Bear(ing) the News – A Chicago Bears Blog

Defense

1. The Redskins came out in running formations and everything was based around that.  They packed into the middle with two running backs and Robert Griffin III and ran variations in the running game with play actin pass.  The Bears responded by putting eight in the box and playing the run first.  The Redskins responded by doing a lot of passing out of the formation.  The Bears did briefly go to seven in the box late in the first quarter but the Redskins ran over them and they went back to eight.
2. The Redskins came out ready to play on offense  I’m not sure the Bears defense was as ready to play mentally.  They looked a step slow during the first drive.
3. RG III is a serious problem on the ground.  I loved the plays where the Redskins run everyone one direction, then RGII keeps the ball and goes the other running in a wide open field as the defense has to defend the run the other way.  He also passed effectively out of this play.
4. Give the Redskins credit.  They executed well on offense dominating time of possession in the first half.  They ran the ball really well.  The Bears caught them on a good day.
5. The Bears seemed to me to be blitzing pretty frequently.   This would make sense as the Redskins have had trouble agains the blitz this year.  Unfortunately it didn’t work very well this week.  RGII must have been working on it.
6. Lance Briggs had a good game, as usual.  It was a shame to see him leave with an injury.  I though Landon Cohen showed up.
7. Chris Conte definitely did not have a good game.  I’m not too sure Conte had his head in the game today.  He made costly mistakes all over the field in coverage that directly cost the Bears at least 14 points.
8. I like Jon Bostic’s aggressiveness.  I’m not sayin ghe was perfect but when he makes a play, he makes a play.  He’s all out.
9. The Bears tackling looked better to my eye today.  But they had a tough time getting the opponent off the field on third down, though.  They made Jordan Reed look like Tony Gonzalez out there.  They definitely did have some execution problems though and the Redskins took full advantage, especially in the running game.
10. Its a little tough to talk about the pass rush when RGIII spent so much time outside of the pocket.  But there wasn’t a lot of it, blitz or no blitz.  RGIII looked mighty comfortable out there for most of the game.

Offense

1. The Redskins came out and crowded the line a bit.  It looked like maybe they were trying to play aggressive and confuse the Bears to keep them off balance.
2. Quarterback Jay Cutler’s plan was simple.  Put Brandon Marshall in single coverage with Brandon Marshall against DeAngelo Hall, he’s throwing to Marshall.  Hall got the better of the matchup in the first half.
3. Cutler was definitely off in the first half passing-wise.  He was pretty inconsistent with his accuracy and he definitely never looked comfortable.  Sometimes Cutler has this look about him that gives you the distinct impression that that he doesn’t really want to be out there.  For the first time this year, he had it.
4. Josh McCown initially looked totally lost upon taking over for Cutler.  It was a bad sign.  McCown did OK getting outside the pocket but apparently the targets to throw to weren’t there.  You don’t want Josh McCown accounting for a significant portion of your running game on scrambles and broken plays.
5. On a related note, what a disappointing game from Alshon Jeffery who was pretty much wandering around aimlessly out there in the first half into the third quarter.  No sharp routes.  Really no good timing in the passing game from him or anyone else on the offense for long periods of the game.  In fairness, Jeffery and the rest of the passing offense did wake up late in the third quarter.
6. On the other hand the end around to Jeffery continues to pick up yardage.
7. Thank goodness for Matt Forte who apparently came to play.  It was nice to see Earl Bennett come alive.
8. For all of the talk about the size advantage that Martellus Bennett had on linebacker London Fletcher, the Bears sure failed to take advantage of it.

Miscellaneous

1. Once again the Bears drew a pretty good broadcast crew today.  Tony Siragusa, Kenny Albert, Daryl Johnston did their usual nice job.  I loved the way that Johnston broke down the Devin Hester touchdown return, showing how the Bears set up their blockers for the return to the right, eventually forming picket fence down which Hester waltzed.
2. Special teams for the Bears were up and down.  Most importantly, they came through with a well blocked touchdown for Hester.  Coverage teams did reasonably well.  Adam Podlesh had a good day.  The offense saw good field position all day as the Redskins kicked short to keep the ball away from Hester.  The Dvin Hester pass on the last kickoff return was amusing.  On the other hand, the Bears sure could have used that missed 34 yard field goal from Robbie Gould in the third quarter.  Hester seemed to be dancing around an awful lot on one or two of his other returns where He probably should have simply headed straight up the field.
3. Charles Tillman got an interception.
4. There were some costly Bears penalties.  There was a holding call on a punt in the first quarter that moved the Bears from the redskins 30 to the 40.  Landen Cohen had an illegal hands to the face that gave the Redskins a first down.  There was a defensive holding as the clock wound down in the fourth quarter.  And, of course, there was the crushing offside penalty on Eric Weems on what should have been a Bears recovery on an offside kick.  And a stupid illegal formation penalty took away a touchdown pass.  Pretty sloppy.  The Bears just can’t afford to do this stuff.  For the Redskins, Brandon Meriweather was a personal foul machine.  I’m thinking he might be on his way to a well-deserved  suspension.
5. Alshon Jeffery had a bobble that was eventually returned for a pick six.  Brandon Marshall had a bad drop in the second half.  The Redskins also had their share of trouble with a few of RGIII’s passes which were occasionally behind the receiver.
6. You could tell that the Redskins really needed this game and I thought they played today with an attitude.  The Bears definitely did not.  They came out totally flat after getting a 10 day break.  They were a step slow all over the field and Cutler wasn’t the only one who didn’t exactly look like he wanted to be out there.  They are now heading into their bye week which means an even longer period of time off.  Here’s hoping they come back more ready to play after two weeks off than they did today.

Tom Thayer at chicagobears.com explains the role of fullback Tony Fiammetta in running against an eight man front.

Thayer mentions several times that the Bears will be facing eight men in the box for much of the rest of the season but he doesn’t mention why. It’s a result of the fact that the Bears play a great deal of max protect in order to keep Jay Cutler clean in the pocket. For instance, notice in the screenshot above that the Bears have a tight end and two running backs in the game. This limits the passing options and leads the defense to bring an extra man closer to the line of scrimmage in order to either stop the run or to provide an extra pass rusher through the blitz.

The Bears ability to counter this depends upon good run blocking and the use of both Matt Forte and the tight ends, particularly Martellus Bennett, in the passing game. Fortunately both are excellent, versatile receivers as well as good blockers.

As much attention as is paid to receivers Brandon Marshall and Alshon Jeffery, it’s Forte and Bennett who will play the greater role in determining how the offense runs through most of the rest of the season.

Mark Potash‘s column in the Chicago Sun-Times this morning was a study in contrasts. He first addresses wide receiver Alshon Jeffery, a now rapidly improving player in the Bears offense:

“Wide receiver Alshon’s Jeffery’s 15-yard gain on an end around gave him three of the Bears’ seven longest runs from scrimmage this season. Jeffery also had a 38-yard gain against the Vikings and a 27-yard again against the Lions.”

Jeffery is turning into a potent weapon in the right hands. Those end arounds take a little while to develop but they work against particularly aggressive defenses with players who get caught away from home as they flow with the ball.

Potash, in the same column, also addressed the struggles of defensive end Shea McClelin:

It’s possible Shea McClellin still could become a force as a 4-3 defensive end, but it’s a long shot. Twenty games might seem like too few to make a judgment, but history says you usually know by now.

McClellin and Jeffery were a particularly big roll of the dice for the Bears. General Manager Phil Emery‘s first two picks in the 2012 draft both had one thing in common – their bodies were under-developed. Emery, a former strength and conditioning coach, obviously felt that with the right weight training, both players would develop into their roles. With Jeffery it worked. He’s out muscling defensive backs and, thanks to some good coaching from the Bears staff and some good training with Brandon Marshall, he using leverage to create space and get open.

The Bears haven’t been as lucky with McClellin. His speed is evident to anyone with eyes and he turns the corner on an edge rush as fast as anyone you’ll see. But he just isn’t strong enough to move solid offensive tackles and he doesn’t have the upper body strength needed to hold against the run or to use his hands to create the needed space to work his moves effectively in most passing situations.

Yes, its true. He might still develop and we might not have seen the best McClellin has to offer yet. But Potash is probably right. Just as we’ve seen Jeffery blossom with increased strength and experience, we aren’t seeing the same progress in McClellin. That’s unfortunate because the Bears need him badly with Corey Wooton having moved, at least temporarily, to defensive tackle and with Julius Peppers in a bad slump.

I noted last summer that the development of Emery’s 2012 picks would likely be the key to the 2013 season That has turned out to be the case. As Potash notes, with the Bears beat up on the defensive side of the ball, it’s the offense that has to pick up a bigger part of the burden in the coming weeks. In the same vein, we can only hope that Emery’s apparent success in projecting the development of Jeffery will off set the apparent mistake with projection of McClellin.

Brad Biggs at the Chicago Tribune answers your questions:

“Is the rise of tight ends like Jimmy Graham and Rob Gronkowski the response to the Cover-2 defense? @santucci_john from Twitter

“Offenses are doing their best to spread defenses out and attack the middle of the field with prolific pass-catching tight ends to respond to the blitzes that they face. Instead of leaving more players in to block, offenses are sending more out in the pattern to challenge defenses. A big, mobile tight end is an easy target for the quarterback to find on a quick read and a challenge for the defense to defend with a safety or a linebacker. Really, I believe the rise of the tight end position in the passing game is in response to the complex blitz packages that have developed.”

This is a wonderful perspective that I hadn’t thought of. I might add that it doesn’t hurt that a good blocking tight end can help with the running game or with pass protections is situations like this. Both are reasonable responses to the blitz depending upon what is called. And, of course, if you find a good one he’s a matchup nightmare being too athletic for a linebacker and too big for a safety or cornerback. But I like Biggs’s reason the best and it makes a lot of sense.

I’m not too judgmental but there’s no denying that a lot of questions from readers that get published in these columns that are just plain dumb. Despite that, its questions and thoughtful answers like this that keep me reading.

Defense

1. The Bears came out mixing their defense up quite a bit nothing too fancy but it didn’t look like there was any one form that they stuck to initially. Perhaps they were trying to confuse the Giants offense and keep them off balance by simply showing different things. It seemed to work.
2. There was a lot of cover two later in the game. The Giants did a good job against it with some classic cover two beaters.
3. The Bears blitz quite a bit to get pressure. The front four alone wasn’t getting much pressure.
4. The Giants decided (correctly) that they could run the ball successfully as a response to what the Bears were doing. The Bears flat out refused to bring an eighth guy into the box.
5. The poor tackling reared its ugly head again tonight. The Giants ran right through some for some long gains.
6. The Giants are a pretty talented team but there were a surprising number of mental errors out there on their part. The Bears took advantage.
7. Major Wright was not good tonight. The Giants did a good job of take advantage of him.

Offense

1. The Giants seemed to be playing a lot of cover two. Like the Bears, they also blitzed quite a bit.
2. Despite wanting to get a fast start, the Bears once again spluttered on the first series wasting a golden opportunity as they failed to take advantage of a turnover deep in Giants territory.
3. Unlike the Giants, the Bears had a tough time running the ball at the beginning of the game. Things loosened up a bit in the second quarter.
4. Brandon Marshall was a happy man tonight as the Bears were able to go to him more against a zone defense with some good results. I loved the way he shoved the cornerback four yards off the line of scrimmage past the goal line to create space for a touchdown pass in the second quarter. The commoner complained but it looked clean.
5. Quarterback Jay Cutler used his mobility well tonight. He also showed more than his usual degree of willingness to throw the ball away to avoid problems.
6. Cutler got good protection.
7. Like the Giants offense, their defense suffered from a lot of mental mistakes. That’s not like past years.
8. Cutler didn’t have a bad night but he missed Alshon Jeffery on a couple long throws that could have been big plays.

Miscellaneous

1. To the surprise of no one who thinks I’m too easy on the announcers, I like Brad Nessler and Mike Mayock. I think Mayock does a good job of diagraming out plays and immediately telling you exactly what happened.
2. There were many drops on either side. Marshall drop on fourth down in the first quarter. Other than that, both sides were pretty clean.
3. Turnovers were, as usual, a major factor in this game with the Bears getting all of them. The Bears got two turnovers early with an interception by Zack Bowman early in the first quarter followed a pick six by Tim Jennings. Jennings had the final major interception with 2 minutes left in the game.
4. Both teams had too many penalties. The holding penalty against the Giants defense with about a minute and a half left in the game was a killer.
5. Special teams were unremarkable except for the long kick return by the Giants in the second quarter. There was a time when the Bears made a living off of big special teams plays. No more.
6. I thought the Bears played a decent game tonight. The offense looked good against a largely zone team and the protection for Jay Cutler was pretty good. The defense was fine but I’m a mildly worried about the tackling again. They weren’t great against the run. Honestly, I found the Giants to be the more interesting team. I thought they might well have been the more talented team but major mental errors on both sides of the ball killed them. You can see why they’re 0-6. This is a reasonably talented team that’s playing really poorly and you have to wonder if it doesn’t reflect on the coaching staff.

Offense

1. The Saints came out in a standard looking 4-3. The game plan was apparently to keep the Bears off balance with some well-timed blitzes. The Bears tried to counter by running the ball. Unfortunately it didn’t work early as the Bears found themselves continually in situations where they had to pass. They spent the first quarter looking discombobulated.
2. Jay Cutler’s first fumble was a big part of the miserable start for the offense. Rob Ryan sent an overload blitz from the left side. Left tackle Jermon Bushrod correctly blocked the inside man and let the outside man go free. It was up to Cutler to get rid of the ball and possibly one of the receivers to adjust his route. Unfortunately Jay Cutler never saw the blitzer so we’ll never know if the receiver adjusted. It looked to me like the wide receiver didn’t adjust on the first sack of the second quarter where the same thing happened.
3. It wasn’t just Cutler. The offensive line had its hands full again this week. It looked like they had a tough time dealing with the speed of the Saints defensive ends in the 4-3 even without the blitz.
4. The key to the Saints defense wasn’t just the blitzes. They really had a tough time running the ball. It’s no coincidence that the Bears scored their touchdown in the second quarter after executing some nice running plays with both Matt Forte and Michael Bush and that they moved the ball a lot better after that. Unfortunately they were behind and the Saints had some sustained drives that ate up too much time in the second half to allow them to come back.
5. I would also note that the Bears started to attack the edges with the run in the second quarter. They did this briefly against the Lions with some success but then abandoned it for some reason. They kept bringing it back on occasion today, again with some success.
6. I note once again that the Bears went to an unbalanced line with Ebon Britton in as an extra tackle, presumable to help the running game and as extra protection for the pass.
7. I also note that the Saints started to give Alshon Jeffery some extra attention in the second half. We may start seeing more of that in the future.

Defense

1. The Bears were playing man-to-man underneath on first down. This was apparently an effort to try to force the Saints to go deep with the ball. Interestingly they still kept it short until midway through the second quarter when the finally started to burn the Bears defense with Jimmy Graham.
2. The Bears tackling seemed to be much better this week.
3. The pass rush also seemed much better in the first quarter, then not so much the rest of the game. There wasn’t much blitzing in the first half and only a little more in the second. There was some pressure but it seemed that quarterback Drew Brees had a long time to throw at times. Nice to see Nate Collins show up with a sack. It was a shame to see him go into the dressing room injured. Shea McClellin seemed to be around Brees a lot, especially in the first half. Unfortunately the lack of a pass rush in the second quarter allowed the Saints to start to beat the Bears with longer passes.
4. Lance Briggs looked better this week after a lousy game against the Lions as he showed up all over the field. Nice to see him back. Too bad about the late offsides penalty which really marred the effort. Really, all of the linebackers showed up today.
5. I was a little disappointed that the Bears didn’t do a better job of stopping the run. The Saints actually got a little play action going as linebacker D.J. Williams had a tough time getting back into coverage in the cover two. This was not a good running team and they had too mush success.
6. It appeared to me like the Bears kept the Saints in third and long more often than they have with other teams they’ve played. As a result they were doing a good job of stopping them at those times.
7. Even though there weren’t a lot of points scored, I thought the defense allowed the Saints to sustain some long drives in the second half that ate up the clock. They needed to get them off the field.

Miscellaneous

1. Joe Buck and Troy Aikman were sharp. I thought Aikman was particularly on his game making subtle comments. One such fact that he pointed out was that Alshon Jeffery wasn’t the first read on his touchdown in the second quarter. Cutler was looking for the inside receiver on the play but went to Jeffery when he popped open. The FOX crew got a good shot of Cutler in the first half going through his reads before finally throwing the ball to the third one against tight coverage. They also got a great shot of Pierre Thomas’s touchdown near the end of the first half. The receivers cleared the linebackers out and there was no one left on the offensive left side to stop him. It was superb coverage.
2. There was a lot of slipping around out there by the Saints. Not so much by the Bears. You have to wonder if they had the wrong size cleats on. I would have expected sideline reporter Pam Oliver to ask about this.
3. The Saints played a pretty clean game penalty-wise. I thought the Bears had far too many. Eric Weems had what was apparently a dumb personal foul call in the second quarter. D.J. Williams got called for a horse collar tackle that I’m not sure wasn’t bogus. I thought his hand was on the top of the shoulder pads. Charles Tillman had a holding penalty near the end of the third quarter on the disorganized punt return mentioned below. Lance Briggs had an awful offsides penalty on a fourth down in the fourth quarter that kept a Saints drive going with about 6 minutes left in the fourth quarter. Corey Wooton had another on eon the same drive.
4. Special teams were not remarkable except for the disorganized manner in which they received a punt near the end of the third quarter. There was some of this last week as well. There’s no excuse for that and it needs to be cleaned up.
5. Again, the Saints were pretty clean. Kenny Stills had a bad drop in the fourth quarter. Once again, as last week, I thought the Bears were a loose with the drops. This is not a team like the Packers that can be dropping balls. Matt Forte came out unsteady by bobbling the ball a couple times. He also had a drop in the second quarter along with Dante Rosario. Earl Bennett had a killer drop in the fourth quarter on a fourth and three.
6. The Bears got no turnovers. They gave one which handed the Saints a field goal.
7. The defense cleaned up a lot of problems compared to last week. The tackling was much better and it looked to me like players were generally in their gaps. But I was really disappointed in the way the offense came out today. After a lot of real progress which showed their talent at the skill positions I thought they took a step back the last two weeks. The offensive line hasn’t looked strong and the unit looked out of sync. It looked like they were a step slow all day. It may be like this for a while – two steps forward, one step back. We’ll just have to be comforted by the fact that the arrow is pointing up and they’ll come out better for having missed some plays today.

I haven’t been looking forward to this match up with the high octane Saints offense this week. But Dan Wiederer at the Chicago Tribune is doing his best to give me and people like me a little hope:

“There is an Achilles’ heel in the New Orleans offense and it’s a sputtering running game that currently ranks 25th in the NFL, averaging 81.2 yards per game.”

“The Saints’ offensive line isn’t as sturdy as it has been in recent years. With left tackle Jermon Bushrod skipping town last spring and signing with the Bears, Charles Brown (a 2010 second-round pick) is now the man protecting Brees’ blindside. Standout right guard Jahri Evans has been dealing with a hamstring injury in recent weeks, missed the Week 3 win over Arizona and just hasn’t been himself early on.

“Currently, [quarterback Drew] Brees is on pace to be sacked 48 times this season. In seven previous seasons with the Saints, he’s never been sacked more than 26 times. And that was last season.”

Rich Campbell, also at the Tribune, more or less confirms that the Saints offensive line has some flaws that the Bears plan to exploit:

“Regardless of personnel [on the Bears defensive line], coach Marc Trestman is confident of the defensive line’s plan for the Saints.

“’We’ve done some things structurally to force and integrate some problems on the New Orleans side of the football, and we’ll see what happens,’ he said.”

Better play from the Bears defensive line would be welcome this week. They certainly haven’t been scaring anyone with much in the way of penetration this year and when that isn’t happening, the defense isn’t going to stop many decent offenses, let alone good ones like this.

Football games are almost always won and lost at the line of scrimmage. Turnovers or no turnovers, that’s the only place you had to look to see which was the better team last Sunday when the Bears lost to the Lions. That will be the place to look this week as well.

Defense
1. The Bears came out just a little flat on both sides of the ball. Generally speaking the defense in particular wasn’t playing fast and certainly wasn’t playing down hill.
2. The Bears seemed to prefer the cover two on first down, laving the run open for Reggie Bush. The Lions took advantage and Bush gashed the Bears with the run throughout the game. Bush also hurt the Bears as a receiver and they moved him around well. Other than the turnovers, the failure to stop Bush was pretty much the story of the game.
3. Matthew Stafford came out very inaccurate, missing several open receivers. He didn’t really have a very good game. But it was good enough.
4. The Lions offensive line totally handled the Bears. No one could get off of blocks. The Bears aren’t going to stop anyone with no pressure on the quarterback.
5. This was a really bad game for Lance Briggs. He looked like he was having a tough time with Lions tight ends Brandon Pettigrew and Tony Scheffler. I got the impression that this might be partly because he was wary of the damage Bush was doing with the run. It didn’t matter. They still managed to block him out of the play on the Reggie Bush touchdown in the second quarter.
6. I hate the way Lions center Dominic Raiola moves around once he goes down on the ball. I guess it’s just subtle enough not to be called but its enough to be bothersome.
7. It was nice to see Alshon Jeffery beat some single coverage today. He’s showing his potential and Cutler is looking for him more and more often opposite Marshall.

Offense1. The Lions came out playing single coverage underneath with two high safeties on first down. This should have opened up the run but the Bears couldn’t take advantage as the Lions severely limited Matt Forte’s production throughout the first quarter.
2. The Bears had a tough time against the Lions single coverage underneath early as well. Receivers had a tough time shaking the much maligned Lions defensive backs. Other than Brandon Marshall this is a problem the Bears have had dating back for some years.
3. The combination one and two led to some serious trouble on third down as they were frequently left with a lot of yardage to make up.
4. The Bears offensive line had a tough time against the Lions defensive front and they had their hands full with a very powerful group who managed to push up the middle and get into Jay Cutler’s face. It looked like they were intent on keeping a disciplined pass rush which kept Cutler in the pocket. Its safe to say that Cutler hates that. He wasn’t able to escape the pocket with any regularity until the third quarter when the Lions know he had to pass and went with the all out rush.
5. Cutler was sacked twice in the first half, once when Lions defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh flat out overpowered Bears guard Kyle Long. Long really had a tough time with Suh all game. The pressure along with the good coverage by the Lions defensive backs probably contributed as much as anything to Cutler’s poor day.
6. As outlined above the Lions had a good game plan to attack the Bears weaknesses. The Bears responded in the second quarter by attacking the edges on the ground, away from the strength of the Lions defense up the middle. Alshon Jeffery had a long run to the left on an end around. This was followed by a long run by Matt Forte to the right for a touchdown. This was a wonderful adjustment by Marc Trestman and Aaron Kromer. I’m not entirely sure why they didn’t stick with it.
7. The whole league knows that Jay Cutler is going to go to Brandon Marshall at the slightest hint that he might be in single coverage. This led directly to an interception by Glover Quinn in the second quarter as he broke towards Marshall as the single high safety almost right after the snap knowing full well that’s where Cutler was going. Cutler never looked at anyone else. To make it worse, he repeated the mistake in the third quarter for another near interception.
8. Matt Forte wasn’t just stopped on the run. He had a tough time shaking the Lions linebackers in coverage as well.
9. The Bears came out playing Ebon Britton as a tight end/extra tackle in the second half, presumably to help block the run. Interesting thought but it didn’t help much.
10. It looked like Cutler was having a hard time gripping the ball. He threw a couple wobbly, wounded ducks, something he never does.

Miscellaneous
1. Thom Brennaman, Brian Billick and Laura Okmin all did a reasonable but not spectacular job. Brennaman is one of the best. He, for instance, pointed out (hen Billick didn’t) what Riley Reiff was left on Julius Peppers with little help and that, despite that, Peppers wasn’t doing that much damage. Certainly not as much as expected. Billick does a good job of pointing out most of what’s going on that’s relevant on the field. For instance, he pointed out the differences in the Bears punt formation compared to the rest of the league right away, having done his preparation ahead of time. But he doesn’t concentrate on Xs and Os and he doesn’t ordinarily teach me much in that respect. He always does a decent job otherwise.
2. Special teams play was uneven. The Lions committed a horse collar tackle and the Bears allowed a big return by Michael Spurlock in the second quarter. The Bears had some poor punts that left the Lions in good field position.
3. Reggie Bush and Tony Scheffler both had drops in the first half. Brandon Marshall had a big drop in the third quarter and Forte missed a catchable ball on the next play. Alshon Jeffery dropped a touchdown in the fourth quarter with the game well out of hand. Neither team really did terribly poorly in that area for one game but the Bears, in particular, can’t afford to make a habit out of having this many.
4. The game wasn’t marred by an inordinate number of penalties but the Bears had their first false start of the year in the second quarter. Kyle long had a damaging illegal hands to the face penalty that brought back a long Earl Bennett reception.
5. Glover Quinn had an interception on a poor Cutler decision to throw the ball to Brandon Marshall. Louis Delmas had two, the second on a horrible Cutler throw. Julius Peppers caused Matthew Stafford to fumble late in the second half, likely preventing yet another Lions score and allowing the offense to get the ball back and end the half with a field goal. Cutler also fumbled as Suh got him on a line stunt. That turned into six points on the recovery. Major Wright got an interception to stop a drive in the third quarter. Joique Bell fumbled in the fourth quarter and turned it over to the Bears. Too little, too late.
6. The Lions outplayed the Bears just about every way you can today. The turnovers were, of course, damaging. They always are and they are what allowed the game to get out of hand. But what stuck out to me the most was the way that the Lions dominated the Bears in the trenches, especially when the Bears were on defense. On the offensive side, the Bears got nowhere running the ball. Reggie Bush flat out ran through the defensive line like a hot knife through butter and he was into the defensive backfield in an eye blink. They got little penetration and little pressure on Stafford with rare exceptions. It didn’t help that the linebackers in general and Lance Briggs in particular had a poor game. Nevertheless, the Bears defensive line, supposedly a team strength, looks like the team’s Achilles heel.
7. Cutler had a bad game but here’s what was good about it – he carried himself well under duress. Yes, he turned the ball over and yes, he was probably rattled. That’s natural given the pressure he saw. But throughout the game all the way to the end, he carried himself like a leader. I didn’t see the constant, obvious frustration written all over his face that I think I would have seen in the past under these circumstances. There was only a little bad body language. I’m starting to think that marriage and fatherhood might be agreeing with Cutler while under the leadership of a good, even tempered coach. Certainly he showed some maturity today that was most welcome. Even though things were grim today, I think that’s going to stand this team in good stead in the future.

Patrick Finley at the Chicago Sun-Times gives the Bears statistics at defensive tackle:

Through three games, Melton’s grade of -6.4 was the lowest of any defensive tackle in the league, according to Pro Football Focus. Collins pressured the quarterback twice as often as Melton. PFF said Collins played the run better, too.

I’m not surprised. Collins has looked noticeably better through the first three games with Melton, to put it generously, knocking off some rust after missing the offseason. In fact, the first play after Melton left the game last Sunday, Collins came in fresh and penetrated into the backfield to cause some disruption. It mad eke wonder at the time if the Bears shouldn’t be rotating more frequently along the line to keep everyone fresh.

Regardless, with more opportunities to play, I’m going to go ahead and stick my neck out by saying the Bears might be better with Collins in the game over Melton. I’m not sure that holds up long term but based upon what I saw the first three games, I’m reasonably confident that Collins is going to be an improvement.

Brad Biggs at the Chicago Tribune does a nice job of summarizing the performances on film from Sunday nights game:

“Offensive line

“Grade: 6

“There was a premium placed on getting the ball out quickly and rookies Kyle Long and Jordan Mills held strong against an exotic scheme in a hostile environment. Cutler was sacked only twice in a game in which six wouldn’t have been a surprise in the past. There wasn’t an adequate push in the running game with the exception of Matt Forte‘s 55-yard run, when Mills delivered a nice block on Lawrence Timmons. Power O was a popular call by [Bears head coach Marc] Trestman.”

It’s true that the Bears line has been getting a lot of help the first three games. Its rare when tight end Martellus Bennet isn’t in the game along with one of the two running backs, Matt Forte or Michael Bush. Nevertheless, Biggs nails it when he says that this was a type of defense where a lot of sacks would have been racked up in the past. Help or not, the offensive line, along with the coaching staff, deserves a great deal of credit. They did a wonderful job picking up the blitz, something they’ll need to continue to do with other 3-4 teams, not the least of which is the Packers, ahead on the schedule.