A friend (who is rather anti-Bear) and I were debating the merits of the Green Bay Packers when he brought up this observation: the Packers are team in the NFC playoff picture with the best chance to beat the Patriots. An anonymous quote from the Audibles feature at Pro Football Weekly reminded me of his comment:
“If you want to beat the Patriots, you need to look at the job Cleveland did on them. The one thing (Eric) Mangini definitely knows is how to beat New England. They had a phenomenal game plan. I’ve never seen Tom Brady so confused. They had 11 guys standing, and (Brady) had no idea who was coming and who was dropping. No team is good playing from behind, especially if the offense can run at you. Colt McCoy made a few plays early, and (Peyton) Hillis ran at them. That is the winning formula to beat New England. It’s a copycat league, and you have to know where you could pull from.”
Defensively this is exactly what the Packers did to the Patriots and they almost beat them. They run a look with only two down linemen and everyone else stands around so you can’t tell who is coming from where. It’s problematic but it also looks to me like the type of defense that you could beat with the run if you had the right blocking scheme.
Frankly I don’t see anyone in the NFC beating the Patriots in a Super Bowl matchup. But I said that the last time they were there and they lost. It will be interesting to see if more teams do, in fact, copy the Cleveland game plan and what the Patriots do to try to stop it.
‘‘’If I look up right guard in the dictionary, I see a picture of Lance Louis,’ Tice said in August.”
“Tice proved adept at not only acknowledging a mistake but correcting it — both rare commodities at Halas Hall in recent years. It took the Bears four years to realize Mark Anderson wasn’t a starting defensive end. It took Tice four games to realize Louis wasn’t a starting right guard.”
Robbie Gould proves that kickers should be seen and not heard as he provided some bulletin board material to the Seahawks in the form of this comment on ESPN 1000 before yesterday’s game:
“I never thought anyone would say this, especially in Chicago, but go Pack go!”
Elsewhere
Tom Kowalsi at mlive.com breaks down the Lions roster. Big needs in the back seven of the defense should tell us what direction they’ll go in free agency and the draft.
Here’s the Detroit Lions season wrapup with Brian VanOchten and Bill Simonson at mlive.com. Some good points made here including the fact that the Cleveland Browns ended on a winning streak last year (though the Lions are probably different):
Former Bear defensive coordinator Ron Riveragot his second interview with the Carolina Panthers. The Panthers are thought to be seeking a defensive head coach. He could be close to having a job with them.
This week’s Audibles at Pro Football Weekly was particularly good. Here’s yet another astute observation:
“Coaches remember what a player did. Personnel guys are supposed to be on top of coaches to remember what (players) can do. Every team has different power structures. What you have to realize with coaches is that very few of them can separate the emotion.”
Baltimore head coach John Harbaugh gets a few warm comments from the Kansas City fans yesterday after their win:
If the Eagles beat the Packers in today’s NFC wild-card game at Lincoln Financial Field, they will take on the Bears in the divisional round next Sunday at Soldier Field. If the Packers win today, they’ll head next to Atlanta — and it would keep alive a possible meeting with the Bears in the NFC Championship Game.
That’s the short view. The longer view is more sobering.
The Packers and Eagles not only have elite quarterbacks but were the third- and fourth-youngest teams in the NFC at the start of the season and have only gotten younger as injured veterans have been replaced by backups. The Bears are the third-oldest team and likely will have to fight through these teams again and again if they hope to remain competitive in the NFC in the coming years.
This is the predicament that GM Jerry Angelo and his front office have put this franchise in and this is why I withhold my whole hearted support. While the window opens for teams like the Packers, Eagles and Patriots, it is rapidly closing for the Bears and it has been for some years. The Bears do have a couple of young play makers including the recently drafted Johnny Knox. But the last Pro Bowl position player they drafted were Tommie Harris and Nathan Vasher in 2004.
The Bears have to do better in the draft if they want to keep up with the younger teams in the NFL.
“Welcome to the upside-down world of the NFL playoffs, where even the most ardent of Bears fans will be cheering for the Green Bay Packers today.
“If the Packers pull off an upset in Philadelphia, then the Bears will be hosting the worst playoff team in NFL history a week from today.”
Most Bear fans agree. But be careful what you wish for. Though Seattle is very beatable seeing Green Bay go should probably be the number one priority.
The Packers are very inconsistent. They didn’t play well in either of the games against the Bears with 18 penalties in game 1 at Soldier Field and with quarterback Aaron Rogers not throwing with his usual accuracy in game 2, not to mention the wide receivers dropping balls all over the field.
But if the Packers somehow put together four good games in a row, they are the most dangerous team in the NFC playoffs. And their tenacious man-to-man defense along with their patience on offense with screens and the underneath passing game make them far and away the worst match up for the Bears in the NFC playoffs.
“If the Bears win the Super Bowl, would that help bring them a new stadium to Chicago? Not only is Soldier Field the smallest stadium in the league, it’s pretty bad when the home team’s players constantly gripe about how bad the playing surface is. We’re the third-largest market in the league. No way Soldier Field should be the smallest stadium in the league, especially with the rich tradition the Chicago Bears have. — Corey, Chicago”
“I have heard absolutely no talk about a new stadium in Chicago and would be shocked if I did. Mountains are moved more easily than stadiums are built in Chicago, especially on the public’s dime. By the way Corey, would you like to see your taxes go up to pay for a new stadium? I wouldn’t. And I fully expect that in my lifetime I’ll never see the Bears call another stadium home other than the one they are currently playing in.”
As a resident of the city of Chicago I can agree whole heartedly and without reservation with Pompei. I think the outside of Soldier Field is a horrible abomination but the inside is as nice as you could ask and I have no desire whatsoever to watch a game in another stadium. I certainly have no desire to pay for one. Until it was lowered slightly last July Chicago had the highest total sales tax of all major U.S. cities. I’m as big a football fan as you’ll find but as things are right now I could guarantee a tax payer revolt if anyone tried to build a new stadium here and I’d be right with them every step of the way.
‘‘[it always seems he’s on the fringe] because you guys put me on the fringe. Nobody else does. I’ve never seen myself as a roster-bubble guy. Maybe a little bit last year. But no — you guys see that. In the locker room, they don’t think I am. My coaches don’t think I am. They haven’t told me that.’’
Its nice that Davis has confidence. But if you’re not a starter, there’s always the potential that you’re going to be considered a roster bubble guy in the NFL. No one should have to tell Davis that.
Neil Hayes at the Chicago Sun-Times points out that the Bears will have 14 unrestricted free agents after the season. The top two strong side linebackers are on the list and, interestingly, Hayes puts a higher priority on signing backup Nick Roach than starter Pisa Tinoisamoa.
Elsewhere
Steve Hyde and Mark Berardino of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel talk about the Dolphins coaching situation and the embarrassing consequences resulting from the attempt of GM Jeff Ireland, owner Steven Ross, and Carl Peterson to hire Jim Harbaugh in this interesting video shot before Sparano’s contract was extended:
Hyde also writes about the apparently expanding, if unofficial, role of Carl Peterson in all of this:
The people on Steve Ross’ plane told the strange story. How Jeff Ireland was anointed a survivor over Tony Sparano is mystifing. But Carl Peterson is the really strange and disturbing figure, as I wrote in my column today. Peterson flew under the radar in this entire episode but was the loudest presence of all. He was Bill Parcells. He was the acting football czar. A guy who won nothing in running Kansas City for the final 15 years was setting the course for this franchise. Not only that but surely he was the one behind telling Bill Cowher that he had to inherit Ireland and Mike Nolan. Why would Cowher accept the job under those conditions? Peterson’s a scary presence, folks, not just for what happened this past week but for what it means for the future.
Snoop Dogg and John Legend do the Peyton dance (via ESPN.com):
“How the Saints attack the middle: There’s a good chance the Seahawks take a conservative approach to covering New Orleans in the secondary in an attempt to eliminate big plays. But that shouldn’t slow down the Saints because they’ll just lean on intermediate routes, which are the bulk of the offense anyway.
“[Saints quarterback Drew] Brees will have to be patient and settle for underneath throws to the slot receivers, tight ends — such as Jeremy Shockey — and running backs with the Seahawks playing so conservatively. But will he?
Plymouth police are investigating a 22-year-old woman’s claim that she was the victim of “inappropriate contact” by an as yet unidentified Lions player Thursday. She is lawyering up. Via Dave Birkett and Eric Lawrence at the Detroit Free Press.
“There’s a reason why the players don’t seem uptight after a turnover or other mistake and why they don’t turn on one another when they lose a close game, and it starts with the coach.
“McCarthy is not a screamer for the sake of theatrics. If practice turns sloppy, he breaks the monotone buzz of the fluorescent lights in the Don Hutson Center with angry, sharp instructions. He yells. Profanity is used just to emphasize the point. But once it’s made, McCarthy moves on, without the long, drawn-out drama.”
“I think we did play tight,” Davis said. “Guys were a little scared. They were more worried about coach Singletary getting on them than playing football.”
“You have three choices in life when looking at any situation. You can take a positive angle, a negative angle or no angle at all.
“I clearly believe in positive mind-sets. Positive needs to be the starting point. I believe in positive reinforcement. Negative reinforcement is a useful teaching tool, but it is a short-term teaching tool.
“At the end of the day, when you’re building a program, it’s all about culture. Positive culture equates growth, and that is very important to me – that everyone in our program continue to grow.”
One Final Thought
Rutgers’ Eric LeGrand discusses his recovery progress after he was paralyzed in a football game with ESPN’s Tom Rinaldi:
“I don’t even know why that is even important to anybody,” Angelo said. “I’ve heard it. … It’s no big deal. … I am very fortunate to be here, and as long as I am blessed with health, I continue to do what I love to do, and that’s being a part of football.”
I haven’t seen a transcript of the press conference so I don’t know what else was said. But that’s not a denial.
“Maybe [Angelo] was referring to his litany of personnel mistakes when he admired the team for overcoming ‘all it has been through.’
“What?
Angelo would be correct if what he meant was that not fielding a professional offensive line can be an obstacle. It also is problematic that he plopped an eternally mortal cast of receivers in Jay Cutler‘s lap.
“Did you ever dream you’d be thinking “Man, we gotta get Earl Bennett back” as you were after the Bears’ 10-3 loss in Green Bay on Sunday?”
To be fair, the column should be balanced against Dan Pompei‘s more positive article yesterday.
“A No. 2 seed is usually a solid team, a team people feel is a favorite to win everything,” said John Avello, director of race and sports book operations at the Wynn. “But that’s not the case with the Bears.
“Eleven-to-1 to win the Super Bowl for a second seed is the biggest number I can remember putting up. But once you get to this point, we’ve seen the Giants run the table, and the Steelers too.”
For what its worth, the Bears seem to have beaten the odds all season.
“In any event, the Panthers had better choose wisely [in the draft]: They have the first pick for a reason, and that reason is that they were the worst team in the league this season. Oh, and they don’t have a second-round pick because they traded what turned out to be the 33rd pick in this year’s draft to the Patriots to acquire the 89th pick in last year’s draft. They used that pick to draft Armanti Edwards, a wide receiver who played in three games and didn’t catch a single pass as a rookie.”
Florio says that Miami GM Jeff Irelandwas breaking the unwritten rule that says that you don’t interview people for head coaching jobs that are currently occupied, in this case by Tony Sparano.In fairness, Jay Galzer at FOX sports said last night on the Tony Bruno Show that Ireland has been pushing owner Stephen Ross to retain Sparano.Its more than likely that Ross, who is less likely to understand or care about such niceties, is the one who wanted to interview Stanford head coach Jim Harbaugh without firing Sparano first.
“Vince Lombardi” opens Wild Card weekend with words of encouragement for the teams involved in Saturday’s playoff games.(I wish I could have embedded this video into the page.It’s absolutely beautiful.)
“He hasn’t changed.He’s the same guy. He worked tirelessly to get back to the player he was after last year’s (wrist) injury. Adversity never got him to the point where it changed his attitude. Through everything, he just has been an incredible leader.”
Analysts Kurt Warner and Trent Greenagree that the Bears will want the Saints coming into Soldier Field rather than the Eagles (via Neil Hayes at the Chicago Sun-Times).
“’With how well [the Bears] defense is playing, the Saints coming to Chicago would be a better matchup because Michael Vick is playing at such a high level,’ former Rams quarterback and current NFL Network analyst Trent Green said. ‘I don’t necessarily believe Philly is going to beat Green Bay, but the inconsistencies have been a little surprising from New Orleans, some of which is due to injury, some of which is Drew forcing things more than he did last year. Based on that, and especially since they are a dome team and if you can dial up the right kind of weather they could have problems, I would say the Saints, even though it’s hard to say you hope the matchup is against the defending Super Bowl champs.’”
But Hayes also sees the Eagles as a good match up for the Bears:
“If there is a defense equipped to stop Michael Vick, it’s the Bears. They proved as much during a 31-26 win on Nov. 28 that wasn’t as close as the score indicated. The Bears are quick and disciplined defensively. They kept Vick in front of them and forced him to run around in cold weather on slick sod trying to throw touch passes over Brian Urlacher’s head.”
I would agree. I would also have to say that, for all of the reasons that were demonstrated Sunday, the worst individual match up for the Bears is probably the Packers. The Packers exposed many Bear weaknesses in that game. Fortunately, the Bears won’t see either them or the NFC favorite Atlanta Falcons until the NFC championship game.
Indeed, there is a decent chance that the Bears won’t see the Packers at all. The same characteristics that make the Bears vulnerable to the Packers makes the Eagles an awful match up for them. Kevin Seifert at ESPN.comexplains the reason why:
“[LeSean] McCoy has gotten his YAC on (Yards After Catch) this season. In fact, he has 724 YAC this season, the most in the NFL. His average of 9.3 YAC per reception ranks No. 9 in the NFL. Meanwhile, [DeSean] Jackson has 359 YAC and is averaging 7.6 YAC per reception.”
“The Packers will not only have to keep track of where Vick, McCoy and Jackson are before the snap. They’ll need to take special care to wrap them up when they have a chance.”
ESPN’s Trent Dilfer agrees:
The Packers can, in fact, do that and they are perfectly capable of winning this game. But, as indicated above, while the Bears cover two is specifically designed to stop the West Coast offense and limit the YAC, the aggressive man-to-man defense that the Packers specialize in is vulnerable to it.
Bottom line, it isn’t just about who the best team is or even who the best team is on a given day. Its also about the personnel and the scheme. And how things fall together in those terms after this weekend will ultimately determine the Bears fate as much as any other factor.
The cat and mouse game that the Bears special teams unit played with the Jets continued yesterday. The Packers caught the Bears with Danieal Manning moving up in anticipation of a short kick by booting it over his head. Manning eventually fielded the ball in the end zone and downed it.
“I was a little worried about his health when Cutler answered questions in full sentences, and played along with a reporter’s witty retort — even laughing at the joke, rather than the reporter — but I didn’t see any sign of real damage, mental or physical.”
ESPN.com’s Jeff Dickersonis less than optimistic about the Bears’ offensive line after the loss:
“The offensive line will never be completely fixed: It’s impossible for that to happen this year. We all knew it. But that group should get credit for picking up their play since the bye week, and they even put forth their best performance of the season last week against the New York Jets. But Sunday reminded everybody that pass protection remains a core issue — Cutler was sacked six times. To be fair, you can argue Cutler held on to the football way too long on a few of those sacks, but each tackle was cleanly beaten at one point.”
“The problem with teams moving to the 3-4 (defense) is that you often need a transition year. You could play some of it some of the time, but it’s hard to overhaul your roster overnight. The players on your roster are what they are. You can’t turn over your roster in one draft. You need some flexibility. I don’t think (former Browns GM Phil) Savage understood that when he hired Romeo (Crennel). I don’t think the Bills understood it this year. I don’t think the Redskins were ready for it. I’ve seen it more at the college level, too. Everyone is trying to mimic (Nick) Saban and more teams have moved to the 3-4, but they just don’t have the bodies to pull it off. It’s hard to find 325-330-pounders who can move.”
I’ve said many times that one weakness of the 3-4 is that so many teams are going to it. Not only is it hard to find defensive linemen, particularly nose guards, to man it but its going to be extremely hard to draft those guys with so many teams looking for the same characteristics. The Packers were very lucky to get B.J. Raji. Guys like that aren’t going to last long.
“The Falcons like to run left. I don’t know why teams have not picked up on it, but they do a great job getting defenses to flow one way and come back the other way. It’s a play they call Joker. It’s usually run from a two-back set and both backs go one way, but the tailback cuts back. (Michael) Turner runs it real well. The Chargers and Giants do the same thing.”
If both teams last long enough in the playoffs, this is the kind of play that can really cause the Bears problems. They’re a fast defense but they over react sometimes.
The Bears have a lot to learn from coming out of yesterday’s game. But perhaps nothing came out of the poor performance that was more important than what the Packers did to the Bears on the blitz. Bears quarterback Jay Cutler explains via Dan Pompei at the Chicago Tribune:
“They kept us out of sync. We didn’t change a lot from last game to this game and I think they did a really good job of taking away some of our (hot routes), keeping us off-balance with some of the hots. They were delaying some of their blitzes and bringing those guys. I think there was a stretch where (Packers cornerback Charles) Woodson came about every snap toward the end of the game.”
Many fans and media are criticizing the Bears for not running the ball more – as well they should. But the fact of the matter is that you are occasionally going to find yourself in situations where you have to pass. Good teams come through in those situations. The Bears didn’t yesterday.
The Packers did a superb job of pressuring Cutler with the blitz and, at the same time, taking away the Bears adjustments to it. They anticipated the hot routes and covered the Bears receivers tightly so that Cutler had nowhere to go and when he did, the result was little to no gain. Perhaps as important, the Packers defensive linemen all had their hands up, frequently batting the ball down as they made it difficult for Cutler to get the ball out. To top it off, the screen play worked poorly against a defense that sees a Packer offense that runs it better than anyone in practice every day.
This has been a season which has been defined by offensive improvement for the Bears. Olin Kreutzexplains how that will continue (via Mark Potash at the Chicago Sun-Times):
‘‘’It was a playoff atmosphere,’ Kreutz said. ‘They were coming after us. From the start of the third quarter, they sent everything at us. All the credit goes to them for shutting us down on offense. And we’re going to look at this film and learn.’’’
As Cutler said, the Bears didn’t change much from the last game where the Jets run a very similar type of defense. But they will certainly have to do so now if they want to make a serious playoff run.
Sean Jensen‘s game story for the Chicago Sun-Times had this interesting nugget:
But the Bears offense could only muster a field goal. They did get inside the Packers’ 5-yard line but couldn’t score the touchdown, settling for a 30-yard field goal after left tackle Frank Omiyale gave up a sack to linebacker Erik Walden.
Afterwards, Omiyale extended a hand to his befallen quarterback, but Cutler rolled and got up by himself.
It was unclear, though, if Cutler snubbed his lineman.
Either way, the Bears offense has had better days.
And they seemingly got worse throughout the game.
They certainly did. If Cutler did snub Omiyale I don’t think there’s are many fans in Chicago that would condemn him though Cutler was far from perfect himself, throwing one horrible interception in the end zone.
But the offensive line struggled badly yesterday, especially in the second half. And when you come right down to it that’s where the game is played. Many will see Cutler’s reaction and look to the poor pass protection and they’d have a point. But that wasn’t really the major problem. The major problem really developed when the Bears becomes one dimensional when they stopped running. Brad Biggs at the Chicago Tribuneexplains:
“The crowd noise had nothing to do with the play selection, though, and what’s surprising is Martz got away from what had been working well. The Bears trumpeted the fact they had been so balanced offensively, then they went pass crazy. Martz called 47 drop backs and 18 rushes despite the fact the game was never out of reach.”
The Bears came out running in the third quarter and got a reasonable start. But generally speaking the second half was a waste land of sacks and long yardage after the first possession. Once a team knows you are going to throw, they can come at your quarterback with everything they’ve got.
The pass protection wasn’t good and it needs work. But for the Bears, it wasn’t so much the pass blocking that put Cutler on his back. It was the lack of a running game that did the offensive line in when it counted.
