Bears Blitz

Published by Bryan Dietzler on October 13, 2010
Article Source: Bleacher Report - Chicago Bears

The Chicago Bears have been known for some fine offensive line units in the past.  The unit that helped them get to the Super Bowl in 1985 was made up of some of the better offensive linemen in NFL history. 

Granted, they don’t get a lot of credit for what they did (no Hall-of-Fame players in that unit as of yet) but they protected their quarterback, helped pave the way for the running game and helped that team win a Super Bowl. Twenty-five years later, here we sit with the current Bears offensive line. 

It’s an interesting group, and it’s one that has been much maligned for at least two seasons now.  Why has this unit struggled so much? 

There are several reasons why but perhaps the biggest is that the Bear’s management staff, in particular General Manager Jerry Angelo, has neglected the offensive line since he arrived in Chicago a few years ago. 

Those higher picks that Angelo has made in the draft never quite worked out for the Bears (we are still waiting to see how offensive tackle Chris Williams works out), and some of them left the Bears never to be heard from again, while others (such as Marc Colombo) went on to play with other teams and have some pretty decent success. 

In fact, the only real success that the Bears have had with their offensive linemen has come with free agent acquisitions.  Fan may remember the success that the Bears enjoyed when they brought players like Jon Tait, Ruben Brown and Fred Miller in, then ended up going to the Super Bowl in 2006.  You can clearly see that having a strong offensive line leads to success.

So can the group that that the Bears are putting on the field be helpful enough not only to help them get to a Super Bowl this season but just help them win games? 

As we have seen through five games this season, the Bears offensive line has not only played poorly but it’s been inconsistent and not coached as well as we might have thought. 

Their high point was the game in Dallas, where offensive tackle Chris Williams was injured and the coaching staff was forced to make some adjustments.  Those adjustments worked very well in that game, but the coaching staff hasn’t been able replicate that and it’s not worked that well in later games.

The culmination of the horror show known as the offensive line came in the Giants game on Sunday night.  The Bears offensive line allowed quarterback Jay Cutler to get sacked nine times, and somewhere along the way, Cutler ended up with a concussion that took him out of the Bears game against the Panther’s the next weekend. 

If you watched that game, you would have seen exactly what happened to Cutler in terms of the pass protection that he has received.  It’s nothing short of horrible.

There are some others guilty of helping the offensive line fail.  The tight ends and running backs in this system are often called upon to block, and we have seen some ineffective blocking skills at work with these two groups. 

This was evident, once again, in the game against the Giants as those players missed blocks or just stepped aside while defenders blew past them and make the sack.  Both tight ends Brandon Manumaleuna and Greg Olsen were guilty of “whiffing” on blocks and these misses lead to sacks on Cutler.

So what do the Bears have to do to get better at pass blocking?  One thing that would really help would be to have a consistent group of starters who play together week in and week out without interruption. 

Granted, this is hard to do when there are injuries, but when there aren’t any, the Bears coaching staff needs to stick with one combination of guys so that they can each learn the other’s tendencies and grow as a unit.  If this doesn’t happen, the Bears offensive line will surely suffer.

Is there anything that the Bears can do aside from starting the same group on a consistent basis?  Are there any “big name” players out there that they could go for and get? 

Right now, there aren’t any real “pleasing” free agent prospects out there that the Bears might be interested in. As far as a trade goes, that is always a possibility but with the trade deadline looming, the Bears probably won’t be in any hurry to do anything with another team.

So we are stuck with the same group of guys for the rest of the regular season it would appear.  Granted, they have been doing some shifting to see if any other combination might work (for their game against the Panthers, the Bears moved Edwin Williams to guard and J’Marcus Webb to tackle both on the right side). 

If something does end up working well for the Bears, expect them to stick with it for the rest of the season.

Since the start of the preseason, we have seen just how vulnerable the Chicago Bears offensive line can be.  They got by with what they had in the preseason, and no one was really trying to rush the passer hard. 

Then they skated through the first three games pretty easily, although Cutler did get sacked and did take some hits.  Still, the passing game managed to keep on going and help get the Bears three wins.

Then they ran into the New York Giants and their pass rush.  This really exposed the Bears and made them think about what they had to do in order to fix their problems on the offensive line and make things better not only for their quarterback, but also for their offense as a whole.

They did get better in their game against the Panthers but still have a lot of work to do.  Will they be able to keep improving as the season goes on and be ready for a likely run at the playoffs?

We will soon see.

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