Bears-Bills: Pre-season Recap
Published by Nick Shepkowski on August 16, 2009
Article Source: Bleacher Report - Chicago Bears
It wasn’t the prettiest quarter any of us have ever seen, but we have finally seen Jay Cutler take a snap as a member of the Chicago Bears on an actual game field.
His numbers were far from great, as he went 5-of-10 for 64 yards and one interception. The pick was ugly as Cutler threw off his back foot on a pass headed towards Devin Hester, who happened to be double-covered.
The two Cutler highlights of the night occurred on passes to Hester and Desmond Clark. Cutler had a Hester 20-yard stop route timed perfectly and hit Hester with a pass in the chest right between the 2 and the 3 on his jersey, spot-on toss.
Its obvious to me that Devin Hester doesn’t quite have this receiver thing down the way Bears fans would like him to have it down just yet.
Other thoughts to note:
Nathan Vasher, man I have liked him for years as a Chicago Bear but that’s a something right there, a something in a bad way.
Multiple times he was burned and out of position, I really hope whatever is wrong there gets fixed quickly because the secondary needs all the help it can get, especially from one of its highest paid veterans.
Ron Turner is said to be in love with Garrett Wolfe, it sounds more and more like Wolfe is safe to be a Bear this regular season while the same can’t be said for Adrian Peterson.
Peterson picked up 27 yards on seven carries tonight, I honestly feel he would help the Bears in more situations in 2009 than Garrett Wolfe will, I doubt we will get to see this claim come true.
I liked what I saw from Al Afalava this evening at the free safety position. For the most part he kept himself in position to make a play and showed the necessary speed to compete at the NFL level. Time will tell if he will hold up but I thought he had a solid debut for the Bears.
Johnny Knox is quick as hell, his kick return tonight further proved that. If Manning and Hester are to be worn out from playing the majority of downs on defense and offense respectably, Knox has as much of a case as anyone at this point to fill the void.
Finally, I was sad to see the Bears face the Bills without Terrell Owens. I was really hoping to see these defensive backs against an elite receiver, not just Lee Evans.
It wasn’t a miserable showing by any means and you can’t take a whole heck of a lot from preseason like many think you can but the good news is the Bears escaped western New York healthy and can now prepare for the New York Giants, who come in next Saturday.
