Month: December 2014

The “Serial” Murder of Bears Season and Other Points of View

Bears

  • Brad Biggs at the Chicago Tribune thinks Monday’s debacle was finally the end for Bears head coach Marc Trestman. Its the first time all year the veteran reporter has said so and he’s probably the reporter in town whose opinion I have the most faith in when it comes to these sorts of things:

    “Aaron Kromer, spared for the time being, seems destined to go down with Trestman as well at the end of this season, which mercifully is less than two weeks off.”

    “(null)”

    “Those in league circles have reserved serious doubt over the last two months that the Bears would move on from Trestman after only two seasons — and with two seasons remaining on his contract. It’s not the way the McCaskeys have conducted business in the past. Heck, they brought back Dave Wannstedt after a four-win season in his fifth year. But things were never this out of kilter when Wannstedt was in charge.”

    No matter what the Bears do, no matter how many coaches or GMs they fire or don’t fire, they’re going nowhere as long as Jay Cutler stays. I can’t imagine they’ll eat that unfortunate contract they signed him to earlier in the year but there will be no hope whatsoever that they’ll be better next year if they don’t.

  • Rich Campbell at the Chicago Tribune on general manager Phil Emery‘s pre-game comments:

    Emery was extremely angry about the Kromer situation. His comments during the pre-game show on WBBM-AM (780) indicated as much. At the risk of misinterpreting them, it sure sounded as though he would not have been as lenient or forgiving as [head coach Marc] Trestman was in permitting [offensive coordinator Aaron] Kromer to remain on the staff.

    As I’ve said many times, GMs have no business commenting on the state of the team too often during the season. Generally the players need to hear one voice and that is the head coach’s. In this case Emery could do no good and a lot of harm by commenting. As it stands, most of Chicago is now under the impression that he is distancing himself from Trestman. Whether that is true or not, it does no one any good to communicate it and it leaves people with further proof of the organizational dysfunction that is becoming more and more evident under his watch.

  • Matt Bowen at the Chicago Tribune offers the insight into the Bears situation that comes with being a former player:

    “To be honest, players want to be held accountable. They want to be pushed, challenged. That’s how they improve and it resonates throughout the building when poor performances are deemed unacceptable.”

    Somewhere along the line I think Marc Trestman got the impression that NFL players would hold themselves accountable without interference from him. Probably in an ideal world, that would be the case. Sadly, it doesn’t seem to match reality. That should have been evident way back in September when linebacker Lance Briggs decided to take the day off to open a restaurant. If it was, it was probably too late by then to do anything about it.

  • Biggs addresses Kyle Long‘s situation with the team and wonders if they’ll ever move him from guard to tackle:

    “[Ndamukong] Suh, who the Lions will attempt to re-sign in free agency, isn’t the only three-technique tackle in the NFC North to concern the Bears. The Packers’ Mike Daniels and Vikings’ Sharrif Floyd are emerging young talents.”

    “Teams construct rosters to have matchup advantages against division opponents and shifting Long to tackle would create a void for the Bears six times a season if Suh remains with the Lions.”

    That’s a good point. I’m a believer in the Marc Trestman/Aaron Kromer theory that teams should keep the pocket clean from the inside out with strong guards as the anchor of the line. I think I like Long where he is.

  • Defensive coordinator Mel Tucker on covering Calvin Johnson and, presumably, the other Lions receivers. Via Adam L. Jahns at the Chicago Sun-Times:

    “‘We have to play tighter coverage, be more disruptive on the routes and we have to hit the quarterback more,’ Tucker said. ‘We’ll work to get that done.”

    Too little too late but its nice that Tucker finally is adjusting to his situation. At the time of the first meeting he thought he could bring pressure on Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford and take care of the Lions receivers in soft coverage. That hasn’t worked all year, dating back to the preseason.

  • Hub Arkush at chicagofootball.com continues to lose my respect by taking cheap shots at the Bears for their decision to bench Cutler:

    “Ironically, Cutler with his 28 touchdowns, 18 interceptions and 89.5 passer rating rates a notch above Matthew Stafford, who has 19 touchdowns, 10 interceptions and an 87.8 rating. Stafford does have 157 yards on Cutler with 3,797 to Cutler’s 3,640.”

    “Perhaps that is why Stafford hasn’t been benched?”

    Arkush knows perfectly well that Cutler’s stats were accumulated in garbage time of horrendous losses. Often the games were close with very low scores at half largely because of the offense’s ineptitude. Cutler is a fantasy quarterback.

    You don’t have to agree with the Bears decision to go with Jimmy Clausen – there’s plenty of reason to be skeptical of Clausen. But these kinds of cheap arguments should be beneath Arkush.

One Final Thought

For those of you who haven’t seen this parody of the podcast, “Serial”, from Barstool Sports, you need to listen to it. We may never know who murdered the Bears.

Trestman to Exit on His Own Terms

Like David Haugh in my last post, Michael C. Wright at ESPN.com and I rarely see eye-to-eye. But I think he was spot on as he compares Marc Trestman‘s decision to bench Jay Cutler with a similar decision made by former Jaguars coach Jack Del Rio to bench Byron Leftwich for David Garrard in 2008:

“When Del Rio informed people inside the organization of the decision he’d long been wrestling with, the team’s assistants agreed — at least publicly — while folks on the personnel side, including former front-office boss James ‘Shack’ Harris, vehemently disagreed. The situation became so heated it forced a meeting with then team owner Wayne Weaver involving Del Rio and those on the personnel side against the move.

“Del Rio swayed Weaver to give him final say in that decision by making the argument that, ultimately, ownership holds the coach accountable whether the team is successful or not. So if Del Rio was going down, he wanted to do it with the man he preferred under center.

“That’s not to say that’s exactly what’s going on behind closed doors at Halas Hall. But with questions concerning Marc Trestman’s job security, if he is going to go down in flames, he’d likely prefer to do so with a quarterback he knows will execute the system the way he asks. As opposed to someone doing his own thing, which is what Cutler has done for the better part of the season — based on observations from NFL experts such as Trent Dilfer — leading to serious struggles and the quarterback leading the league in turnovers (24). “

Trestman’s problems aren’t entirely associated with Jay Cutler. The fact that he thought giving the players Wednesday off would help instill the needed discipline to help the team win against the Lions on Sunday is enough to tell you that. But I’m reasonably certain that he can coach quarterbacks. And the bet here is that he’d like to prove that before its all over. In that respect, I think the media asked the wrong question yesterday in Trestman’s press conference. Via Rich Campbell and Dan Wiederer at the Chicago Tribune:

“Trestman on whether he’d view any potential success by [Jimmy] Clausen as a validation of his offensive system:

“‘I’m not looking to try to do anything but help our football team win a game.'”

At this point any success that Clausen has should be viewed as validation of Trestman simply as a quarterback coach. Trestman can’t possibly be coaching him to do the things he’s doing. Whether he admits it or not, there has to be something inside of Trestman that will say, “See? I know what I’m doing. It’s just the guy I’m coaching that’s the problem.”

So when Hub Arkush at chicagofootball.com asks “Is there anyone out there who actually believes the Bears would have performed better last Monday night if Clausen had been under center?” my answer is, “Yes, I do.” I don’t buy weak attempts at defending Cutler like this one from Mark Potash at the Chicago Sun-Times:

“Cutler did not play well this season, but Trestman’s offense seemed to put more pressure on Cutler to be something he’s not instead of taking the pressure off Cutler and giving him room to breathe and margin for error. In four of the Bears’ five victories this season, Cutler has thrown a combined eight touchdowns and no interceptions. The only time the Bears won with Cutler throwing an interception was against the Vikings, when Cutler threw three touchdown passes and two interceptions in a 21-13 victory.

“Trestman did what most coaches do with Cutler — he played to his perceived strengths instead of his actual strengths. Cutler has been effective rolling out and in a no-huddle offense. He’s been good when the Bears have a solid running game. But the Bears didn’t emphasize any of those tacks for most of the season.”

Perhaps Potash could point out how Trestman was supposed to run the ball “effectively” with an offensive line that couldn’t block it. Or perhaps he could point to the cases where teams won consistently with a quarterback who had to roll out, literally eliminating half the field from the play, in order to feel comfortable running an NFL offense.

Cutler was a complete mess on Monday night – as bad as any quarterback I’ve seen play for the Bears. And that’s pretty bad. He was inaccurate and confused, holding the ball and at times panicking at the sight of his own shadow.

Yes, how much of an improvement Clausen will be is an open question but I think there’s a reasonable chance he could do better. Trestman deserves to be able to show that much.

Cutler’s Benching a Question of Trust

David Haugh at the Chicago Tribune and I rarely agree on anything. But I thought this little bit from his column Friday morning after Jay Cutler‘s press conference following his benching was insightful:

“Cutler again flashed the charisma of a guy who appeared more relieved than emotionally wrecked after being benched for the first time in his life. That doesn’t mean Cutler took the news well.”

Haugh was thinking of the sense of relief that comes with now being almost on the outside looking in on a situation where the stress that comes with change permeates the air. There’s probably some of that. But I’ll bet Cutler is also relieved for a different reason.

Cutler has to know that he hasn’t been performing well and he certainly has to know that he isn’t doing what the coaching staff wants him to do. I doubt very much that he trusts anyone associated with the offense to be where they need to be on the field at a given time and that lack of trust isn’t allowing him to be an NFL quarterback in the modern sense. One that throws the ball before a wide reciever comes open, not after. One that can look down field for longer than it takes to glance at his firs read without looking at the pass rush. It seems to me like Cutler is completely unable to overcome those feelings of distrust to do his job. Indeed his biggest problem is that he’s always been completely unable to do so. Upon considering his situation, Cutler’s probably as glad as anyone that he doesn’t have to haul himself out there to struggle with those demons yet again this Sunday.

Game Comments: Saints at Bears 12/15/14

Offense

  1. The Bears came out seemingly determined to run the ball. This time both in word and in deed. Three of the first five plays were runs. The sixth play was a nice play action.

  2. Cutler was really inaccurate to start the game. He also had a really hard time letting go of the ball. He had a horrible game. He’s timid, he’s confused, he’s a complete mess right now.

  3. Given Cutler’s state of inaccuracy, it was fortunate that the Saints had trouble filling gaps on the run defense. It was a contest to see who could be more inept – the Bears blocking or the Saints run defense. Eventually the Saints started crashing the line and penetrating to stop the run and Forte struggled. They had little to worry about in terms of the passing game from Cutler.

  4. The Bears offensive line didn’t help Cutler out much as they had a pretty bad game in protection against the Saints blitzes.

Defense

  1. The Bears mixed it up but played a lot of man-to-man on the Saints offense. The coverage generally wasn’t very good. The Bears are bad in the defensive backfield right now.

  2. The Bears struggled to stop the screen play and, really, that single play was responsible for their scoring opportunities early as the were pretty incompetent running everything else.

  3. The Bears also struggled to get pressure on Drew Brees. Brees generally looked comfortable and he generally performed like it.

  4. And, again, the Bears struggled with misdirection plays as the Saints took advantage of the young defense trying to be aggressive.

  5. Kyle Fuller had a flat out bad game here. He’s either hurt or regressing badly. In fairness he was matched up a lot on Jimmy Graham.

  6. Some really poor tackling out there.

  7. The Saints don’t seem to run the ball much and I was surprised they didn’t challenge the Bears more on the ground. I thought they had reasonable success when they did.

  8. I don’t know who had Josh Hill on the Saints first touchdown of the second half but it was yet another broken coverage, something that’s been all too frequent this year. Ryan Mundy had him but looked like he thought he was passing him off to someone else on the play that he thought was behind him.

Miscellaneous

  1. Mike Tirico was his usual professional self. Jon Gruden was a disappointment. He sounded like he hadn’t done his homework and had mailed in this performance to some extent. There was a lot of off the cuff BS’ing going on. Tirico made most of the good points. Gruden’s contract extension with ESPN wasn’t good news if that’s the way he’s going to perform every week.

  2. The Saints botched a field goal but, being gentlemen, the Bears gave them another shot at it with a holding call by Jared Allen. The Saints missed the second attempt and I swear circus music started playing in my head.

    The Bears also ran a really poor fake punt in the second quarter. not only did it fail but they only had 10 men on the field.

    Patrick O’Donnell had a good game. There were some good kick off returns as well as the Saints kicker had a tough time kicking it deep.

  3. There weren’t many out right drops as Cutler made virtually every pass a difficult one to catch. The Saints did well here, too.

  4. There were an unbelievable number of penalties on both sides. Special teams had a penalty on the very first kick off of the game starting the offense inside the 10 yard line.

    Kyle Fuller had a damaging pass interference call at the end of the first quarter. That led to a touchdown.

  5. Jay Cutler was intercepted on the very first series on a pretty bad pass. The Saints gave it back two plays later on a fumble by Nick Toon. Great start. Cutler’s interception was the first of many and a better team than the Saints would have put up even more points than they did.

  6. On behalf of Chicago Bears fans everywhere we’d like to apologize to the rest of the league for subjecting you to this. Let’s all hope the networks will let the Bears and their fans suffer alone in quiet dignity on Sunday afternoons next season.

A Message of Hope. Kind of. And Other Points of View.

Bears

  • David Haugh at the Chicago Tribune after last Thursday night’s loss:

    “Yet Thursday’s low point for the Bears wasn’t Tony Romo escaping an unblocked Willie Young to hit [Cole] Beasley for the Cowboys’ third touchdown or defensive end Anthony Spencer ripping the ball from Matt Forte‘s grasp to create another costly turnover. The nadir came when the video board announced [Chris] Conte‘s back injury and the crowd roared in approval. Stay classy, Chicago.”

    I don’t know who these people are or what hole they crawl out of when they get up in the morning. All I know is that I live near Soldier Field in Chicago and I don’t know a single person who would do it no matter how drunk and stupid they got. Not a single one. I don’t know what’s wrong with these people.

  • According to Ed Sherman at the Chicago Tribune, the rating for the Cowboys-Bears match up was 31% down compared to their Monday Night game last year. It probably doesn’t bode well for ABC/ESPN and the ratings for the Bears December 15 Monday Night match with the Saints. And it serves them right.

    The only good thing about this downward trend in the Bears fortunes is that we might catch a break and get fewer prime time games next year. Sometimes I think there isn’t a network executive anywhere in the country that wouldn’t get down on his or her knees and do terrible things to Roger Goodell if they thought it would help them keep Bears fans up all night for every game.

  • Adam L. Jahns at the Chicago Sun-Times encapsulates the Bears season:

    “Damning statistic of the day Part 1?

    “The Bears have allowed 30 passing touchdowns this year. It’s the most in franchise history and there are three games left, which includes a matchup with quarterback Drew Brees and the New Orleans Saints on Monday Night Football.”

    “Damning statistic of the day Part 2?

    “After Thursday, the Bears have been called for 19 false starts this season and there are still three games left. Last year, the Bears only had nine.”

    I’m not normally a stats guy. But poor pass defense and poor discipline account for a pretty big chunk of the Bears problems.

  • I should have started paying attention to Kevin Fishbain‘s All-22 Slideshow at chicagofootball.com earlier in the season. Its excellent. Here he shows, amongst other things, why the Cowboys were able to rip off those long runs in the second half. I’ll give you a hint. The Cowboys blockers are really good. The Bears front seven is not.
  • Coming up with ideas to write two or three articles a day about how awful the Bears are has to be a tough job. But there seems to be no end to the creativity of the writers in town. From Dan Wiederer at the Chicago Tribune:

    “Opposing quarterbacks this season are completing 66.5 percent of their passes against the Bears, averaging 279 passing yards per game with 30 touchdowns and only 11 interceptions. That adds up to a 103.4 rating. Which means that if ‘Bears Opposing Quarterback’ were an individual player this season, he would have a rating that would rank fourth in the NFL among full-time starters – behind only [Aaron] Rodgers (118.6), Dallas’ Tony Romo (108.8) and Denver’s Peyton Manning (107.8).”

    • Brad Biggs at the Chicago Tribune answers your questions:

      “Should a Day 2 pick be used on a speed receiver (see Sammie Coates, Auburn) to take the top off the defense and keep the safeties honest? — Vic F., Springfield, Va., from email

      “I think the big frames of Brandon Marshall and Alshon Jeffery give them separation at times. Yes, a speedy wide receiver would be a nice complement to the offense. No question about it. Just because a player is fast doesn’t mean he’s going to be a good fit in an offense. It’s tough to come up with a draft pick like Johnny Knox, who comes out of nowhere to be productive.”

      As Devin Hester implied earlier this season before the Bears played the Falcons, you need a quarterback who is going to throw to those receivers if you want to draft them. The Bears have big, tall receivers because those are the only ones Cutler can deal with.

    • Jon Bostic will play in place of the injured D.J. Williams at middle linebacker. I can’t get over the nagging feeling the middle is where strong side linebacker Shea McClellan really belongs… Via Mark Potash at the Chicago Sun-Times.
    • Kevin Fishbain‘s All-22 Slide Show at chicagofootball.com reveals that blown coverages are a regular feature of the Saints defense in 2014. Sounds familiar.

      I’m also wondering if Cutler is the type of quarterback who will pick up on them when they happen. Can anyone remember even one pass play by the Bears to a receiver on a blown coverage this season? There must have been some…

    • Hub Arkush at chicagofootball.com answers your questions:

      “From @pancho0721: Is there a scenario where [Aaron] Kromer/[Mel] Tucker/Joe D[eCamillis] all get fired but the Bears somehow bring back Trestman?

      “It is at least 50–50 or better that is exactly what will happen and, ironically, if one of those three were to survive, Kromer could be the most likely candidate. Tucker and DeCamillis were not Trestman hires – they were Phil Emery hires. It would be much less expensive for the Bears to fire all three coordinators together than it would be to fire Trestman, and it is also far less an indictment of Emery’s poor management than having to fire Trestman after two years would be.

      “Rumors were rampant prior to the Kromer escapade that Trestman’s job was safe for another year, and the silence from Bears management since the Kromer deal exploded does nothing to contradict that.”

      50-50 sounds kind of high for all three. And you’d be looking for three new coordinators to join a lame duck head coach. I think if the Bears were to do that it would be better for everyone if they just cleaned house completely.

    • John Mullin at csnchicago.com says that the bears moved quarterback David Fales on to the roster from the practice squad because other teams were interested in taking him. An optimist might say that speaks well of his future.

Elsewhere

  • Ben Goessling at ESPN.com has a note that will be of interest to the Bears, especially when they prepare to face the Vikings for their last game in late December:

    “When the Minnesota Vikings prepared to move into TCF Bank Stadium for two years, they did a temperature study of the stadium that led them to switch from the south sideline — where the University of Minnesota football team sets up at the stadium — to the north sideline. Because of the shadows created by the press box and the suites on the south side of the stadium, the Vikings figured the north sideline would be sunnier, and therefore warmer, during cold-weather games late in the season.

    “What they didn’t know is exactly how big a difference it would make.

    “The Vikings checked the temperature during last Sunday’s game against the Carolina Panthers — where it was 12 degrees at kickoff — and found there was a 20-degree difference between the north and south sidelines, coach Mike Zimmer said. By the middle of the game, shadows were covering most of the field but the Vikings’ sideline, and Zimmer said he had several players thank him for the Vikings’ decision to switch sidelines. “

  • Arkush on quarterback Jameis Winston:

    “Winston has more than enough talent to be a Pro Bowl quarterback in the NFL but he will not be on my draft board and I can guarantee you he won’t be on at least a third of the team’s in the leagues boards as well because of his off-field issues and on- and off-field immaturity. Remember Mike Vick’s little brother, Marcus?”

    Ouch.

One Final Thought

I’m used to guys like Steve Rosenbloom suggesting that coaches will or should be fired. I usually sit up and start paying attention when guys like Mullin start doing it.

“The future of Marc Trestman for 2015 was fairly assured going into Thursday night’s game against the Dallas Cowboys. Barring a catastrophic, franchise-embarrassing final four games, Trestman is generally expected to be given a third year to try to get this Bears thing fixed.

“That catastrophic piece was forming through three quarters of the Bears’ 41-28 loss to the Cowboys.

“But in the span of less than a full quarter, Trestman’s players may have in fact saved his job after putting it at serious risk (again). Whether they saved some other staff jobs, however, is another matter.”

“As coaches are clear about, coaches don’t cut players; players cut themselves with their performances. The ‘coaches’ equivalent of that is increasingly playing out on defense and special teams.”

I’ve got news for those of you hoping that Trestman will be fired. The Monday Night game against the New Orleans Saints might very well qualify as a “catastrophic loss”. Quarterback Drew Brees is and he knows how to pick apart a soft zone every bit as well as Aaron Rogers.

“It won’t be that bad”, you say? “The Saints are awful this year, too”, you say? I’ve got one response: “October 26 – Saints 44, Packers 23”.

Hold on to your hats.

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.

On the End for Lance Briggs and Other Points of View

Bears

  • Hub Arkush at chicagofootball.com grades the Bears effort against the Lions:

    “There are a number of things that jump off the tape of the Bears’ 34-17 loss to the Lions on Thanksgiving Day.

    “But no matter how many times you watch it, you are drawn back to the failure of Marc Trestman and his coaching staff to put the Bears in a position to win.

    “On offense, the Bears threw the ball 48 times and ran it just eight, including 29 passes and just one rushing attempt in the second half.

    “It is clear from early in the third quarter on that the Lions’ defense abandons any concern about the run and on almost every Bears snap. Detroit’s front four pin their ears back and race to the passer while six and often seven defenders drop into coverage and clog the passing lanes.”

    This was my initial thought as well. However, there are a couple caveats to consider before really taking off on Trestman:

    1. The screen is designed to slow the pass rush. Correctly execute the screen passes and the Lions have to respect at least that much before “pinning their ears back”. So the game plan isn’t as ridiculous as it sounds in that respect.
    2. According to Mark Potash at the Chicago Sun-Times, the Patriots ran the ball just 15 times in a victory against the Jets this season.

    The real problem here wasn’t the game plan. It was the Bears failure to execute it. The margin for error when you are “dinking and dunking” down the field is extremely slim. Said another way, the Bears aren’t the 49ers of the 1980s, who executed such game plans with regularity, and they certainly aren’t Patriots.

  • John Mullin at csnchicago.com on the departure of linebacker Lance Briggs:

    “Briggs will probably leave the NFL after this season in much the same way as running mate Brian Urlacher did in early 2012 and Charles Tillman may after this season — still possessed of some skills, an abundance of savvy, but with health and age questions that will discourage pretty much any suitors, including the Bears.”

    Mullin apparently forgets that Urlacher had offers which were commensurate with his remaining skills and health status. He chose to deny that reality and blame the Bears for his situation. Briggs will choose the path he takes in much the same way.

  • John Mullin at csnchicago.com makes a pretty good point. He doesn’t ask whether defensive coordinator Mel Tucker will be fired but asks who will be there to replace him if he is?

    “But the reason the Bears once wound up with John Shoop as offensive coordinator was that in late-2000, then-coordinator Gary Crowton left to coach BYU. Dick Jauron and the Bears finished 5-11 in 2000, a regression from 6-10 in Jauron’s first year. The assumption around the NFL was that Jauron was done after one more year.

    “Chris Palmer and others (Marc Trestman was a candidate) were willing to take the offensive-coordinator job but wanted a three-year contract before they made that move. The Bears organization wasn’t willing to make that deal, and Shoop was promoted instead after the Bears won two of their last three.

    “The Bears may have changed and would consider a multi-year deal for coordinators in that situation. Doubtful, though.”

    If I had to choose a new coordinator for this defense it would probably be Rex Ryan, who is almost certainly out as head coach of the Jets. He might be willing to come for the sake of the family history with the franchise. But something tells me the McCaskey’s wouldn’t look kindly on the hire of the bombastic Ryan, preferring someone who is more bland and less likely to embarrass the franchise.

Elsewhere

  • Matt Miller, the NFL Draft Lead Writer at the Bleacher Report has Jameis Winston going to the New York Jets with the fifth pick in the draft. Buckle your seat belts.

    He has the Bears picking Kentucky defensive end Bud Dupree with the 13th pick.

  • Also from Miller:

    “Let’s end the week on a bright note. Any NFL team looking for a new general manager needs to call the Kansas City Chiefs and ask to speak with Chris Ballard.

    “I actually did that this week, but Ballard was unavailable to chat in-season. Here’s what I know of him, though: At least one NFL team wanted him as its general manager last year, and more will this season after watching the Chiefs play much better than anyone expected. He’s smart, dedicated and experienced enough to know how to both evaluate and value talent (something many first-time general managers fail at).

    “If a general manager job comes open and Ballard is given the opportunity to hire his own head coach, he’ll be at the top of many wish lists this spring.”

    Ballard was formerly with the Bears and that “at least one NFL team” who wanted him as its general manager last year was rumored at the time to be Tampa Bay. But Ballard undoubtedly knew that the real GM was going to be Lovie Smith and he undoubtedly knew from bitter experience better that to take that job.

  • Mike Tanier is always entertaining and this preview of the Vikings-Panthers matchup Sunday was no exception:

    “[Teddy] Bridgewater is one of many Vikings players with the potential to get much better, so staying healthy should be a priority for him. In a league where [Robert] Griffin moves in the pocket like it’s his first time on a lobster boat and Cam Newton moves like it hurts to blink, self-preservation may be a young quarterback’s smartest move. The Vikings could be a dangerous team next year. Until then, slide, Teddy, slide!”

One Final Thought

Lance Briggs has slowed quite a bit and he’s been a disappointment as a team leader. But even I was surprised when almost 90% of the same people who blindly expressed their desire to keep local favorite Jordan Lynch on the team .

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Rick Morrissey at the Chicago Sun-Times provided what I believe was a thoughtful perspective:

“I suspect we’ll appreciate Briggs more when he’s gone than we did while he was here. He and the city need a break from each other. Fans weren’t happy with his contract demands or with how much his play had slipped the past few seasons. But eventually the memory of a linebacker making play after play will win out. As it should.”