Chicago Bears: Revisiting Week 1 for Matt Forte, Chris Conte and Lance Briggs
Published by Bear Heiser on September 10, 2014
Article Source: Bleacher Report - Chicago Bears
As Jay Cutler says, “It’s only one game.”
Few people actually thought the Chicago Bears would lose to the Buffalo Bills in Week 1. Of the nine experts included in the piece that can be found here, all nine sided with the Bears.
The offense looked the same, and the defense looked the same. Both buckled when it mattered most, starting with Cutler and the offense.
As bad as things got last season, we all grew accustomed to seeing just how bad Mel Tucker’s defense was week in and week out. But when the unit only gives up 23 points despite allowing 197 yards to the Bills rushing attack, you usually expect to win.
The offense is what kept the Bears out of the win column. Marc Trestman’s team couldn’t capitalize when the game was on the line.
It definitely was unexpected, even if it’s “only one game.”
Now that a few days have passed and our heads have cleared, let’s revisit some of the performances that deserve revisiting before the Bears move on to the San Francisco 49ers.
The running back has been a fixture of the Bears offense since he came to the league in 2008. Now in his seventh season, Forte has reached 900-plus rushing yards in every season but this current one. He’s the real deal. The Bears’ X-factor.
Forte played like a Swiss Army Knife against the Bills, rushing for 82 yards on 17 carries with another 87 yards on eight catches.
The Tulane product had the most success running behind right guard Kyle Long, gaining 50 yards on eight carries, for an average of 6.25 yards per carry. Expect that trend to continue now, too, with center Roberto Garza and left guard Matt Slauson both due to miss time after suffering high-ankle sprains in Week 1. Brian de la Puenta and Michael Ola were called upon once the two starters went down; they both performed admirably.
Forte’s 25 touches accounted for 34 percent of the Bears’ 74 total plays.
While that stat isn’t exactly a surprise, the Bears’ use of Forte definitely is something we should watch in the coming weeks. Trestman doesn’t have another back he can go to if Forte were to go down.
Ka’Deem Carey still is way too raw to understand the nuance of playing the running back position in the NFL. He’s got quickness and he runs with a punch, that’s for sure, but it’s not enough. During the preseason, Carey struggled to get through the hole unscathed. He didn’t show good field vision. His 2.7 yards-per-carry average ranked near the bottom of the league during the preseason, according to Pro Football Focus; who also had Carey rated as the 168th best back out of 190th, based on preseason statistics (subscription required).
Trestman and Co. don’t appear to trust him as a result, which is why Forte will continue to live on the field.
Chris Conte
Conte needs someone in his corner arguing on his behalf. So let’s take an opportunity to do that right here, right now.
For starters, Conte is the best safety on the Bears’ roster. In that very same breath, Pro Football Focus ranked 86 safeties in 2013, Conte was all the way down the list, coming in at No. 82.
Conte is not the problem, though. He’s just one part of it. Plays like what you see below cannot happen anymore. It’s like deja vu from 2013. Make it stop.
Bears defenders cannot continue to make mistakes that leave Conte hanging out to dry. Very few defenders can make head-on, open-field tackles, against a runner who has a burst of steam.
The moral of the story is this: He might be one of the worst in the league, but he’s the best the roster has to offer.
So can we all just give him a break for now? If he’s still struggling if and when the rest of the defense comes around, then feel free to resume crushing him.
Oh, Lance. Hopefully his performance at the grand opening of the “Double Nickel” went better than his opening performance against the Bills.
Briggs looked bigger, fatter and slower Sunday. OK, maybe that’s taking to a touch too far. Just a touch, though. The three-time All-Pro linebacker recorded only three tackles, when the Bills ran 33 run plays and threw six passes to running backs. That’s a total of 39 opportunities for Briggs to have made an impact. Linebackers like Briggs make their bread and butter in the middle of the field.
On the above play (previous section), Briggs was one of the main reasons Fred Jackson got to Conte’s level. Briggs overshot the gap, clear as day. What makes it worse is that Briggs now is pointing the finger at others.
Since returning from injury late last season, Briggs has, at times, looked immovable at linebacker. Not in any sort of good way, either. His movements to the ball have slowed; his ability to tackle seemingly has disappeared. Only two players had more missed tackles in 2013 than Briggs, according to Pro Football Focus.
The eye test, the math test or whichever test you’d like to use will tell you that Briggs is a shell of what he once was.
General manager Phil Emery should put the linebacker position near the top of his needs list.
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