Bears Blitz

Published by Bryan Dietzler on November 8, 2010
Article Source: Bleacher Report - Chicago Bears

The Chicago Bears, coming into their game against the Bills with a 4-3 record and one game behind the Green Bay Packers for the lead in the NFC North, traveled to Toronto to take on the Buffalo Bills, a team that hadn’t won a game yet this season.

The Bears ended up winning 22-19 in what was a pretty close game that was not really dominated by any one team.

Despite the fact the Bills struggled to keep teams from running the ball on their defense game-in and game-out, the Bears really didn’t test the Buffalo rush defense. Had they done that, the Bears may have been able to win this game by a much larger margin than they did.

Overall, the offense and the defense played pretty well, and the Bears have set themselves up well for their game next week against the Vikings.

Let’s take a look at the Bears big victory in this in-depth recap of the Bears game this Sunday.

Scoring Summary

The Bears scored first in the second quarter after tight end Greg Olsen caught a four-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Jay Cutler to put the Bears up 7-0.  The Bills would tie things up a little later on as wide receiver Roscoe Parrish snagged a 14-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick.

The score at halftime was a 7-7 tie.

In the third quarter, the Bears climbed back ahead of the Bills after running back Chester Taylor rushed one yard into the end zone to put the Bears up 14-7.  Buffalo would answer with a four-yard touchdown run by running back Fred Jackson, but the kick was blocked by defensive end Israel Idonije, so the score was 14-13.

In the fourth quarter, Buffalo would sneak ahead, 19-14, after running back Corey McIntyre ran into the end zone from one yard out (the two point conversion failed).  The Bears wouldn’t go down easily, however, and the final score of the game came when Cutler tossed a two-yard pass to wide receiver Earl Bennett (the two point conversion on a Cutler shovel pass to Matt Forte was good), and the Bears led 22-19.

That would be the score at the close of the game.

Stud of the Game

There were a few players that performed well in this game, but Cutler had the better game of anyone in this one.

He did have one fumble, but overall, his performance was strong; he kept the mistakes to a minimum and managed to make good decisions throughout the game.  He’s getting better and much more acclimated to the Bears offense, so perhaps with this experience, he will perform better in the future.

Dud of the Game

The Bears secondary took a little bit of a beating against the Bills passing game this Sunday to the tune of almost 300 yards and one passing touchdown.

Some of the problems that the Bears had defending the pass came due to a little bit of a struggle with the pass rushing game, but Buffalo was able to see some of the opportunities that were out there for their quarterback as a result of some missteps by the secondary.

The Bears will have to get better on that part of the defense.

Analysis

A win is a win, but this one doesn’t seem as satisfying as some of the other wins that the Bears have had this season.  The Bills were winless and the Bears should have been able to beat a winless team by a much bigger margin than they did in this game.

It’s too bad that it had to come down to the end of the game for us to know who the winner would be.

There were some good things that happened to the Bears in this game.  For one, their passing game looked much better than it had in the past few games, and the offensive line helped minimize the pressure against Cutler, keeping him upright.  They didn’t help out as well in the running game as many had thought they would, but they did look much better in pass protection.

Cutler also refrained from making a lot of mistakes in this game.  He only had one fumble lost and no interceptions, and when the play broke down and no one was open, Cutler would take off running instead of trying to force something to happen.

Altogether, Cutler rushed five times for 39 yards, helping the Bears move the ball down the field efficiently and effectively.

Running back Matt Forte had 49 yards on the day and ran the ball well, as did Chester Taylor (he had 13 yards and one touchdown).  The Bears may have been able to run the ball even better had they committed to it more and this game might not have been as close as it had been.

Chicago should be somewhat concerned about their pass defense in this game after allowing 300 yards and some critical completions at crucial times, and both the pass rush and the secondary are to blame for some of this.

Players in the secondary were out of position and failed to make plays at times when they had the opportunity, so the coaching staff had better start looking into this and getting it fixed.

Is there a chance that we may see this simplified offense continue as the season goes on?  There is an excellent chance of that, as the coaching staff has seen what will work, and perhaps they will stick with what works and what helps this team win games.  We will see.

Next Up

Chicago will host the Minnesota Vikings at Soldier Field next Sunday at noon.  Stay tuned for a full preview of this game coming up at the end of the week.

Read more Chicago Bears news on BleacherReport.com