Bear(ing) the News – A Chicago Bears Blog

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

“The 6-5 Bears are still tied for first place in the NFC North, thanks to Detroit’s loss to Tampa Bay on Sunday. It doesn’t mean they’re playing well. When you’re down 14-0 less than three minutes into the game and then throw in 10 penalties, you’re not playing well, no matter how Trestman tries to spin it.

“The mellow coach doesn’t do tough love. Fine. How about some semi-tough love?”

I've spend a number of years bashing Lions head coach Jim Schwartz by saying that he is directly responsible for wasting the talent in Detroit both indirectly through his own lack of control and directly through the type of play that he encourages. Every team's personality is a reflection of that of the head coach.

The same goes for Marc Trestman and the Bears. I happen to like Trestman and a lot of what he stands for. But, like Schwartz but (I'm guessing) in a much different way, he is responsible for the lack of discipline the Bears have been displaying on the field.

I honestly don't know what he needs to do. Maybe Morrissey is right and some tough love is in order. A lot depends upon what he is doing wrong and whether he recognizes what that is. Trestman is a smart man who seems to be one for self-evaluation and reflection. Perhaps he, more than most, is equiped to figure it out.

In any case, fans need look no farther than Trestman to see who is going to have to take action.

Defense

1. The Bears came out playing 8 in the box on first down but still could stop the Rams from running the ball. The Rams scorred 14 points and never commpleted a pass.
2. So much for the improved gap discipline from the Bears. They gave up a number of long runs as the Rams rans through huge openings. I think the tackling was still OK (which is not to say that they still weren't missing some).
3. The Rams seemed to have particular success attacking the edges on the Bears. I thought Shea McClellin had a tough time his first time back. It looked to me like he was having a tough time with contain.
4. Nice play in the first quarter on the long run by Tavon Austin. A fake end around that got the Bears leaning the other way.
5. The Bears had an awfully hard time getting off of blocks today.
6. The Rams evidently identified Zack Bowman as someone they could pick on. He had a rough game.
7. There was some poor linebacker play out there as tight end Jared Cook burned the Bears all day. The defensive line is the major problem I'm going to say that the linebackers share the blame for the problems in the run as well.

Offense

1. Another poor start for the Bears as they came out discombobulated. Matt Forte fumbed the first offensive play from scrimmage.
2. The Rams came out blitzing Josh McCown frequently. They got pressure with it but I don't think it had a lot of effect. He was very poised in the pocket today.
3. The Rams tackling left a lot to be desired today.
4. I'm darned impressed with the speed on the Rams defensive line. They were very aggressive with the pass rush and I like the Bears response. They went to the inside handoff designed to work something like a draw play.
5. The Rams look like they have a good set of linebackers, too. Very active and very mobile. James Laurinaitis is a monster.
6. I like the second effort I saw frequently from Alshon Jeffery. Brandon Marshall had a nice game. It was nice to see Earl Bennett come alive today. Really it was a pretty good effort by all three, today.
7. I also liked the effort I saw from Matt Forte despite the fumble in the first quarter. It wasn't good seeing him lying on the turf in the fourth quarter.
8. Horrible series of downs to end the first half as the Bears had Matt Forte slip in the backfield, poorly blocked another run as Robert Quinn beat Jermon Bushrod like a drum, and then Josh McCown got careless with a little screen pass that gets batted down. It gave the Rams yet another set of downs to try to score.
9. I'm not sure what's going on with the Bears offensive line but time after time we saw Rams defensive players with deep penetration, sometimes coming untouched through the line. The fourth and goal at the one yard line in the third quarter was a good example as Jo-Lonn Dunbar waltzed through the line to stuff Michael Bush. I wouldn't be surprised if there was some sort of a flaw in the blocking scheme. Certainly something was wrong.

Miscellaneous

1. The Bears once again draw a top announcing team in Kenny Albert, Daryl Johnston, and Tony Siragusa. I thought they hit the relevant points with, for instance, Kenny Albert pointing out that Josh McCown was constantly going to the sideline to get the calls. Presumably his helmet was malfunctioning. Johnston pointed out Roberto Garza's role in preventing a peel back pursuer from catching Tony Fiammetta on a nice run in the third quarter.
2. Special teams were nothing special on either side. There were a couple penalties on the Bears receiving team.
3. Turnover-wise, Matt Forte lost a fumble which resulted in 7 points for the Rams. McCown fumbled to give the Rams another touchdown. McCown was intercepted at the end of the game.
4. Somehow I don't think anyone is going to try to tell me that I am being overly negative about the Bears penalties again. Chris Conte had a pass interference. Kyle Long had a personal foul. Tony Fiammetta had a holding call that brought back a long Alshon Jeffery run. Earl Bennett had an illegal contact penalty that took away a Matt Forte touchdown. They had twelve men in the huddle and a delay of game in the third quarter. A holding call on Craig Steltz erased a Devin Hester touchdown. Jermon Bushrod had a holding call that eliminated a touchdown. On the Rams side, they had a big illegal contact penalty that eliminated a Jenoris Jenkins interception. Scott Wells had an illegal hands to the face. Brandon McGee had two damaging fourth quarter pass interference calls in the endzone. Like Johnston, I'm not sure where the roughing the passer penalty in the fourth quarter near the goal line came from. In any case it cost the Rams seven points as the Bears (finally) scored a touchdown off of it.
5. Neither side had many dropped passes that I saw. Marshall had a drop at the end of the third quarter. Nevertheless I'm going to credit the Bears with cleaning this up over last week.
6. Two minutes before kickoff and I was already tired of the brother against brother thing.
7. Chris Long may have charged out in the second quarter to hold back and protect his brother Kyle during a scrum but he spent the next ten minutes screaming at him and presumably telling him to stop being a moron. I can only agree.
8. I thought the Rams came out with a lot more energy coming off of their bye week than the Bears did.
9. I loved hearing the crowd chanting “Let's go Bears” in the second quarter.
10. Tough day for the Bears. They got no turnovers and gave away three. The continued tendency to commit penalties and the re-appearance of poor gap discipline on defense was disturbing. Fortunately, those two are things that can be corrected. What cannot be corrected any time soon was the distinct talent gap, particularly when the Rams offense was on the field with the Bears defense. The Rams dominated the line of scrimmage all afternoon on both sides of the ball. I'm going to say the Bears just got beat by a better team today.

I thought Brad Biggs at the Chicago Tribune made an interesting point at the end of his answer to this question:

“What do you think about Marc Trestman’s recent goalline play selection?” — @KtrainExpress from Twitter

“The Bears failed with two tries at a two-point conversion against the Lions and then failed to put the ball in the end zone after reaching the 6-yard line against the Ravens. They even got extra cracks at it following a holding penalty against Baltimore cornerback Jimmy Smith in the end zone. One thing is clear: Against those defenses the Bears didn’t feel like they were in a position to line up and power the ball between the tackles for a touchdown. This could be an area the team missed quarterback Jay Cutler too.”