Bear(ing) the News – A Chicago Bears Blog

Via Dan Wiederer at the Chicago Tribune:

“Sit down. Chill. Let it heal. Ice and stim. Take a Tylenol. Have a Coke and a smile. Just let it heal.”

Offense

1. The Bears came out trying to run Matt Forte. To my eye they had the most success when they attacked the edges of the Lions defense with him. The failure to run on first down today hurt the Bears as they seemed to always be in second and long.
2. The Lions seemed to be concentrating on stopping Forte and Alshon Jeffery because they left Brandon Marshall in single coverage. This guaranteed that they’d get burned and they did. The Bears scored quickly on the first possession.
3. The offensive line did a nice job of protecting Jay Cutler. He was getting enough time in the pocket to where the Lions started to do some blitzing in the second quarter. Kyle Long was notably better against Ndamukong Suh compared to the first match up.
4. Despite getting a lot of time for much of the game, Cutler didn’t have a good day. He looked off on his accuracy and some of his decisions were less than stellar.
5. It was obvious that Cutler hurt his left hand and the groin was bothering him by the third quarter. The offense stalled in the second half and I spent the whole period saying, “Get him out” as Cutler failed to drive the ball pass after pass.
6. Martellus Bennett looked more fluid this week than he did last week.
7. Nick Fairley is a thug.

Defense

1. The Lions came out running and the Bears obviously knew that was gong to be the plan. They concentrated a great deal on stopping Reggie Bush.
2. One of the things you notice about Corey Wooton is how quick he gets off the ball. It was understated but he had a nice day.
3. I think Charles Tillman did OK on Calvin Johnson. You aren’t going to stop him. You can only hope to contain him.
4. Cornelius Washington made an appearance. He was unremarkable. Julius Peppers also had what I would call another unremarkable day for him. Not a great day for the defensive line over all though they did start to get some pressure in the fourth quarter.
5. The third quarter was a bad one for the defense as they sprung a leak in the running game allowing Reggie Bush to make some long runs.
6. I would say that the Bears defense made fewer mental mistakes and their tackling was notably better this week. I consider that to be encouraging.

Miscellaneous

1. The Bears continue to get the best announcing teams out there for their games. I’m having a hard time remembering the last time they had anything other than the #1 or #2 announcing team. Today, I thought Kenny Albert, Daryl Johnston, and Tony Siragusa did a reasonable job. I thought Johnston made a particularly good point that the key to attacking the edges on the Lions was to do the difficult job of getting outside of the wide nine ends. There weren’t a lot of “Wow, great point!” moments and they weren’t at their best but that’s still pretty good.
2. Special teams were unremarkable. Jeremy Cain did a nice job filling in at center for Patrick Mannelly. The Bears had a big return in the first quarter. The Lions had a big one in the third. David Akers missed a critical field goal in the fourth quarter. The Bears needed an onside kick at the end of the game and didn’t get it.
3. The game was relatively clean in terms of turnovers. The Bears got an interception from Chris Conte to set up a field goal. The Lions got an interception at the end of the first half on a tipped pass that was a tough break. The Bears had sustained along drive to come away with nothing. It was that kind of day.
4. Each team had their fair share of penalties. Tillman and Suh each had a face mask. The Bears had an illegal motion on the punt team. Corey Wooton jumped offsides in the third quarter. The Bears had yet another killer holding penalty, this time on Matt Slauson, in the red zone in the fourth quarter to take away a touchdown. The Lions stupidly committed personal foul after personal foul to try to hand the Bears the game.
5. Both sides had some drops. Jeffery dropped a touchdown. The Lions had their share. Too many on each side and it was pretty much a wash.
6. This wasn’t a particularly well-played game on either side. If you’re the Lions, you can’t draft in the top fifteen year after year without acquiring a lot of talent. They’ve had more than anyone in the division for several years but continually beat themselves game after game. They’ve generally stopped doing it and what we’ve seen this year is the result. But today they gave the Bears more than their fair share of opportunities. Unfortunately the Bears rarely took advantage as they made too many mistakes. It hard to win when you’re quarterback isn’t on top of his game.

Almost a week after the incident and Dan Wiederer at the Chicago Tribune is still writing about how Bear head coach Marc Trestman went for it on fourth and inches inside the Bears 35 yard line last week.

I don’t care if it worked. Believe me, no one would be lauding the decision if running back Forte had gotten tackled in the backfield for a loss – which he nearly was. I didn’t like the call then and I still don’t like it. I’m certainly tired of hearing about it. The fact that former Bears head coach Mike Ditka thought it was the right decision only supports my feeling.

Having said that, I did think this quote was interesting:

“Eight games into his tenure, Trestman’s acumen, his boldness, his proclivity for taking calculated risks have given the Bears a three-way share of first place in the NFC North.

“Said Bears general manager Phil Emery: ‘The older I get, the more I’ve realized it’s the people who are the perceived brainiacs who use that (strength), and it’s exactly how they’ll kick your butt.

“’That’s their edge. That’s Marc’s edge.'”

It’s not surprising to anyone that athletes have to have a competitive nature to win. But the more I watch football – college and professional – the more I realize how huge the degree of it actually is. The fact that good coaches have to combine high intelligence with that almost all-consuming desire to win makes for some unique personalities. Its one of the things that makes the game more interesting.

Rich Campbell at the Chicago Tribune on the Bears situation at defensive end now that Shea McClellin has injured his hamstring:

“With converted three-technique Corey Wootton likely to remain at tackle, rookie David Bass is a leading candidate to start at left defensive end. Cheta Ozougwu could figure into the rotation if the Bears promote him from the practice squad for the game.

“Bass, a seventh-round pick of the Raiders this year who was waived at final cuts, credited defensive line coach Mike Phair and assistant Michael Sinclair for his evolution through four games with the Bears.

“‘You always can improve on your fundamentals, your technique — so my first step, my first two steps, staying low, pad level,’ Bass said. ‘Using my hands — that’s huge in this league. As a defensive lineman, you get locked up with the big offensive linemen, and it becomes a big hugging match. You can’t get rid of them.’”

Campbell has been doing a good job recently of throwing in these little comments that help fans like me learn a little more about football. In this case, you know what Bass is concentrating on in order to improve his game. Let’s see how he does Sunday.

Mark Potash at the Chicago Sun-Times gets this quote that will thrill a few Bears fans:

“Hall of Fame quarterback and ESPN analyst Steve Young cautioned Jay Cutler to make sure he’s ‘healthy enough to go all the way to January and into February for the Super Bowl’ when he returns this week.

“’With the offense that Marc Trestman has … everybody is getting up to speed. They’ve had three or four months of playing with him, they now understand it and believe in it. I think it’s enough to carry them,’ Young, who played for Trestman with the 49ers in 1995-96, said Friday on ESPN’s SportsCenter. ‘If they can firm up the defense, get healthy, this team could threaten into February. So if Jay’s going to play … Jay, make sure you’re playing because you have an eye to playing in February. And if you’re not healthy enough, please be careful.’”

I’ll believe it when I see it. A lot of good things will have to happen for that defense to be Super Bowl quality and for every guy returning form injury, you’ll have a Shea McClellin pulling hamstrings in practice.

If the defense tightens up, fixes the mental mistakes they’re making and starts tackling, they’ll have a chance at being good enough to make a decent playoff run. But if they didn’t do it last week, you have to wonder if the problems aren’t going to be chronic.

I thought this comment from Rich Campbell at the Chicago Tribune was interesting:

“During passing drills media were permitted to watch, the mechanics of [quarterback
Jay] Cutler’s right (plant) leg were noticeably different from how they were before the injury.

"On Thursday, he often brought his right foot off the ground much higher than usual when following through. Quarterbacks with significant core strength typically drag their back foot. That steadies their body, and they can afford to do so because their core muscles generate sufficient strength. [backup quarterback Josh] McCown, for example, dragged his throughout passing drills Thursday.”

Its just an off hand observation from what is probably only a very small portion of the practice. But it does make you wonder if Cutler isn’t still going to have issues with his groin. Maybe its Cutler just being extra protective of it, which would indicate that he’s still thinking about it mentally. Or maybe its more physical than that. In any case, its something to watch for this Sunday.

Defense

1. The Bears came out playing two deep zone and worked off of that all night. It was reasonably clear they decided, like most teams before them, to stop Aaron Rogers first.
2. You’d like to say that the Bears failure to stop the run all night had to do with the fact that they were playing the pass. But that’s not true. When Aaron Rogers went down, they strated throwing a safety into the box. It made no difference. Eddie Lacy still ran over them.
3. Many of the longer runs came from players being out of position. The worst offense (arguably) was when James Anderson was out of position on the James Starks touchdown in the first quarter.
4. There were also some occasional bouts of poor tackling out there.
5. I thought the defensive backs, including the much maligned safeties, played reasonably well.

Offense

1. Unlike the Bears, the Packers decided to stop the run first and make quarterback Josh McCown beat them.
2. The Bears went to lots of quick, sharp throws. That basically neutralized the Packer blitz. Between that and the usual habit of the Bears of giving the offensive linemen lots of help, the Packers had a tough time getting pressure on McCown.
3. I loved the throw to Brandon Marshall for the first Bears touchdown. McCown beat the blitz and the single coverage on Marshall to badly burn the Packers. That’s what needs to be done in those situations. Its the only way to stop the opponent from blitzing you to death.
4. I don’t mean to be too tough on him because he did make one or two nice plays out there. But Martellus Bennett looks occasionally like he’s sleep walking out there. I think the injuries from earlier in the year might still be bothering him.
5. Hard not to like the way the Bears ran out the clock in the fourth quarter. You have to do that to win. Mice work.

Miscellaneous

1. I thought Mike Tirico and Jon Gruden did their usual good job. Gruden always points out the stuff that I like to know as a fan. I have no complaints.
2. The Bears special teams just flat out got out played tonight. They had a blocked punt. They lost an onside kick. they left the team starting in poor field position all night. Really a poor job.
3. The Bears had way too many penalties, especially compared to the Packers who played very clean. Stephen Paea had a face mask. Charles Tillman had a face mask. There was a potentially damaging holding call on Bennett call in the fourth quarter that allowed Packers head coach Mike McCarthy to save a time out. Very poor.
4. Yes, and there were way too many drops. Again the Packers were relatively clean for once. But the Bears dropped them all over the field. Bennett, Forte and Marshall all had them.
5. The Bears did get a turnover in the form of a Julius Peppers interception. But the game was relatively clean and they need to generate more of them.
6. I know most Bears fans will be happy with this win. But I wasn’t. I was really disappointed. The offense looked good but there were to many drops and too many penalties. The special teams were bad. But my real disappointment was in the defense. I looked for this unit to respond with a clean, well played game. They were a unit that was playing poorly because of poor fundamentals. What I saw were continued problems with poor run fits and occasional bouts of bad tackling. The Bears won. But they won’t win many playing like this. The only people who should really be celebrating right now are in Detroit.

Mark Potash at the Chicago Sun-Times writes this mea culpa. But it could have just as easily been me writing it:

“When Jay Cutler was injured in 2011, I made a tremendous blunder in predicting that Caleb Hanie would thrive in his place. While Cutler had led the Bears to five consecutive victories, his performances were hardly off-the-charts. He was replaceable.

“I couldn’t have been more wrong. Hanie was more awful than the harshest critic could have predicted.”

“Two years later, we have another chance to measure Cutler’s value to the Bears. Short of a 158.3 passer rating, 40-plus points per game and five or more consecutive victories, there’s nothing Josh McCown can do to create a quarterback controversy when (if?) Cutler returns. But Cutler’s absence — and McCown’s impressive performance Sunday in relief against the Redskins — gives the Bears a chance to see just how badly they need their franchise quarterback.”

I never thought Cutler was “replaceable” with Hanie. And, in fact, I did express some reservations about him. But I certainly did think Hanie would do better than he did. It’s possible I’m being fooled twice here but I don’t think there’s much risk in saying that McCown will be better than Hanie was.

It’s going to be fascinating to see how McCown does against a good team with a full week to prepare for him. But either way, I agree with Potash in that I doubt anyone whose opinion counts is thinking he’ll “replace” Cutler. They might try to find someone else to do it. But it won’t be McCown, who is a temporary fill in for either Cutler or the new guy at best.

I think this question from Potash is the one I’d really like an answer to:

“And while it was overshadowed by his injury, Cutler’s performance against the Redskins was a disappointment. With nine days between games, Cutler either was rusty or ineffective. Against a defense ranked 24th in the NFL against the pass, Cutler was 3-for-8 for 28 yards and an interception returned for a touchdown for an 8.3 passer rating. The rest of the league has a composite 104.5 passer rating against the Redskins in the first half this season. Why him? Why then?”

Cutler looked an awful lot like the quarterback that collapsed against really good teams on more than one past occasion until he got hurt Sunday. I said in my Game Comments that he didn’t look like he wanted to be out there. I stand by that. It was very disturbing and the Bears can’t afford to sign a quarterback long term who is going to perform like that, even occasionally, when they need him most. Perhaps Steve Rosenbloom at the Chicago Tribune put it best:

“Now the Bears will take this week off and apparently vote whether they want to play the Packers a week from Monday. Interestingly, if you had to vote on which game Cutler should miss for any reason, it would be the Packers. Always the Packers. So, the Bears have that going for them. I mean, nobody on the Packers defense ever said something like ‘just sit there and Josh will throw you the ball.'”

Up until last Sunday, I thought the Bears would re-sign Cutler in the offseason without question. But after only a few possessions in the first and second quarter last Sunday, I’m already very much doubting that assessment. I’d really like to know what causes Cutler to occasionally go into a mental shell like that and whether head coach Marc Trestman can do anything to prevent it. If he can’t, then they need to cut Cutler loose.

Cutler is very valuable to the Bears. Which may be why they’ll eventually need to let go of him.

Mark Potash at the Chicago Sun-Times quotes Bears general manager Phil Emery and head coach Marc Trestman on the Bears response to the rash of injuries to veterans that is now plaguing the team:

“‘It really comes down to fundamentals and techniques,’ Trestman said. ‘Not an improvement in scheme. Not an improvement in structure. Just being in the right place at the right time and doing the right thing with the fundamentals that we’ve been taught.’

“‘We need to improve our assignments, our discipline and our fundamentals,’ general manager Phil Emery said. ‘If we do those things, we’ll play better defense. We’ll rush the passer better. We’ll have more stops.'”

But it’s the Chicago Tribune‘s David Haugh that puts his finger right on the most important point.

“Despite losing five starters to injuries, Trestman and Emery offered no excuses because they know injury-riddled teams such as the Packers and Patriots win anyway. But they didn’t offer compelling evidence to believe the optimism they tried selling about a team likely to start four rookies against the Packers.”

The first part of the quote is the point. One thing that former head coach Lovie Smith had right was that injuries are not an excuse. The current Bears bras seems to agree (via Rick Morrissey at the Sun-Times):

“I started to ask him the obvious question but ended up making the obvious statement: Coach, I know you said you liked your team’s attitude in the locker room, but with all due respect, you don’t have much of a team without Cutler and Briggs.

‘‘’I think we do have a team,’’ he said. ‘‘I beg to differ with you. You’re entitled to your opinion, but these things are going on throughout the National Football League. Good players are going down throughout.'”

Good teams perform in spite of injuries and there are good examples of Packers teams that have done so. These teams didn’t run out and panic and trade draft picks for immediate help and the Bears aren’t going to do it either. Consistent with that, as pointed out by Adam L. Jahns at the Sun-Times, Emery is having a hard time getting a trade lined up where there’s equal value on both sides.

“[Emery] stressed that ‘trades aren’t dependent on injury perspective.'”

“‘The most limiting factor is getting equal value,’ he said. ‘When you don’t get equal value, you can put the team in a position, short- and long-term, of not being where you want to be roster-wise.

“‘If we find one that .?.?. works to our benefit at positions of needs that I think are obvious in terms of the attrition that we’ve had, we would make that trade.'”

I’d say that the Bears are unlikely to trade draft picks unless they are getting good young talent in return and, if its good young talent, no one will be trading it.

Nevertheless, the Bears might yet find a young player with talent who has busted out with another team for a low round pick. And they might find some help in the existing free agent market. But the key to fighting through adversity is really with hard work and, perhaps most important, good coaching. As with most things in life, mediocre players with good fundamentals can go pretty far. It’s particularly true in the NFL because the mediocre players are still pretty talented.

People like Haugh who are looking for “compelling evidence” that the Bears will do what other good teams have done in the past by coaching back ups to perform at a high level aren’t going to find a lot, its true. Such things don’t show themselves until after the fact and Trestman’s coaching staff is in its first year. But I’d say that new defensive tackle Landon Cohen and defensive end David Bass already started to emerge against the Redskins. For those who are looking for more, this is the chance for the team, coaches and players, to show what it can do. The Bears seem to be embracing the opportunity (again via Morrissey):

“‘There’s a lot of reasons to be excited about coming back here next week and cleaning up the things that we can get better at,’ [Trestman] said. ‘We get the opportunity to go to Lambeau Field. We know it’s going to be for a first-place position in our [division], regardless of what happens this weekend. Our guys should be excited about that and I believe they will [be].'”

Truth be told, so will I.

Defense

1. The Redskins came out in running formations and everything was based around that.  They packed into the middle with two running backs and Robert Griffin III and ran variations in the running game with play actin pass.  The Bears responded by putting eight in the box and playing the run first.  The Redskins responded by doing a lot of passing out of the formation.  The Bears did briefly go to seven in the box late in the first quarter but the Redskins ran over them and they went back to eight.
2. The Redskins came out ready to play on offense  I’m not sure the Bears defense was as ready to play mentally.  They looked a step slow during the first drive.
3. RG III is a serious problem on the ground.  I loved the plays where the Redskins run everyone one direction, then RGII keeps the ball and goes the other running in a wide open field as the defense has to defend the run the other way.  He also passed effectively out of this play.
4. Give the Redskins credit.  They executed well on offense dominating time of possession in the first half.  They ran the ball really well.  The Bears caught them on a good day.
5. The Bears seemed to me to be blitzing pretty frequently.   This would make sense as the Redskins have had trouble agains the blitz this year.  Unfortunately it didn’t work very well this week.  RGII must have been working on it.
6. Lance Briggs had a good game, as usual.  It was a shame to see him leave with an injury.  I though Landon Cohen showed up.
7. Chris Conte definitely did not have a good game.  I’m not too sure Conte had his head in the game today.  He made costly mistakes all over the field in coverage that directly cost the Bears at least 14 points.
8. I like Jon Bostic’s aggressiveness.  I’m not sayin ghe was perfect but when he makes a play, he makes a play.  He’s all out.
9. The Bears tackling looked better to my eye today.  But they had a tough time getting the opponent off the field on third down, though.  They made Jordan Reed look like Tony Gonzalez out there.  They definitely did have some execution problems though and the Redskins took full advantage, especially in the running game.
10. Its a little tough to talk about the pass rush when RGIII spent so much time outside of the pocket.  But there wasn’t a lot of it, blitz or no blitz.  RGIII looked mighty comfortable out there for most of the game.

Offense

1. The Redskins came out and crowded the line a bit.  It looked like maybe they were trying to play aggressive and confuse the Bears to keep them off balance.
2. Quarterback Jay Cutler’s plan was simple.  Put Brandon Marshall in single coverage with Brandon Marshall against DeAngelo Hall, he’s throwing to Marshall.  Hall got the better of the matchup in the first half.
3. Cutler was definitely off in the first half passing-wise.  He was pretty inconsistent with his accuracy and he definitely never looked comfortable.  Sometimes Cutler has this look about him that gives you the distinct impression that that he doesn’t really want to be out there.  For the first time this year, he had it.
4. Josh McCown initially looked totally lost upon taking over for Cutler.  It was a bad sign.  McCown did OK getting outside the pocket but apparently the targets to throw to weren’t there.  You don’t want Josh McCown accounting for a significant portion of your running game on scrambles and broken plays.
5. On a related note, what a disappointing game from Alshon Jeffery who was pretty much wandering around aimlessly out there in the first half into the third quarter.  No sharp routes.  Really no good timing in the passing game from him or anyone else on the offense for long periods of the game.  In fairness, Jeffery and the rest of the passing offense did wake up late in the third quarter.
6. On the other hand the end around to Jeffery continues to pick up yardage.
7. Thank goodness for Matt Forte who apparently came to play.  It was nice to see Earl Bennett come alive.
8. For all of the talk about the size advantage that Martellus Bennett had on linebacker London Fletcher, the Bears sure failed to take advantage of it.

Miscellaneous

1. Once again the Bears drew a pretty good broadcast crew today.  Tony Siragusa, Kenny Albert, Daryl Johnston did their usual nice job.  I loved the way that Johnston broke down the Devin Hester touchdown return, showing how the Bears set up their blockers for the return to the right, eventually forming picket fence down which Hester waltzed.
2. Special teams for the Bears were up and down.  Most importantly, they came through with a well blocked touchdown for Hester.  Coverage teams did reasonably well.  Adam Podlesh had a good day.  The offense saw good field position all day as the Redskins kicked short to keep the ball away from Hester.  The Dvin Hester pass on the last kickoff return was amusing.  On the other hand, the Bears sure could have used that missed 34 yard field goal from Robbie Gould in the third quarter.  Hester seemed to be dancing around an awful lot on one or two of his other returns where He probably should have simply headed straight up the field.
3. Charles Tillman got an interception.
4. There were some costly Bears penalties.  There was a holding call on a punt in the first quarter that moved the Bears from the redskins 30 to the 40.  Landen Cohen had an illegal hands to the face that gave the Redskins a first down.  There was a defensive holding as the clock wound down in the fourth quarter.  And, of course, there was the crushing offside penalty on Eric Weems on what should have been a Bears recovery on an offside kick.  And a stupid illegal formation penalty took away a touchdown pass.  Pretty sloppy.  The Bears just can’t afford to do this stuff.  For the Redskins, Brandon Meriweather was a personal foul machine.  I’m thinking he might be on his way to a well-deserved  suspension.
5. Alshon Jeffery had a bobble that was eventually returned for a pick six.  Brandon Marshall had a bad drop in the second half.  The Redskins also had their share of trouble with a few of RGIII’s passes which were occasionally behind the receiver.
6. You could tell that the Redskins really needed this game and I thought they played today with an attitude.  The Bears definitely did not.  They came out totally flat after getting a 10 day break.  They were a step slow all over the field and Cutler wasn’t the only one who didn’t exactly look like he wanted to be out there.  They are now heading into their bye week which means an even longer period of time off.  Here’s hoping they come back more ready to play after two weeks off than they did today.