise quarterback he was against the Falcons. Let’s agree you’re wrong.

    “The best thing the Bears have going for them is that there are a lot of teams that look like them. They’re somewhere in the middle, not bad but not great, either. The league has given them reason to believe.”

    There’s a lot to be said in favor of the above. But let me start by disagreeing about Cutler. I think we’re going to see the version that you saw last Sunday for the rest of the year. Maybe, just maybe, we’ll see some turnovers late in games where the Bears are behind and with Cutler trying to make a play. But other than that, I think we’re going to see what we saw a great deal of last year and last week. I think Cutler is much smarter than that and I think he has bought in on head coach Marc Trestman. He’s going to take care of the ball.

    Having said that, I generally agree (and have repeatedly said since the preseason) that what we’re looking at is an 8-8 team. I have two very simple things to watch that will cover everyone who doesn’t agree:

    1. For those who are more pessimistic, keep an eye on the turnovers. If Cutler does revert to previous versions of himself and the interceptions and/or fumbles lost increase, the Bears are doomed to a losing record. Even if the defense starts to create more turnovers, themselves, I don’t think it can make up for the offense handing it back over nor do I think the defense is the type that’s going to be able to hold a decent offense consistently on a short field. I don’t see this happening and I don’t think the offensive turnovers are going to be intolerably high from here on out but, hey, you never know.

    2. For those who are hoping for better, watch the penalties. The Bears are committing them at a rate that they simply can’t afford. Teams have their number and you can expect everyone from here on out to try to force them to take the underneath stuff, to execute and to work their way down the field. You can’t do that if you are committing penalties. The guess here is that they’re going to continue to do it simply because it’s been a problem for weeks now and if they could have solved it, they would have by now. This lack of discipline seems to be a part of the character of the team that isn’t likely to be coached out of them at this point. But, again, perhaps I’m wrong and I’m underestimating them.

    We shall see. It’s going to be very interesting to see. If that’s not why you are watching, you shouldn’t be watching.

    Game Comments: Bears at Falcons 10/12/14

    Offense

    1. The Bears have had a lot of trouble with zone defenses, especially the cover two. But to my great surprise the Falcons came out in man defense. They were only playing zone on third down. Personally I thought it was idiotic but it didn’t burn them through the first quarter. Eventually it did as Brandon Marshall caught one deep midway through the second quarter to set up a touchdown. The Falcons eventually ran more zone later but failed to completely stop the Bears from throwing deep as previous opponents have done.
    2. It’s interesting that at a time when most offenses are picking up the pace, the Bears have been consistently running the play clock down to the last 5 seconds.
    3. Atlanta was well prepared for that end around to Alshon Jeffery that the Bears like to run.
    4. Having said that I thought the Bears ran the ball better today than they have in some time. Probably an effect of the presence of both Roberto Garza and Matt Slaughson along with a weaker than usual Atlanta defense.
    5. I also liked the way that the Bears attacked the edges of the Atlanta defense. They took the underneath stuff as they have been doing and hoped to execute better than they have been.
    6. Jordan Mills had a miserable day committing penalties and missing blocks.
    7. Good to see Josh Morgan get involved in the offense with a touchdown.
    8. Was I the only one remembering the Bears last time threatening to score at the end of a half with no timeouts left? Good teams need to turn that into a touchdown but at least they came away with the three points this time.
    9. I thought that Jay Cutler showed good mobility today. It’s a shame he had to show it so often. The pass protection left something to be desired as the Falcons generated plenty of pressure.
    10. The Bears have got to work on the screen plays. Atlanta had them read all the way all day.

    Defense

    1. The Falcons came out obviously thinking they could run the ball down the Bears injured linebacking corp’s throats. They didn’t have a great deal of success early but it did set up the play action pass.
    2. The Bears obviously decided that pressuring the Atlanta offensive line was the thing to do. They brought an extra man frequently relative to previous games. It worked as the Bears got plenty of pressure.
    3. Once again the Bears had a tough time when the opponent went no huddle as the Falcons started picking up yardage in huge chunks in the second quarter. Fortunately they weren’t finishing at the time.
    4. Having said that I do think the defense played reasonably fast. There was obvious high effort out there.
    5. Like Carolina last week, I thought the Falcons had a miserable time on third down, constantly shooting themselves in the foot throughout the first half. They had an egregious number of dropped balls. Like last week the Bears defense broke down in the third quarter letting the Falcons convert on third down almost at will.
    6. Perfect call on the third quarter Atlanta touchdown as the Falcons caught the Bears in a blitz with a great screen play.
    7. The pass rush really showed up once the Bears got 14 points ahead as they could tee off and simply go after Matt Ryan.
    8. Stephen Paea had a big game. Chris Conte just can’t stay healthy.

    Miscellaneous

    1. Justin Kutcher was fine. So was David Diehl who performed much like last week. Diehl missed the fact that Paul Worrilow was called for a personal foul for hitting Jay Cutler helmet-to-helmet and failed to recognize that Kutcher had the right of it but I won’t beat him up over that. Diehl is OK, just nothing special. He hit all of the major points and did a solid job.
    2. The coverage teams limited Devin Hester but I bet I’m not the only one wishing that the kick return team would just take a knee in the end zone and take the ball at the twenty. The missed extra point was uncharacteristic but any more of these kicking failures will become disturbing.
    3. The Falcons dropped so many balls they should be ashamed of themselves. The Bears had some balls you could argue could have been caught but generally they would have been tough. Martellus Bennett had a bad drop to stop a drive in the first quarter.
    4. Far, far too many penalties in this game and the Bears continued to try to shoot themselves in the foot over and over. There was a false start Mills on very first play. That wasn’t a good sign for him or the team.
    5. I was happy to see Jay Cutler throwing the ball away more. He took better care of the ball today. Turnovers were limited on both sides until Demontre Hurst’s interception in the fourth quarter.
    6. I had to smile as the Bears defense cranked up the Bears fans in Atlanta to make more noise. Hopefully Lamarr Houston will remember the experience before he takes to Twitter again.
    7. I’m happy with what I saw in terms of improvement from the Bears compared to last week in this win. Not as much as I’d like but definite progress. Although they are still killing themselves with penalties they did a better job of overcoming the deficits that they caused today with big third down plays. And, most important, they took better care of the ball.

    Game Comments: Bears at Panthers 10/5/14

    Defense

    1. The Bears came out looking to stop the run early, keeping an extra player near the line of scrimmage with three wide receivers and a back on the field.

    2. I thought the Bears got more pressure on the quarterback than last week in the first half. Not so much in the second half as the Panthers went to quick passes that tore up the Bears zone and when they started to see more success on the ground. They occasionally blitzed but it wasn’t getting there in time.

    3. I don’t know what happened to the defense at the end of the first half. They loosened up to not give up the big play – a good idea – but then gave up the touchdown anyway to let the Panthers back into the game. It was the start of good things for Carolina as they went through the Bears defense like a hot knife through butter in the third quarter.

    4. Kelvin Benjamin and Kyle Fuller both looked like rookies today. The Panthers obviously liked the matchup because they kept going to it but there were lots of mistakes between them.

    5. Former Bear Greg Olson looked good.

    Offense

    1. Like the Bears, the Panthers came out playing the run. It certainly looked like they planned well. The Bears came out looking to feed Matt Forte the ball.

    2. It certainly looked like the Panthers defense came out ready to play. They were initially ready to stop Forte however he got the ball. The Bears came out running and with short passing and the Panthers were all over it. It was fairly obvious that they were going to have to go down field to find any points, at least initially.

    3. Loved the one-handed grab by Jeffery in the first quarter. The one thing about Brandon Marshall that can be irritating is his habit of dropping the ball. Jeffery has great hands.

    4. Interesting that right as I concluded that the Bears would have to go long (above), the Panthers began to blitz. The pressure generated led directly to the first turnover in the first quarter. Looks like the Panthers came out with a good defensive game plan. It became a chess game after that. The Bears countered with well-timed screens designed to slow the rush and were able to read the defense to continue to feed Forte at the appropriate times.

    5. The Panthers needed a more disciplined pass rush. Jay Cutler was escaping the pocket far too often. He’s mobile but he’s not Robert Griffin.

    6. Panthers head coach Ron Rivera called out Luke Kuechly last week in an effort to get him to play better. I thought it worked. Kuechly looked great, even early at a time when nothing else on the Carolina defense looked good.

    7. The Bears did a particularly good job moving the ball on third down. The Panthers frequently forced third and longs in the first half and the Bears frequently escaped. The Panthers were much better with this in the second half when the game became a battle of offenses. The Bears lost that battle decisively.

    8. I didn’t like the way that the Panthers stopped the Bears running game in the second half, making them effectively one dimensional. At some point this team is going to have to be able to run and get the tough yards if its going to win consistently.

    Miscellaneous

    1. Thom Brennaman is a consummate pro and its always a pleasure when he does Bears games. Like John Lynch last week, I was less impressed by David Diehl. Diehl is observant and he does manage to point things out that the average fan might miss. That’s nice, especially coming from the natural point of view of someone who is used to playing at the line of scrimmage, something many of us don’t pay enough attention to. But he still didn’t teach me anything about the game in the same way that the best color men in the business do. I can learn more listening for ten minutes to Cris Collinsworth than I can listening to the average color man like Diehl for an entire game.

    2. Only the Bears special teams could actually commit a penalty, then give up a touchdown on the same play. What a great way to start a game. If you’re a Panther.

      I understand and have accepted that the special teams on this team isn’t going to help very often. But can’t they at least find a way to not kill them? Is that really too high of a bar to set?

      It’s hard to believe that Joe DeCamillis was actually made an assistant head coach to allow him to come to Chicago.

      I like Santonio Holmes’s attitude. He looks like a winner at punt returner.

    3. Kelvin Benjamin had a rough game and he was the only receiver on the field that I thought had an egregious number of drops.

    4. There were a lot of penalties out there on both sides. The Bears can’t afford this if they are going to try to work their way down the field by feeding Matt Forte.

    5. The interception in first quarter could have been a killer already 7 points down. I really wish Cutler would think more about throwing those away. Fortunately the Panthers gave the ball right back.

      Hard to believe that the Panthers came in with a reputation for not turning over the ball. This was undoubtedly a big part of the reason why they were favored and it was a big part of the reason I was wary of this game. But with three fumbles in the first half, they didn’t do much to live up to that reputation. They led to two touchdowns for the Bears (which would have been 17 points except for a Robbie Gould miss on an easy field goal).

      Jay Cutler giveth and Jay Cutler taketh away with the fourth quarter interception that led to the game tying field goal. But it was the Matt Forte fumble that was the killer.

    6. The Bears had this game in hand in the first half as Carolina did everything they could to give them the game. But they handed it back in the fourth quarter with devastating turnovers and that was the difference.

      It’s disappointing that the last comment about this game matches the last comment I had after the first game of the year so closely. This team shoots itself in the foot too often. They’ve decided to be a ball control offense that works its way gradually down the field and that’s not a bad thing – if you can execute. But they continue to shoot themselves in the foot with penalties and turnovers. This is what bad teams look like. It’s not a good sign that we’re still seeing it after game five.