Author: Tom Shannon

The Bears Offseason Begins and Other Points of View

Bears

“Cornerback Tim Jennings said they were more aggressive defensively in the second half, playing more man-to-man and trying to put more pressure on Rodgers in order to make him move in the pocket and get rid of the ball more quickly. [Linebacker Brian] Urlacher had a more simple explanation.

‘‘’We just hunkered down,’ he said of what changed in the second half. ‘Guys got off the line. We got takeaways, we got pressure on them and played how we play.’’’

  • Even after such a brutal loss, linebacker Brian Urlacher‘s mind was still on playing general manager.  Via Vaughn McClure at the Chicago Tribune:

“‘We’ve got to get Olin signed up,’ Urlacher said, referring to 13th-year center Olin Kreutz. ‘If we get him back, we should have a chance to be good again.'”

  • More Urlacher via McClure with a comment that only confirms that Urlacher doesn’t understand the way the new NFL works:

“‘Julius Peppers wouldn’t say much about the helmet-to-helmet hit on Packers quarterback [Green Bay quarterback] Aaron Rodgers that resulted in a 15-yard penalty, but Urlacher spoke up. ‘It was a good hit. (Pepper is) 6-7. What is he supposed to do?'”

It was not a good hit.  It was a penalty.  The fact that Peppers is so tall only means that he has to try harder to lower his target.  To my eye he didn’t try at all.  Urlacher needs to stop complaining and get used to it.

“As it turned out, Cutler was less efficient than not only Rodgers, but also Caleb Hanie, who is supposed to be a professional clipboard holder.

“‘I kind of wish we had Jay in there the whole game the way things were going,’ Packers linebacker Clay Matthews said.”

“After the crowd around him dispersed, Cutler turned and faced his locker. His eyes grew watery as he took his time buttoning his purple jacket.

“Cutler’s car was parked inside the tunnel and he walked to it slowly, his left leg as stiff as his upper lip.”

“Almost instantly, Cutler was criticized across the Internet (for coming out of the game). Jaguars running back Maurice Jones-Drew said on his Twitter account he played the entire season on a bad knee, and Cardinals safety Kerry Rhodes also chimed in.

“‘Who? Where’s he at right now?’ Urlacher said about Jones-Drew. ‘Home. It’s easy to talk (crap) about someone when you’re sitting on your couch watching their game. That’s what I am saying. I don’t understand it. I don’t get it.'”

Neither do I.  Though I do have some thoughts on it here.

“Either through the draft or free agency, it is likely the Bears will try to bolster their offensive line. They could use another pass rusher as well.”

Though the Bears apparently like what they have, there will be much talk amongst the fans about the need for a sizable wide receiver as well.  But we’ve got all kinds of time for that.  All kinds of time.

Elsewhere

“I don’t even feel like the bridesmaid.  We’re more like the flower girl, I guess. We can’t get past that last hurdle. It hurts.”

“We almost pulled out another one, but again, our goal for next year, I got news for you … it won’t change and it will never change.  We are going to chase that Super Bowl. We are going to chase it until we get it. And we’ll chase it after that again.

“But that’s it.  If you want to criticize us, then go ahead, but you have no right.”

One Final Thought

Rogers knows how the Packers got to where they are this season.  Via Michael Hunt at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

“Character.  Look at our roster and a number of players who were not with us or were not counted on to play a big role. The biggest difference between last year and this year is our character and that we believe in each other.”

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Cutler the Most Hated Player in the NFL? Wonder No More.

I’ve been in a running argument with Bears fans around the city and around the Internet about Jay Cutler‘s qualities as a Bears quarterback.  I was one of the few people who defended Rick Reilly when he said of Cutler:

“If he’s not The Most Hated Man in the NFL, he’s in the running.”

Whether its justified or not, let there be no question anymore about the validity of that statement.  Current and former NFL players couldn’t even wait until the game was over to absolutely savage Cutler.  Via Michael Wilbon at ESPN:

“Tampa Bay Buccaneers linebacker Derrick Brooks, a future Hall of Famer, tweeted, ‘I have to be crawling and can’t get up to come off the field. Josh Freeman would not come out. Meds are available … ‘ A few minutes later when the Bears sent their third-stringer, Caleb Hanie, in to the game and Cutler was therefore ineligible to return, Brooks tweeted, ‘There is no medicine for a guy with no guts and heart.’

“Another future Hall of Famer, Deion Sanders, said, ‘I never question a player’s injury, but I do question a player’s heart.’

“Arizona Cardinals defensive lineman Darnell Dockett tweeted, ‘If I’m on the Chicago team Jay Cutler has to wait ’til me and the team shower [and] get dressed and leave before he comes in the locker room.'”

“Mark Schlereth, the former lineman and current ESPN analyst, said via Twitter, ‘As a guy [who has had] 20 knee surgeries you’d have to drag me out on stretcher to leave a championship game.'”

“And Maurice Jones-Drew tweeted, ‘All I’m saying is that he can finish the game on a hurt knee … I played the whole season on one.'”

Trent Dilfer, also at ESPN, was more diplomatic but basically said the same thing:

Wilbon explains the reaction:

“But we don’t hear those Peyton Manning-like stories about Cutler, how he comes early to practice and stays late and works systematically and demonically at getting better. What we hear, even from teammates in both Denver and Chicago, is that Cutler is an arrogant, pouting player who rates himself quite highly. It’s a characterization that is believed totally throughout the league, through almost any pro football circle you wander into. And because it’s believed wholly that Cutler is a guy with a big arm, an overrated sense of himself and little if any heart, precious few people in Cutler’s own fraternity had any sympathy for him during the game.

“It will be interesting, from what we know of Cutler, to see if he even notices.

“A former quarterback who wears a Super Bowl ring, who has studied Cutler’s entire career in the NFL, told me before he left the field Sunday, ‘The sad thing is that if he embraced working on the monotonous details of quarterbacking he could be great.'”

Wilbon confirms what I’ve been saying over and over again.  That Cutler’s attitude is more than a minor problem.  It is a symptom of a disease that will constantly hold him back.  From dealing with the media to doing ex-players that made the game what it is today the courtesy of listening to them to putting in that little bit of extra work needed to be great, Cutler simply doesn’t do what he doesn’t want to do.

To Cutler’s credit, his more vocal teammates amongst the Bears did defend him after the game.  And I totally agree with them that the reaction to the injury was unfair.

But that doesn’t make it meaningless.  Few people doubt Cutler’s physical ability.  Its the rest of him that may well always hold him back.

Nothing to Apologize For

David Haugh at the Chicago Tribune quotes Mike Martz outside the locker room after the game:

“I’m sorry.”

Most will correctly point out that Martz got out schemed by Packers defensive coordinator Dom Capers.  He certainly made his share of mistakes.

But in my book neither Martz nor offensive line coach Mike Tice need apologize for anything when it comes to the job of coaching.  They both did the best they could with second rate personnel where the game of football is actually played, at the line of scrimmage.  The whole season from the bye week on was a damned miracle.

Hanie’s Emergence Raises Big Questions

Mike Mulligan at the Chicago Sun-Times tells us what most Bears have been saying for most of the season.  That Caleb Hanie should have been second on the depth chart all along:

“The big questions about him now are: Why was he ever behind [backup quarterback Todd Collins] to begin with and what might have been if he had gotten into the game earlier? Did the Bears give away two possessions because of bad coaching decisions?”

These are good questions.

I doubt very much that getting Hanie into the game earlier would have helped all that much.  He did throw two interceptions after all.  And even had he been second on the depth chart, I’m quite certain that with a new offense being installed, Cutler still got virtually all the reps.  I’m sure that’s why offensive coordinator Mike Martz wanted a veteran backup in the first place.

But the first question is tougher to answer.  Dan Pompei at the Chicago Tribune comments:

“Hanie played well enough to make everyone wonder why he was the third-string quarterback and not the second-stringer. He also made a strong statement about where he belongs on the depth chart moving forward.”

The real issue, the one where the organization really needs to look critically at itself, was how they handled the back up position from the time they drafted sixth-round pick Dan LeFevour until now.

The Bears drafted LeFevour instead of Packer running back James Starks in a move which former Bears personnel man Greg Gabriel called an embarrassment for the organization.  Karma is a bitch.

Though general manager Jerry Angelo was ultimately responsible for this move, my advice to him would be to look very closely next time at who is influencing him when it comes to these personnel moves and when it comes to how the depth chart is stacked.  If its Martz then Angelo needs to think carefully about what happened to the Rams roster as Martz acculumated more power over personnel.  It wasn’t good over time.

Brad Biggs at the Chicago Tribune would seem to agree:

“The addition of coordinator Mike Martz remains a good topic for debate, and his insistence on having the 39-year-old Collins ahead of Hanie on the depth chart was a head scratcher.”

This was a tough way to learn a lesson.  It shouldn’t be wasted.

Ultimately It was the Bears Frame of Mind that Put Them in a Hole They Couldn’t Get Out Of

Vaughn McClure at the Chicago Tribune quotes receiver Devin Hester after the game yesterday:

“They basically weren’t doing anything (special), it was us,” Hester said, referring to the offense’s slow start. “We didn’t start off fast. We picked it up in the second half, but we didn’t start off fast.”

True that.

The Bears came out unprepared for what they saw from the Packers in the first half.  But even more than that, they were mentally unprepared to play with the speed necessary to win a playoff game.

You could sense it even before the game started.  The Bears were dancing at midfield during warmups.  Linebacker Brian Urlacher smiled and gave sideline reporter Pam Oliver some nice comments seconds before kickoff.  Meanwhile linebacker Clay Matthews was interviewed just before Urlacher.  The question seemed to barely get through.  He gave a vague answer and couldn’t wait to get away.  He was already playing the game in his head.

This was a major difference between the teams.  The Packers effectively played three playoff games in a row at the necessary intensity to win.  The Bears let down.

Game Comment: Green Bay Packers @ Chicago Bears, January 23, 2011

Defense

  1. The Bears came out in the cover two and stuck with it for the most part during the first drive. But I think it quickly became evident that it wasn’t going to work and they started mixing some single safety with man coverage underneath. The aggressive defense, particularly in the second half, did a better job of confusing and stopping Aaron Rogers.
  2. There weren’t many times when Roger had a lot of time but he gets rid of the ball so fast he’s tough to get to.  Again, the BEars did a better job of pressuring him in the second half and it really threw his accuracy off.
  3. On a related note, the contrast between Rogers and Jay Cutler was never so evident as when they ran the ball.  Rogers drops back, looks quickly and runs. Cutler drops back, waits…, waits…, waits and runs at the last minute. Weather its a question of style or personality, quick decisions just aren’t in him.  Rogers is clearly the more efficient thinker of the two.
  4. I really thought the Bears defense was playing on their heels for much of the first half. They looked pretty confused. I don’t think they were mentally in the right frame of mind nor do I think they looked particularly prepared for what they saw on the field. You can chalk much of their success in the first half up for the Packers coaches.
  5. Rogers is masterful at drifting to the right, drawing the defenders with him, then taking off to the left. It takes discipline to stop him.
  6. Speaking of discipline, the Bears defense wasn’t doing a very good job of filling gaps against the run in the first half. There were some massive holes. They tightened it up in the second half.
  7. The Bears actually got some good penetration on some runs. But particularly in the first half it looked to me like they just weren’t wrapping up and thenPackers running backs were allowed to escape.

Offense

  1. The Packers started the game with four down linemen on the first play. I’ve never seen them do that before.  They didn’t do it often but they mixed it in occasionally, apparently when they expected a run. Other than that, I think we probably saw two down linemen most frequently.
  2. Mike Martz apparently thought that little off tackle run to the left with the pulling linemen was going to work again.  It didn’t.  The Packers were looking for it and adjusted adjusted well to stop it.
  3. I thought the Bear wide receivers had more success getting off the line of scrimmage this game than they did the last time they saw the Packers.
  4. Too bad the rest of what we saw at the line of scrimmage wasn’t better. There were stretches where the Packers dominated it.
  5. But what really hurt the Bears was the pressure that the Packers were able to bring. They were constantly resenting whatever quarterback was in the game. As a result the offense had no rhythm for most of it.  The BEars were particularly susceptible to the delayed blitz and the blitz of Sam Shields off the edge.  These have been their achilles heel all year.  They never managed to counter them.
  6. As bad of a day as Rogers had, Cutler’s was much worse. His accuracy was as bad as I’ve ever seen it. He left some big plays on the field.
  7. I don’t know why the Bears continue to run screens against the Packers.  They have the best offense in the league at running them and their defenses sees them in practice every week.  There has to be a better way to counter the blitz.
  8. The Bears had to bring in Caleb Hanie.  Todd Collins was a sitting duck in the pocket and with the problems the Bears offense had in protection, they had to have a quarterback who could move.  I thought Hanie did fine all things considered.  Yes, two interceptions but what do you expect from your emergency quarterback who probably hasn’t taken a snap in practice in weeks.  Give him credit for bringing energy to the game and engineering a drive which made this game closer than it really was.
  9. I don’t think its any coincidence that the Bears best drive came about when they managed to get Greg Olsen and Earl Bennett involved in the game.
  10. Defensive coordinator Dom Capers did a masterful job of scheming today to take the Bears offense out of their element.  Kudos.

Miscellaneous

  1. I thought that Troy Aikman and Joe Buck did their usual solid job during this game.  I’ve complained about Buck in the past because I’ve felt he was biased.  Whether it was fair when I said it or not I have absolutely no complaints today.  Good call.
  2. Man, did penalties hurt the Bears today.  They cropped up at crucial times and it always seemed like first and 15 or 20 all game.  Once again the offensive line was a major culprit but the defense really got into the act as well.  They did a lot of complaining during one particular series in the forth quarter but those all looked like good calls to me.
  3. The Bears special teams were OK.  They covered fine and generally speaking they did as well as they could giving the Bears decent field position.  But with the offense not moving the ball there wasn’t a lot they could do other than on kickoffs where they performed reasonably well.
  4. But the star of the game was Packers punter Tim Masthay who picked up where he left off at the end of the last Packer-Bears game.  He did a masterful job of pinning the Bears against their own goal line.  He was huge today.
  5. The Bears defense really didn’t meet expectations as far as turnovers were concerned.  Hanie’s interceptions obviously were the game killers.
  6. I didn’t think the Bears dropped the ball too much.  I think the Packers receivers did.  These guys are used to having Rogers lay it in for them and when it doesn’t happen, they don’t catch the ball as often as they should.
  7. I thought the better team won today.

PTI Word on Potential Obama Super Bowl and Other Points of View

Bears

  • Having just watch ESPN’s NFL Matchup show, I’m glad Michael David Smith at profootballtalk.com took the time to note down some of the interesting and unique analysis of the Bears-Packers game by Ron Jaworski and Merril Hoge.  You can find it here.
  • The village mayor basks in the big city spot light as he wagers with Mayor Daley  on today’s game.  Via the Chicago Sun-Times.
  • Earl Bennett‘s wife just had a baby boy.  I guess he was involved somewhere in the process as well.  Via Neil Hayes at the Sun-Times.
  • Five year old Jack Lawyer won the Bears game face contest by ripping the head off of a Packer Christmas ornament.  Via the Sun-Times.

“It’s a risk to send pressure at [Green Bay quarterback Aaron] Rodgers. He has shown the ability to get the ball out of his hands quickly and accurately. With the Packers using a six-man protection (the running back stays in the protection scheme), there is no guarantee the Bears will get a hit on Rodgers. Therefore, the coverage and tackling in this scheme are crucial to the Bears’ success”

“‘I think if he gets under pressure, he’ll just start slinging that sucker around like free loaves of bread in the hood, man,’ Strahan said during an appearance on the ‘T.Ocho Show.’ ‘I don’t think he’s going to sit back there hold it and be cool with it.'”

  • Pompei also got this comment from Saints safety Darren Sharper regarding the leadership ability of both quarterbacks in this game:

“You talk about body language — Aaron’s might be 10 times better than Jay’s.  Jay’s body language sometimes just kills you.”

“It so happened the college kids were playing the defending NFL champion Packers.

“‘It’s an all-star game and they came out to pounce our ass,’ Buffone said. ‘I remember what Jimmy Taylor’s first words were: ‘You guys didn’t come up here to play football, you came up here to count your money.’ I told him as he was screaming at me, ‘Look you (jerk), I was drafted by the Bears. There is no money.'”

“Under [Bears offensive coordinator] Mike Martz, the Bears have not attempted to get Olsen the ball downfield as much. In fact, they have not attempted to get him the ball as much, period.”

Its worth noting that Olsen was not Cutler’s primary receiver even on that play.

  • PTI debates Barak Obama going to the Super Bowl.  Couldn’t agree more with Tony Kornheiser on this.

Elsewhere

  • Dan Le Batard at the Miami Herald writing about the Dolphins.  But he could have easily been saying the same thing about the pre-Jay Cutler Bears.

“A slew of alleged Dolphins leaders have been run through this rinse-repeat car wash since – a cornucopia of alleged offensive minds, defensive minds, culture changers, hot candidates and legends. And all have left here varying degrees of exposed or diminished. It isn’t a coincidence that the organization’s descent began when Dan Marino’s did. You don’t need greatness and stability atop your organization as much as you need it atop your huddle.”

“Ideally, find a young guy, build around him, know you’re going to have him for the next nine, 10 years as your starting quarterback. Those guys are sometimes hard to find.”

A former Bear ought to know.

“I called him up, interviewed him on the phone. I said, ‘Hey, man, you want to come out here and help me out, help us win a championship?’ That was his interview.”

“Asked about the 18-game season by Judy Battista of the New York Times, Steelers chairman and American ambassador to Ireland Dan Rooney said, ‘I’d rather not have the money.’ I say the NFL needs this guy more than Ireland needs him.”

“Mike McCarthy will need to win about five Super Bowls before most Packers fans will elevate him to Vince Lombardi‘s exalted status, but I say he’s already a better coach.”

“With two picks in every round for the first four rounds, the Patriots will not have enough roster spots available to ensure those players will make the team. As a result, I can see them being aggressive in the draft to ensure they come away with the specific players they need. They have depth, they have youth, but they need an impact defensive player who can be impactful right away — not down the road.”

  • The New York Jets did well keeping their mouths shut this week.  But they finally exploded Thursday.  Here’s Jets safety James Ihedigbo‘s message to Jets fans.  Via Steve Serby at the New York Post:

“Stock the refrigerator full of champagne and get ready to celebrate.”

One Final Thought

Rod Marinelli on his visit to Charlotte, NC with coach Lovie Smith to recruit defensive end Julius Peppers to play for the Bears.  Via Vaughn McClure at the Tribune:

“One thing I wanted to make sure he knew was how important it was for me to be there,” Marinelli said of the meeting. “He was important to us.

“You have to know the guy. He doesn’t want to hear someone in his ear yakking. I understand players. I have a good beat on a person. And one thing I really wanted to express to him was that I really wanted to coach him.”

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Chris Harris Struggles with Tough Decisions

Vaughn McClure at the Chicago Tribune writes about Bears safety Chris Harris.  Harris sustained a hip injury and is questionable for Sunday’s game.  Questionable in that he has a decision to make:

“‘I have to be smart about it,’ Harris said Friday. ‘If gutting it out means I can’t get over the top of Donald Driver on a deep route, then no.

“‘I’m going to go out there and go. If it happens to bother me to a significant extent, then absolutely, I definitely would come out the game. I wouldn’t try to play tough guy for my on gratification to say I played in the NFC championship game.”’

Most fans understand that safety is probably the toughest position to play in the cover two defense.  Most teams attack the position by giving the safety a choice of two receivers to cover.  Its critical that the right decisions be quickly made by the man during any given play.  You could argue that Harris’ veteran presence will be more important than athletic ability.  However, as Harris points out, that needs to be balanced with the speed needed to get over the top to help out the corner on the outside.

Its not an easy balance to strike.  What Harris decides to do will be crucial to the Bears success.  Here’s hoping he makes all the right moves.

Albert Haynesworth Vs. the Bears’ Locker Room. Which Would Win?

Dan Pompei at the Chicago Tribune also answers this intriguing question:

“With O-Line and D-Line being the Bears’ biggest areas of need this offseason, what are the chances, CBA issues aside, they try to acquire Albert Haynesworth?… What are your thoughts on him Rick, Springfield, Mo.

“I don’t think that’s a bad idea. But in order for it to work, the trade compensation for Haynesworth would have to be reasonable. You wouldn’t want to pay a premium for a player with a history like Haynesworth’s. And the Bears need their draft picks. So far, the Redskins have wanted too much for Haynesworth. There wasn’t a team in the entire league willing to meet their asking price, which was rumored to be a second-round pick. But I could see a scenario in which Rod Marinelli revives Haynesworth’s career and makes him a great player again. If Haynesworth plays like he is capable, and [Julius] Peppers plays like he did this year, they could form a lethal combination.”

My first reaction when I read this question was “absolutely not”.  But as I thought about it more I have to admit that the idea is intriguing.

Haynesworth got along OK in Tennessee before signing with Washington.  The Bears are a high character team and it is possible that they could lift him up rather than have him drag them down.  Factor in the idea that this is exactly the kind of defense that Haynesworth wants to play in – one where he can rush the passer and accumulate statistics – and he would certainly be motivated.  He would make an excellent three technique tackle.

It really all depends upon the gut feeling that coach Lovie Smith and general manager Jerry Angelo have about how Haynesworth would affect the locker room.  And the other way around.

Bears May Have to Live a Little Dangerously on Defense to Beat the Packers. But Just a Little.

Dan Pompei at the Chicago Tribune answers your questions:

“What are the Bears going to do to slow down Greg Jennings? R.A. Pickett, Houston

“Jennings is a difficult player to slow down. That’s why he made the Pro Bowl and had a 1,200 yard season. The Bears could devote more defensive attention to Jennings, but the problem is if you do that, the Packers have many other weapons to hurt them with. The best way to play Jennings is probably with a healthy dose of zone coverage with a safety over the top. That’s what I would expect Sunday, but Ron Jaworski of ESPN tells me that in the last game between these teams, the Bears played with one safety high 60 percent of the time. I’m not so sure they can get by living so dangerously Sunday.”

I’m not surprised.  The Bears have played much more aggressive defense over the last month.

There’s little doubt that the Bears need to play a healthy dose of cover two on Sunday.  But, as they’ve learned the last couple years, they can’t just sit back in it all game.  Pressure or not it’s simply too easy to pick it apart if you know its coming every time.

The Bears can and probably play zone most of the game.  But they need to continue to disguise their coverages and in order to do that, they need to play at least some man-to-man.  Its been hard for me to tell for sure but to my eye they’ve played at least a little quarters coverage as well and continuing to throw that in a minority of the time isn’t a bad idea.