Bear(ing) the News – A Chicago Bears Blog

Offense

1. The Bears were really dominated at the line of scrimmage as it looked to me like the Ravens generally played to stop Matt Forte on the run, especially early. Their tight man-to-man coverage in the defensive backfield stifled Bears receivers for good portions of the day.
2. In fairness, I thought the Bears did run better in the second half as they pounded Baltimore repeatedly with the assistance of tackle Ebon Britton playing tight end and helping out the tackles.
3. The Bears spent the day shooting themselves in the foot with penalties and drops (see Miscellaneous below). There were periods of time here and there, especially late, when they executed but much of the game was more typified by the events in the first series of the game – two broken plays in a row leading to a punt.
4. Another typical series – the Bears got six shots at the end zone in the second quarter from the red zone, five from inside the five, and settled for a field goal. The failure in the run game was very evident here as the Bears resorted to going to the air for most of the plays since they couldn’t run.
5. McCown had a real rough start. My feeling was that his lack of arm strength allowed the wind to affect him a great deal more than it affected the Ravens Joe Flacco.
6. I was unimpressed with some of the Ravens tackling. They missed quite a few and it hurt them today.
7. I do love watching Forte run. Just a wonderful run in the fourth quarter for a touchdown. He’s got really nice vision and good lateral movement. He makes a lot of guys miss. He’s got to be one of the most under rated players in the league.
8. It was nice to see the end arounds with Alshon Jeffery finally work for some yardage.
9. I was disappointed that the Bears didn’t do a better job of running the clock out in the fourth quarter. Very unfortunate. Nice to see them redeem themselves with the score in over time for the win.µ

Defense

1. The situation for the Bears defense was similar to the offense. Domination at the line of scrimmage as Ray Rice ran over them all game. Even with eight in the box for much of the game, Rice got good yardage.
2. The Bears did get pressure on Joe Flacco on occasion as the pass rush was very active. Julius Peppers came alive with two sacks. Cheta Ozougwu had a nice play to knock the ball out of Flacco’s hand in the third quarter on a fourth down.
3. Unfortunately the pass rush was also undisciplined, especially by the defensive tackles, leaving large gaps for Flacco to run through.
4. Despite the poor performance against the run, the Bears did do a better job in their discipline as the did stay in their gaps. There was one long run by Rice in the first quarter where Bostic over ran the play.
5. To my eye the Bears are also tackling much better than they were two or three weeks ago.
6. Chris Conte had another rough day, especially early.
7. The Bears failure to stop the Ravens on he final drive of the fourth quarter to keep them out of field goal range was disappointing. Nice to see them redeem themselves with the stop in over time.

Miscellaneous

1. The Bears drew Phil Simms and Jim Nantz for this game, continuing a long streak of top announcing teams. However, I have to say that Simms wasn’t on top of his game today. Most of his comments were average and there were few if any “Wow, goo point” moments. I didn’t learn too much about the game today.
2. Bears special teams were unremarkable. Michael Ford had a real nice tackle on a punt in the first quarter.
3. The Bears had far, far too many penalties this game. Zack Bowman had a pass interference and an illegal block in the back. He also had an extremely damaging horse collar tackle in the fourth quarter with 4:30 left to give the Ravens a first down. Corey Wooton was offsides. The Bears punt team had an Illegal hands to the face charged to it. Peppers had a stupid late hit on Joe Flacco in the second quarter. He also had an offsides in the third quarter. Brandon Marshall had a holding call. Martellus Bennett had two false starts, one of which turned a third and one into a third and six at the beginning of the fourth quarter. Jordan Mills had a holding call late in the first half in the final minute making for a much longer field goal try. Michael Ford was offsides on a kickoff in over time. For Baltimore James Ihedigbo had a horse collar tackle. They had a defensive holding near the end zone to give the Bears a new set of downs at about the 2 (the Bears settled for a field goal).
4. Talk about letting them play, the referees let the wide receivers and the defensive backs really go at it today. It was very physical.
5. The Bears also spent the day dropping balls all over the field. Alshon Jeffery had a drop in the first quarter. He also had a big drop in over time. Chris Conte dropped a pick. Tony Fiammetta had a drop near the goal line in the second quarter. Brandon Marshall also dropped a first down in the second quarter. He dropped another (admittedly poor) pass in the fourth quarter. For the Ravens, Ed Dickson had a drop in the first quarter. Tandon Doss dropped a big pass that would have been a first down in the fourth quarter. They had the Bears off the field after stifling them on a third down in the fourth quarter only to be charged with an idiotic roughing the passer penalty with 7:30 left, giving the Bears a fresh set of downs.
6. David Bass had a nice pick six. Jon Bostic had a nice interception near the end of the half which set up and eventual field goal.
7. Kudos to all of those people who stuck around through trying circumstances to make a lot of noise in the fourth quarter to urge the Bears on.
8. I loved watching the field crew out there trying to stomp down all of the divots in the field before the over time period. It was like trying to keep dry by catching individual drops the pouring rain.
9. Most of the story of this game for me is told in the Miscellaneous section. I was happy with the fundamentals on defense as the Bears were in their gaps and their tackling was reasonably good. I was happy to see them win the turnover battle with some good plays. But they don’t have the talent on either side of the ball to be dropping passes and, especially, committing penalties all game. Offense is about getting all 11 guys to do their jobs and its hard to do that when you are shooting yourself in the foot play after play. They aren’t going to win many games doing this.

Via Dan Wiederer at the Chicago Tribune:

“Sit down. Chill. Let it heal. Ice and stim. Take a Tylenol. Have a Coke and a smile. Just let it heal.”

Offense

1. The Bears came out trying to run Matt Forte. To my eye they had the most success when they attacked the edges of the Lions defense with him. The failure to run on first down today hurt the Bears as they seemed to always be in second and long.
2. The Lions seemed to be concentrating on stopping Forte and Alshon Jeffery because they left Brandon Marshall in single coverage. This guaranteed that they’d get burned and they did. The Bears scored quickly on the first possession.
3. The offensive line did a nice job of protecting Jay Cutler. He was getting enough time in the pocket to where the Lions started to do some blitzing in the second quarter. Kyle Long was notably better against Ndamukong Suh compared to the first match up.
4. Despite getting a lot of time for much of the game, Cutler didn’t have a good day. He looked off on his accuracy and some of his decisions were less than stellar.
5. It was obvious that Cutler hurt his left hand and the groin was bothering him by the third quarter. The offense stalled in the second half and I spent the whole period saying, “Get him out” as Cutler failed to drive the ball pass after pass.
6. Martellus Bennett looked more fluid this week than he did last week.
7. Nick Fairley is a thug.

Defense

1. The Lions came out running and the Bears obviously knew that was gong to be the plan. They concentrated a great deal on stopping Reggie Bush.
2. One of the things you notice about Corey Wooton is how quick he gets off the ball. It was understated but he had a nice day.
3. I think Charles Tillman did OK on Calvin Johnson. You aren’t going to stop him. You can only hope to contain him.
4. Cornelius Washington made an appearance. He was unremarkable. Julius Peppers also had what I would call another unremarkable day for him. Not a great day for the defensive line over all though they did start to get some pressure in the fourth quarter.
5. The third quarter was a bad one for the defense as they sprung a leak in the running game allowing Reggie Bush to make some long runs.
6. I would say that the Bears defense made fewer mental mistakes and their tackling was notably better this week. I consider that to be encouraging.

Miscellaneous

1. The Bears continue to get the best announcing teams out there for their games. I’m having a hard time remembering the last time they had anything other than the #1 or #2 announcing team. Today, I thought Kenny Albert, Daryl Johnston, and Tony Siragusa did a reasonable job. I thought Johnston made a particularly good point that the key to attacking the edges on the Lions was to do the difficult job of getting outside of the wide nine ends. There weren’t a lot of “Wow, great point!” moments and they weren’t at their best but that’s still pretty good.
2. Special teams were unremarkable. Jeremy Cain did a nice job filling in at center for Patrick Mannelly. The Bears had a big return in the first quarter. The Lions had a big one in the third. David Akers missed a critical field goal in the fourth quarter. The Bears needed an onside kick at the end of the game and didn’t get it.
3. The game was relatively clean in terms of turnovers. The Bears got an interception from Chris Conte to set up a field goal. The Lions got an interception at the end of the first half on a tipped pass that was a tough break. The Bears had sustained along drive to come away with nothing. It was that kind of day.
4. Each team had their fair share of penalties. Tillman and Suh each had a face mask. The Bears had an illegal motion on the punt team. Corey Wooton jumped offsides in the third quarter. The Bears had yet another killer holding penalty, this time on Matt Slauson, in the red zone in the fourth quarter to take away a touchdown. The Lions stupidly committed personal foul after personal foul to try to hand the Bears the game.
5. Both sides had some drops. Jeffery dropped a touchdown. The Lions had their share. Too many on each side and it was pretty much a wash.
6. This wasn’t a particularly well-played game on either side. If you’re the Lions, you can’t draft in the top fifteen year after year without acquiring a lot of talent. They’ve had more than anyone in the division for several years but continually beat themselves game after game. They’ve generally stopped doing it and what we’ve seen this year is the result. But today they gave the Bears more than their fair share of opportunities. Unfortunately the Bears rarely took advantage as they made too many mistakes. It hard to win when you’re quarterback isn’t on top of his game.

Almost a week after the incident and Dan Wiederer at the Chicago Tribune is still writing about how Bear head coach Marc Trestman went for it on fourth and inches inside the Bears 35 yard line last week.

I don’t care if it worked. Believe me, no one would be lauding the decision if running back Forte had gotten tackled in the backfield for a loss – which he nearly was. I didn’t like the call then and I still don’t like it. I’m certainly tired of hearing about it. The fact that former Bears head coach Mike Ditka thought it was the right decision only supports my feeling.

Having said that, I did think this quote was interesting:

“Eight games into his tenure, Trestman’s acumen, his boldness, his proclivity for taking calculated risks have given the Bears a three-way share of first place in the NFC North.

“Said Bears general manager Phil Emery: ‘The older I get, the more I’ve realized it’s the people who are the perceived brainiacs who use that (strength), and it’s exactly how they’ll kick your butt.

“’That’s their edge. That’s Marc’s edge.'”

It’s not surprising to anyone that athletes have to have a competitive nature to win. But the more I watch football – college and professional – the more I realize how huge the degree of it actually is. The fact that good coaches have to combine high intelligence with that almost all-consuming desire to win makes for some unique personalities. Its one of the things that makes the game more interesting.

Rich Campbell at the Chicago Tribune on the Bears situation at defensive end now that Shea McClellin has injured his hamstring:

“With converted three-technique Corey Wootton likely to remain at tackle, rookie David Bass is a leading candidate to start at left defensive end. Cheta Ozougwu could figure into the rotation if the Bears promote him from the practice squad for the game.

“Bass, a seventh-round pick of the Raiders this year who was waived at final cuts, credited defensive line coach Mike Phair and assistant Michael Sinclair for his evolution through four games with the Bears.

“‘You always can improve on your fundamentals, your technique — so my first step, my first two steps, staying low, pad level,’ Bass said. ‘Using my hands — that’s huge in this league. As a defensive lineman, you get locked up with the big offensive linemen, and it becomes a big hugging match. You can’t get rid of them.’”

Campbell has been doing a good job recently of throwing in these little comments that help fans like me learn a little more about football. In this case, you know what Bass is concentrating on in order to improve his game. Let’s see how he does Sunday.

Mark Potash at the Chicago Sun-Times gets this quote that will thrill a few Bears fans:

“Hall of Fame quarterback and ESPN analyst Steve Young cautioned Jay Cutler to make sure he’s ‘healthy enough to go all the way to January and into February for the Super Bowl’ when he returns this week.

“’With the offense that Marc Trestman has … everybody is getting up to speed. They’ve had three or four months of playing with him, they now understand it and believe in it. I think it’s enough to carry them,’ Young, who played for Trestman with the 49ers in 1995-96, said Friday on ESPN’s SportsCenter. ‘If they can firm up the defense, get healthy, this team could threaten into February. So if Jay’s going to play … Jay, make sure you’re playing because you have an eye to playing in February. And if you’re not healthy enough, please be careful.’”

I’ll believe it when I see it. A lot of good things will have to happen for that defense to be Super Bowl quality and for every guy returning form injury, you’ll have a Shea McClellin pulling hamstrings in practice.

If the defense tightens up, fixes the mental mistakes they’re making and starts tackling, they’ll have a chance at being good enough to make a decent playoff run. But if they didn’t do it last week, you have to wonder if the problems aren’t going to be chronic.

I thought this comment from Rich Campbell at the Chicago Tribune was interesting:

“During passing drills media were permitted to watch, the mechanics of [quarterback
Jay] Cutler’s right (plant) leg were noticeably different from how they were before the injury.

"On Thursday, he often brought his right foot off the ground much higher than usual when following through. Quarterbacks with significant core strength typically drag their back foot. That steadies their body, and they can afford to do so because their core muscles generate sufficient strength. [backup quarterback Josh] McCown, for example, dragged his throughout passing drills Thursday.”

Its just an off hand observation from what is probably only a very small portion of the practice. But it does make you wonder if Cutler isn’t still going to have issues with his groin. Maybe its Cutler just being extra protective of it, which would indicate that he’s still thinking about it mentally. Or maybe its more physical than that. In any case, its something to watch for this Sunday.

Defense

1. The Bears came out playing two deep zone and worked off of that all night. It was reasonably clear they decided, like most teams before them, to stop Aaron Rogers first.
2. You’d like to say that the Bears failure to stop the run all night had to do with the fact that they were playing the pass. But that’s not true. When Aaron Rogers went down, they strated throwing a safety into the box. It made no difference. Eddie Lacy still ran over them.
3. Many of the longer runs came from players being out of position. The worst offense (arguably) was when James Anderson was out of position on the James Starks touchdown in the first quarter.
4. There were also some occasional bouts of poor tackling out there.
5. I thought the defensive backs, including the much maligned safeties, played reasonably well.

Offense

1. Unlike the Bears, the Packers decided to stop the run first and make quarterback Josh McCown beat them.
2. The Bears went to lots of quick, sharp throws. That basically neutralized the Packer blitz. Between that and the usual habit of the Bears of giving the offensive linemen lots of help, the Packers had a tough time getting pressure on McCown.
3. I loved the throw to Brandon Marshall for the first Bears touchdown. McCown beat the blitz and the single coverage on Marshall to badly burn the Packers. That’s what needs to be done in those situations. Its the only way to stop the opponent from blitzing you to death.
4. I don’t mean to be too tough on him because he did make one or two nice plays out there. But Martellus Bennett looks occasionally like he’s sleep walking out there. I think the injuries from earlier in the year might still be bothering him.
5. Hard not to like the way the Bears ran out the clock in the fourth quarter. You have to do that to win. Mice work.

Miscellaneous

1. I thought Mike Tirico and Jon Gruden did their usual good job. Gruden always points out the stuff that I like to know as a fan. I have no complaints.
2. The Bears special teams just flat out got out played tonight. They had a blocked punt. They lost an onside kick. they left the team starting in poor field position all night. Really a poor job.
3. The Bears had way too many penalties, especially compared to the Packers who played very clean. Stephen Paea had a face mask. Charles Tillman had a face mask. There was a potentially damaging holding call on Bennett call in the fourth quarter that allowed Packers head coach Mike McCarthy to save a time out. Very poor.
4. Yes, and there were way too many drops. Again the Packers were relatively clean for once. But the Bears dropped them all over the field. Bennett, Forte and Marshall all had them.
5. The Bears did get a turnover in the form of a Julius Peppers interception. But the game was relatively clean and they need to generate more of them.
6. I know most Bears fans will be happy with this win. But I wasn’t. I was really disappointed. The offense looked good but there were to many drops and too many penalties. The special teams were bad. But my real disappointment was in the defense. I looked for this unit to respond with a clean, well played game. They were a unit that was playing poorly because of poor fundamentals. What I saw were continued problems with poor run fits and occasional bouts of bad tackling. The Bears won. But they won’t win many playing like this. The only people who should really be celebrating right now are in Detroit.

Mark Potash at the Chicago Sun-Times writes this mea culpa. But it could have just as easily been me writing it:

“When Jay Cutler was injured in 2011, I made a tremendous blunder in predicting that Caleb Hanie would thrive in his place. While Cutler had led the Bears to five consecutive victories, his performances were hardly off-the-charts. He was replaceable.

“I couldn’t have been more wrong. Hanie was more awful than the harshest critic could have predicted.”

“Two years later, we have another chance to measure Cutler’s value to the Bears. Short of a 158.3 passer rating, 40-plus points per game and five or more consecutive victories, there’s nothing Josh McCown can do to create a quarterback controversy when (if?) Cutler returns. But Cutler’s absence — and McCown’s impressive performance Sunday in relief against the Redskins — gives the Bears a chance to see just how badly they need their franchise quarterback.”

I never thought Cutler was “replaceable” with Hanie. And, in fact, I did express some reservations about him. But I certainly did think Hanie would do better than he did. It’s possible I’m being fooled twice here but I don’t think there’s much risk in saying that McCown will be better than Hanie was.

It’s going to be fascinating to see how McCown does against a good team with a full week to prepare for him. But either way, I agree with Potash in that I doubt anyone whose opinion counts is thinking he’ll “replace” Cutler. They might try to find someone else to do it. But it won’t be McCown, who is a temporary fill in for either Cutler or the new guy at best.

I think this question from Potash is the one I’d really like an answer to:

“And while it was overshadowed by his injury, Cutler’s performance against the Redskins was a disappointment. With nine days between games, Cutler either was rusty or ineffective. Against a defense ranked 24th in the NFL against the pass, Cutler was 3-for-8 for 28 yards and an interception returned for a touchdown for an 8.3 passer rating. The rest of the league has a composite 104.5 passer rating against the Redskins in the first half this season. Why him? Why then?”

Cutler looked an awful lot like the quarterback that collapsed against really good teams on more than one past occasion until he got hurt Sunday. I said in my Game Comments that he didn’t look like he wanted to be out there. I stand by that. It was very disturbing and the Bears can’t afford to sign a quarterback long term who is going to perform like that, even occasionally, when they need him most. Perhaps Steve Rosenbloom at the Chicago Tribune put it best:

“Now the Bears will take this week off and apparently vote whether they want to play the Packers a week from Monday. Interestingly, if you had to vote on which game Cutler should miss for any reason, it would be the Packers. Always the Packers. So, the Bears have that going for them. I mean, nobody on the Packers defense ever said something like ‘just sit there and Josh will throw you the ball.'”

Up until last Sunday, I thought the Bears would re-sign Cutler in the offseason without question. But after only a few possessions in the first and second quarter last Sunday, I’m already very much doubting that assessment. I’d really like to know what causes Cutler to occasionally go into a mental shell like that and whether head coach Marc Trestman can do anything to prevent it. If he can’t, then they need to cut Cutler loose.

Cutler is very valuable to the Bears. Which may be why they’ll eventually need to let go of him.

Mark Potash at the Chicago Sun-Times quotes Bears general manager Phil Emery and head coach Marc Trestman on the Bears response to the rash of injuries to veterans that is now plaguing the team:

“‘It really comes down to fundamentals and techniques,’ Trestman said. ‘Not an improvement in scheme. Not an improvement in structure. Just being in the right place at the right time and doing the right thing with the fundamentals that we’ve been taught.’

“‘We need to improve our assignments, our discipline and our fundamentals,’ general manager Phil Emery said. ‘If we do those things, we’ll play better defense. We’ll rush the passer better. We’ll have more stops.'”

But it’s the Chicago Tribune‘s David Haugh that puts his finger right on the most important point.

“Despite losing five starters to injuries, Trestman and Emery offered no excuses because they know injury-riddled teams such as the Packers and Patriots win anyway. But they didn’t offer compelling evidence to believe the optimism they tried selling about a team likely to start four rookies against the Packers.”

The first part of the quote is the point. One thing that former head coach Lovie Smith had right was that injuries are not an excuse. The current Bears bras seems to agree (via Rick Morrissey at the Sun-Times):

“I started to ask him the obvious question but ended up making the obvious statement: Coach, I know you said you liked your team’s attitude in the locker room, but with all due respect, you don’t have much of a team without Cutler and Briggs.

‘‘’I think we do have a team,’’ he said. ‘‘I beg to differ with you. You’re entitled to your opinion, but these things are going on throughout the National Football League. Good players are going down throughout.'”

Good teams perform in spite of injuries and there are good examples of Packers teams that have done so. These teams didn’t run out and panic and trade draft picks for immediate help and the Bears aren’t going to do it either. Consistent with that, as pointed out by Adam L. Jahns at the Sun-Times, Emery is having a hard time getting a trade lined up where there’s equal value on both sides.

“[Emery] stressed that ‘trades aren’t dependent on injury perspective.'”

“‘The most limiting factor is getting equal value,’ he said. ‘When you don’t get equal value, you can put the team in a position, short- and long-term, of not being where you want to be roster-wise.

“‘If we find one that .?.?. works to our benefit at positions of needs that I think are obvious in terms of the attrition that we’ve had, we would make that trade.'”

I’d say that the Bears are unlikely to trade draft picks unless they are getting good young talent in return and, if its good young talent, no one will be trading it.

Nevertheless, the Bears might yet find a young player with talent who has busted out with another team for a low round pick. And they might find some help in the existing free agent market. But the key to fighting through adversity is really with hard work and, perhaps most important, good coaching. As with most things in life, mediocre players with good fundamentals can go pretty far. It’s particularly true in the NFL because the mediocre players are still pretty talented.

People like Haugh who are looking for “compelling evidence” that the Bears will do what other good teams have done in the past by coaching back ups to perform at a high level aren’t going to find a lot, its true. Such things don’t show themselves until after the fact and Trestman’s coaching staff is in its first year. But I’d say that new defensive tackle Landon Cohen and defensive end David Bass already started to emerge against the Redskins. For those who are looking for more, this is the chance for the team, coaches and players, to show what it can do. The Bears seem to be embracing the opportunity (again via Morrissey):

“‘There’s a lot of reasons to be excited about coming back here next week and cleaning up the things that we can get better at,’ [Trestman] said. ‘We get the opportunity to go to Lambeau Field. We know it’s going to be for a first-place position in our [division], regardless of what happens this weekend. Our guys should be excited about that and I believe they will [be].'”

Truth be told, so will I.