Day: December 5, 2014

Game Comments: Cowboys at Bears 12/4/14

Defense

  1. The Bears came out in their standard 4-3 in a zone. They were bringing a fifth man up on the line of scrimmage. There might have been a little more single coverage but the game plan looked like a carbon copy of last week.
  2. The Cowboys started to look more typical in their second series. They converted two fourth downs, one for a touchdown and ran the ball very well. The Bears, of course, brought more guys into the box but the defensive line couldn’t penetrate to stop them and DeMarco Murray got plenty of yards running the ball. The Bears were getting beat at the line of scrimmage and, as so often happens, as that battle goes, so the game goes.
  3. The Cowboys found a lot of yards throwing to DeMarco Murray underneath over the middle.
  4. As in previous weeks there was plenty of room for Cowboys receivers to work in the zones in the Bears backfield. They took advantage.
  5. The Cowboys didn’t run as much play action as I expected but when they did it was devastating. The Bears totally sold out to the run in two wide receiver sets.
  6. I thought the Bears generally had a tough time getting pressure on Tony Romo unless they blitzed.
  7. The Bears did a really terrible job filling their gaps in the second half. It looked to me like most of it was on a young linebacking corp. They were probably wearing down by then, too.
  8. The Bears miss Jeremiah Ratliff a lot when he’s not out there.

Offense

  1. The Bears came out with a run to Fort right off the bat. And ran on first down in the second set of downs. There were all kinds of Cowboys in the backfield and Forte didn’t get anything. The did get some yards on a sweep right after that. The drive stalled when another run got blown up in the backfield on a blitz. I won’t say that the running game was that bad but there’s more to running the ball than just calling the plays. Generally speaking I thought the Cowboys were getting good penetration.
  2. The Bears had took their shots down field with some success. They do real well when they get single coverage and the Cowboys mixed their defenses up.
  3. Jay Cutler wasn’t very sharp again. There were some bad throws out there. At least most of them were low.
  4. A lot of the plays were the same as the ones we always see. Lots of short stuff. Lots of dump offs to mMatt Forte and Martellus Bennett.
  5. I thought Bennett had a good game against his former team.
  6. I give the Bears credit for having the right plays called against the Cowboys blitz. They handled it pretty well.
  7. Cutler just hasn’t had time to develop a connection with Marquess Wilson. They don’t really look in sync.

Miscellaneous

  1. The kicking game was a disaster. The opening kickoff by Jay Feely short. A poor punt by Pat O’Donnell gave the Cowboys great field position near the end of the first quarter. That led to seven points. I really don’t know why the Bears decided to squib kick a kick off in the second quarter. All it did was give the Cowboys good field position. There was a blocked extra point, too.

    The Bears apparently just don’t believe in downing the ball in the end zone and taking it at the 20. I guess the idea is that you’d rather take it at the 15 occasionally and take your shots at a big play. I’m not sure I agree.

  2. I thought the out right drops in this game were minimal and had no impact.
  3. There were really too many penalties on both sides, especially on special teams. There was an illegal touch by the Bears on a punt in the first quarter that was notable. They were offsides on an onside kick in the fourth quarter. The Cowboys had a block in the back on a run back that took seven points off the board. They also had a couple pass interference calls that hurt them.
  4. A fumble by Matt Forte on the first possession of the second quarter was devastating.
  5. The Cowboys broke this game open with some big runs. Really the Bears just got beat at the line of scrimmage and their inexperienced linebacking corp was exposed. The offense looked better to me and they didn’t kick themselves in the backside nearly as often as they have in previous weeks. But the fumble in the third quarter really hurt and they struggled in general to make big plays.

    The Cowboys won this game in typical Cowboy fashion. They just over powered the Bears on offense and prevented the big play on defense. Perhaps the Bears saw what their own future should be on the other side of the ball. If they did, they need to do a better job of getting the right players to do it.