Bear(ing) the News – A Chicago Bears Blog

Brad Biggs at the Chicago Tribune answers your questions:

“With Lance Briggs coming back will it be enough to turn things around on defense so the Bears are a Super Bowl contender? — @skinny2354 from Twitter

“No one thought the Giants would be a Super Bowl contender when they lost four games at midseason in 2011 to fall to 6-6. But they won three of their final four regular-season games to sneak into the playoffs and from there they ran the table. That team had a very strong pass rush that was a big factor in the postseason run. Briggs’ return isn’t going to necessarily help the Bears start wreaking havoc on opposing quarterbacks. Briggs’ presence will make the defense better but he can’t make up for the loss of Henry Melton and Charles Tillman. It’s going to be difficult for the Bears to play playoff-caliber defense against a high-powered offense, in my opinion. But like I said, few thought that Giants team was going anywhere.”

My first instinct when reading inquiries like this is to treat them with contempt.  I’ve been virtually ignoring the playoff possibilities for this team because logically, the Bears can do almost no damage in the playoffs if they get there.  I’ve hardly even thought about it.

The run defense has been a mess and the Bears just aren’t strong enough at the line of scrimmage.  You need only look at the St. Louis Rams game last month to see the problem.  The Bears were dominated by an admittedly very under rated defensive front.  Have you seen the San Fransisco 49ers defense?  Have you heard the noise up in that dome in Seattle?  As strong as that Rams front is, these teams field even better players.  Can the Bears win games against those teams?  Absolutely no way.

How bad do my instincts tell me this situation is?  Let’s put it this way.  I dislike the Lions right now with a passion.  They’re dirty, undisciplined and, not unrelated, their head coach and their defensive coordinator are both punks.  But I also know that if they play to the level of their ability, they are the only team in the NFC North with the talent up front to compete with the big boys.  Even I will admit that January could be a lot more exciting with them in the contests.

Bottom line, if I followed my instincts, I wouldn’t even bother to watch the games anymore.  But I do watch the games.  I watch becauseI love to think about how the Bears have arisen to meet the challenges of the week before and to see what new challenges will arise to meet in the coming week. I love to think, week to week, about how the Bears have improved, two steps forward, one step back.  I watch because, well, when you think about it, you never know…

The Bears do have a healthy offensive line and have been trying all season to do creative things things to apply leverage that will give them an edge over brute strength.  And with their skill position players, they do have the potential to score points in bunches.

Yes, they are missing Tillman and Melton.  Tillman is really irreplaceable but both Tim Jennings and Zack Bowman have stepped it up in recent weeks and they haven’t done badly.  And though the defensive line will not be a strength, it has stabilized considerably with the addition of Jeremiah Ratliff.  

Arguably safety is still a minor weakness but the addition of Briggs could very well stabilize the last major defensive issue.  The linebacker position has been without question the beating heart of the Bears defense for many years and Briggs will not only bring his ability to make plays but he’ll almost certainly provide some stability playing next to rookie Jon Bostic and his addition might even help cover for some remaining deficiencies there.

The Bears still have to play virtually perfect, mistake-free football.  No penalties, no drops and, especially, no turnovers.  But, if the defense peaks and comes together to play its best football right now, at the most important time of the year…

Is it possible that the Bears could end up in the Super Bowl?  Looking around at the rest of the NFC, it’s a totally ridiculous question.  But there’s always hope.  And hope leads to thoughts and thoughts lead to possibilities.  And anything is possible if your put your mind to it.

Brad Biggs at the Chicago Tribune quotes Michael Bush on his late touchdown Sunday.  Cleveland was out of timeouts and the Bears could have run the clock out if he’d gone down short of the end zone:

“‘The line did a great job of blocking and I saw a little crease on the linebacker and I was going to score regardless,’ Bush said. ‘I know that I probably needed to go down, the smart play would have been go down and take a knee. But my plays are limited. I am going to take advantage of the opportunities I have.'”

I was working under the assumption that Bush didn’t go down because he didn’t think of it.  This quote seems to contradict that.

I understand Bush’s situation.  He’s stuck as the backup to Matt Forte and he gets limited touches per game.  He doesn’t get a lot of opportunities to score.  But having said that, no one can be too pleased with the “me first” attitude that this action engenders.

Offense

1. The Browns came out pretty much playing the pass though they did regularly bring a guy down into the box late just before the snap.  The Bears started out running Forte at them but when they saw the last minute adjustments they went to the passing game and the Browns stopped bring the extra man down as often.
2. The Bears protection was pretty good.  In response the Browns started to blitz occasionally in the second quarter and that got more pressure on quarterback Jay Cutler.  That pressure got worse in the second half and, partly as a consequence of that, the Bears offense stalled more often.
3. Cutler did not have a particularly good day as he struggled with his accuracy.  He looked a bit rusty.
4. The Bears once again failed too often in the redone, getting three points in their first two trips.
5. I thought Matt Forte deserved special mention.  He did a pretty good job of making yardage on his own this game.  Michael Bush also looked good and took advantage of his opportunities.
6. It was very, very evident early on that Cutler had decided to target Brandon Marshall rather than spread the ball around evenly.  Even when he threw to Alshon Jeffery on the fourth quarter touchdown, Jeffery was double covered.  No sane coach could look at that and like what he saw, particularly after watching Josh McCown execute the offense the way its supposed to be executed to some weeks now.  You have to wonder what Marc Trestman’s thoughts were and what effect those thoughts may or may not have about Cutler’s fate with the Bears in the offseason.

Defense

1. The Bears played the Browns straight up according to the personnel they put on the field and it didn’t seem to me like they emphasized stopping either the run or the pass.  The Browns mixed it up and this matchup looked pretty straight forward for most of the game with nothing fancy.
2. Surprisingly the Bears didn’t seem to concentrate particularly on Josh Gordon.  The Browns used him and the other wide receivers more to clear out the Bears defense and take them deep, settling for throwing underneath.
3. The Browns also threw a number of screens with quite a bit success.  The Bears are going to have to spend some of their week this week cleaning that up.
4. I thought the Bears got good pressure on Jason Campbell but he was getting rid of the ball underneath just in time to avoid the sack.
5. I think the Bears defense did much better against the run today.  Instead of playing laterally, the linebackers were diagnosing the plays and playing down hill, filling gaps.  Tacking generally wasn’t bad.
6. Having said that, obviously the Bears didn’t get the message that the wildcat was a fad in that it doesn’t work anymore.
7. Having slammed Cutler for his accuracy, let’s not forget former Bears Jason Campbell who was out of sync with his receivers all day.
8. With a 14 point lead and less than two minutes left in a prevent defense, how do you let Josh Gordon get behind you?  For heaven’s sake.

Miscellaneous

1. The FOX crew was made up of of Thom Brennaman, Brian Billick and Laura Okmin.  All did an average to below average job which stood in stark contrast to some of the excellent crews the bears have been drawing this season.
2. The Bears are back to committing too many penalties.  It started with a delay of game penalty early in the first quarter and continued to burn them to a more or lesser extent throughout the game.  Particularly egregious was a series near the end of the second quarter where the Bears went from fourth and inches to a field goal attempt on a illegal motion call.  The successful field goal was then taken off of the board because of a holding call on Corey Wooton and the Bears punted.  The teams were well match din this respect as the Browns had their fair share of penalties as well with a couple pass interference calls in the fourth quarter being particularly damaging.
3. Cleveland had a number of drops that hurt them.  The Bears were considerably cleaner.  Brandon Marshall arguably dropped a ball that he should have had on a deep ball near the Cleveland goal line but he was double covered and he may have been hit early.
4. I thought the special teams were pretty good today.  Devin Hester ripped off some good returns.
5. Turnovers were huge in this game as both quarterbacks threw two interceptions, both throwing one pick six.  One of Cutler’s was in the end zone in the first quarter.  Martellus Bennett had a fumble which was returned for six points.  Both teams missed opportunities from more turnovers. Very sloppy on both sides.
6. All week I really gave the “quarterback controversy” that wasn’t a controversy very little attention.  The Bears had made up their minds and as far as I was concerned, all debate was irrelevant after that.  Besides, I figured the Bears were OK with either quarterback.  But now I have to wonder.  Take those Cutler interceptions out of the game and  would this contest have even been even close in the fourth quarter?

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.

Rich Campbell at the Chicago Tribune reports the both Jay Cutler and Lance Briggs will remain out on Monday. Briggs's absence for a seven week extends his recovery time past the four to six week period which was anticipated when the injury occurred.

Head coach Marc Trestman is undoubtedly being cautious after Cutler tried to come back from his groin injury early against the Lions only to injure his ankle. However it's worth noting that the low temperature downtown will be 8 degrees on Monday night and it's possible that the Bears would like to have neither coming back for their first game from injuries in such cold weather.

The popular thing right now is to run down the Bears defense, blaming it for the vast majority of the team’s problems.  So naturally, as is my wont, I’m going to go the other way.

According to the latest statistics on NFL.com, the Bears injury-riddled is, indeed, ranked 28th in both points allowed and yards allowed.  However, looking at the last 5 games, only the Rams game stands out as a total disaster with 41 points allowed.  The others are the Packers (20), the Lions (21), the Ravens (20) and the Vikings (20 in regulation, 23 with overtime).

Shouldn’t the vaunted and improved Bears offense be expected to score more than 20 points in a game?

Its not just a cliche.  It does, truly, take a village to build a total loss.

Brad Biggs at the Chicago Tribune highlights another interesting point.  He quotes Bears running back Michael Bush on why he wasn’t used in short yardage situations on Sunday:

“’I don’t know,’ Bush said. ‘I guess it wasn’t the personnel for me. They were holding 75 (Kyle Long) so that is why he couldn’t get off. That is what it looked like. They just made a good play, the Vikings. They haven’t switched anything up here, not to my knowledge.’”

The Bears offensive scheme seems to rely a great deal on pulling offensive linemen and trap plays.  I’ve noticed situations, particularly short yardage situations, in a number of games where an offensive linemen is actually held by the defensive lineman opposite him to prevent him from getting to the play.  Kyle Long seems to be particularly susceptible to it.

It will be interesting to see what, if anything, the Bears do about this in future contests.  It may be a defensive strategy that you just have to live with but there may be techniques to prevent it from happening, particularly if the offensive linemen are made particularly aware of the problem in certain situations.  Again, I’d say Long is the man to keep an eye on.

Brad Biggs at the Chicago Tribune discusses the decision of Bears head coach Marc Trestman to kick a long field goal on second down rather tHan risking an offensive mistake to run plays to get closer:

“Here’s the biggest problem: Trestman’s explanation expressed zero faith in his offense. If he doesn’t believe in his offense, you sure can’t. I am sure he will have well-thought-out talking points when he meets the media Monday afternoon at Halas Hall. I can’t think of an explanation that will make sense to me.”

I won't say that Trestman's decision was wrong. If kicker Robbie Gould makes that kick, we probably aren't discussing this.

But what I will say is that Trestman's confidence not just in the offense, but in the whole team is obviously shaky. You might say that the biggest problem is that his confidence should be shaken. Right now he can't depend upon his offense to get half a yard on third down. He can't depend upon anyone to run or defend a play without committing a penalty. He can't ever depend upon eleven guys to all do their jobs correctly on any given down.

The real problem for Trestman is that this is a vicious cycle. The team is a reflection of its head coach and the head coach is a reflection of the team. When Trestman shows a lack if confidence, the team is less confident and continues to play poorly.

Bottom line, Trestman needs to suppress these negative thoughts in the future and stay aggressive because playing with aggression is the only way to win football games. You can only continue to play the game to win and hope that those around you eventually raise their level of play to match your faith in them. Because if you don't, your lack of success is almost guaranteed.

Defense

1. The Bears came out with 8 in the box on first down and stuck with their base package for much of the game. Its seemed evident that they were determined to stop the run.
2. Problems with gap discipline once again popped up and resulted in some big Viking runs. Its very disappointing that this hasn't been cleaned up. I'm going to lay most of the blame on the linebackers and safety Craig Steltz.
3. The defensive line, on the other hand, came to play. The pass rush was quite good. I could, perhaps, have asked for more penetration agains the run.
4. Julius Peppers stood out with a good effort.
5. Jon Bostic did not. He's still over playing the ball and, as a result, he's having a tough time getting off of blocks.
6. Third quarter. The Bears stop the Vikings about half a yard short of the goal line. Instead of refusing a Viking holding penalty, Bears head coach Marc Trestman choose to accept it, setting up a third and eleven instead of fourth and less than a yard. He obviously feared that the Vikings would go for fourth down and, even worse, feared that they'd score on it. That tells you where he's at with the defense right now.
7. The majority of the passes are still going Zack Bowman's way. I won't say that he held up poorly but Jerome Simpson burned him all day.
8. I'd still like to see this defense do better on third down. It just seemed like they gave up play after play when they needed a stop.

Offense

1. The Vikings also came out determined to stop Matt Forte and frequently stacked the box. Like the Bears, they weren't entirely successfulas Forte had a reasonably good day.
2. They threw in a few different twists, however. They seemed to like the delayed blitz with their linebackers and, when they weren't doing that, they were dropping into coverage in n effort to ake away the middle of the field from Bears quarterback Josh McCown. McCown doesn't have a tremendous amount of arms strength and he's not as comfortable throwing outside the numbers. It was a good plan.
3. McCown really struggled with his accuracy today. Een some of th eballs that were caught wern't well thrown.
4. Both Alshon Jeffery and Brandon Marshall had their usual stellar games. There's no way that Jeffery should have been in single coverage with no help over the top on the third quarter touchdown. I can only assume that the safety was very late getting over or Vikings defensive back Chris Cook was playing Jeffery too close. Jeffery also made an unbelievable catch for his second touchdown in that quarter.
5. Just as I was wondering whatever happened to sending Forte out into a pattern, the Bears did it near the end of the third quarter. Good call.
6. Despite Matt Forte's success, I still thought the Vikings got too much penetration and got too much pressure on McCown too often. I'd like to see better.

Miscellaneous

1. I watched this at a Buffalo Wild Wings in Missouri. All I can say is that if you took the Bears fans and the (obnoxious) Vikings fans out of the middle of the room, it would have been half empty of football enthusiasts.
2. Bad job by the FOX crew for not getting a replay of the pass interference against Martellus Bennett and the personal foul on Brandon Marshall, both on the same play and both disputed by Bears players.
3. I understand that Corderrelle Patterson is very talented and very dangerous. But does he really call for pooch kickoffs? Am I the only one who thinks that Devin Hester should be able to beat the licker on his own on a return?
4. Both teams had too many penalties (again). A pass interference n Martellus Bennett eliminated a first down. Jon Bostic gots a debatable (but still stupid) taunting penalty which was extremely costly in the fourth quarter, giving the Vikings a fresh set of downs near the Bears goal line. The Vikings had an interception with was nullified by an offsides penalty. And, of course, they had a fask mask in overtime that cost them a game winning field goal. How would you like to be a Vikings fan watching Chris Cook contacting an official? That will be a well deserved suspension.
5. The game was relativley clean of drops.
6. Josh McCown lost an extremely costly turnover deep in Bears teritory in the fourth quarter as he tried to throw a desparate shuffle pass while going to the ground. Fortunatley he was bailed out by a Khaseem Greene interception.
7. You got the feeling going into this game that it was going to be a defining moment in the season. You could sense the urgency as even Pro Bowl linebacker Lance Briggs broke the relative silence he has maintained since his injury. Both he and members of the media called out the defense for not showing heart and, if its not quite on target, I'd say calling them out for having a lack of brains and discipline isn't much better. Unfortunately, playing with more urgency doesn't necessarily equate to playing a lot better. In this case, though they weren't as bad as last week, many of the Bears problems persist. These include too many penalties, poor run defense and a certain degree of trouble on the offensive line. Perhaps you could call this incremental progress. But I was still disappointed to see the Bears lose to a team so decidedly inferior to their own in a contest they so badly needed to win.