Defense
- No surprise. The Cowboys came out running and the Bears stacked the box with 8 and 9 guys. The Cowboys ran over them.
- 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.
- 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
- 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.
- 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.
- It was nice to see the Bears scoring in the red zone tonight
- 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
- 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.
- 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.
- I thought the field was in pretty good shape considering the mud pit it was not that long ago.
- 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.