Defense
- The Bears played a lot of straight seven in the box with nickel personnel.
- The poor tackling continues. Very disappointing. Again, in past year they would have cleaned that up by now.
- The pass rush was really poor, especially when compared to the Lion pass rush.
- Brandon Meriweather is a thug. Honestly, he might be the dirtiest player I’ve ever seen.
- This wasn’t one of Stafford’s better games accuracy-wise. He missed a lot of open receivers.
- Matthew Stafford had all day to throw the ball on the first touchdown pass to Calvin Johnson. Johnson got a free release. Terrible tackling by Brandon Meriweather. It was just the beginning of a horrid day for Chris Harris. Awful play.
- I can’t even tell what went wrong on the Jahvid Best touchdown in the third quarter. But I know bad defensive play when I see it. To state the obvious, someone wasn’t in their gap. No safety help. You have to start to wonder if this is just who these guys are.
Offense
- The Bears come out running against the Lions who pretty much stick with seven in the box. You can’t succeed doing that if you’re constantly pushing yourself back with penalties.
- With the Lions defensive center being as strong as they are, the Bears were attacking the edges and off tackle with limited success.
- With Forte running well, the Bears didn’t seem to use play action like I thought they should have.
- Jay Cutler didn’t seem to be panicking unnecessarily in the pocket as he has been doing. That was largely because he never had a clean pocket to panic unnecessarily in. He was fine this week.
- Cutler did a nice job on the move. He used his mobility to avoid the rush and burn the Lions on the blitz on occasion. I’d have to say I’ve never seen anyone do a better job with basically no offensive blocking in front of him. In its own way it was heroic.
- The receivers seemed to be better this week in that they were fighting for the ball and making some tough catches with close coverage. Good game for Devin Hester.
- The Bears basically worked their way down the field on Lions penalties in the first quarter and Lovie Smith goes for it on fourth down. I hated that call and not just because it didn’t work out. You take the points there in a defensive game.
- The Lions were getting an extraordinary jump on the Bear snap count. There must have been a tell somewhere.
- As Jon Gruden pointed out very well, you need to give those putrid offensive linemen for the Bears some help if you have to pass. I know the Bears are in a bind in that situation but you can’t let them tee off like that on the worst offensive line in the league.
Miscellaneous
- Mike Tirico, Gruden, Ron Jaworski did a nice job. I thought Jon Gruden’s attempts to dissect every play were particularly laudable. I enjoyed the call.
- Penalties all over the place on both sides. Kellen Davis false started at least three times. The Bears claim they practice all week with piped in noise. They better turn the volume up.
- Someone is going to have to explain to me why Lovie Smith challenged the spot on the fourth down at the end of the first quarter. It was clear that the ball came down on top of the 25 yard line and the marker was well beyond that. That was the last time out they had in the first half. Poor decision.
- The Lions didn’t drop many passes. The Bears weren’t bad but Devin Hester dropped a touchdown in the first quarter. Forte had a bad drop.
- Special teams weren’t bad but they never really had much of a chance. It seemed like they were pinned back against the goal line the whole game.
- The Bears didn’t turn it over themselves and they got one interception. But if they keep playing like this they are going to need more than that.
- Frank Omiyale just cannot block. J’Marcus Webb couldn’t come close to keeping up with Kyle Vanden Bosch. Lance Louis struggled. Meanwhile Jerry Angelo says nobody did more to address the offensive line than the Chicago Bears. He should be totally ashamed.