NFL: The Chicago Bears Lost to 3 Very Good Teams
Published by Jake Perper on October 13, 2011
Article Source: Bleacher Report - Chicago Bears
Blame quarterback Jay Cutler, the wide receivers and the Roberto Garza-led offensive line if you want, but it starts with coaching.
It also starts with the front office and general manager Jerry Angelo, who didn’t do much to help his team out this offseason.
Angelo claims the Bears did the best they could to upgrade this offensive line, but letting go of Olin Kreutz seems even dumber now.
The additions at wide receiver (Roy Williams and Sam Hurd) were supposed to make the unit much improved, but that hasn’t appeared to be the case so far.
Trading tight end Greg Olsen for a third-round pick, doesn’t look like the best move right now either. Kellen Davis, the starting tight end for the Bears was said to be a better blocker, but he hasn’t showed that this season.
Letting Danieal Manning walk in free agency could have been a mistake as well. Chris Harris, Brandon Meriweather, Major Wright, Craig Steltz and Chris Conte have all been used at safety through five games this season.
The Bears didn’t do anything to upgrade their team on offense except at right tackle with Gabe Carimi. Unfortunately he has been out with a knee injury. RB Marion Barber has been a nice addition, but hasn’t made a tremendous impact just yet.
As bad as the Bears offensive line played in Monday night’s 24-13 loss to Detroit, Jay Cutler and Matt Forte both had a lot of success.
Cutler completed 28 of 38 passes for 249 yards and one touchdown. Matt Forte carried the ball 22 times for 116 yards and caught three passes for 35 yards.
With a record of 2-3, the Bears’ three losses have come to NFC teams, two in the NFC North. The three losses came against the Saints (4-1), Packers (5-0), Lions (5-0).
14-1 is the record between those three teams, so its been a tough stretch for the Bears so far this season.
You can continue to say the Bears are a bad team, but they still have a shot at the playoffs despite the losses they’ve suffered this season. Six of the last 11 games remaining on the Bears schedule are against teams with losing records.
The six teams fighting with the Bears for an NFC playoff spot are: WAS (3-1), NYG (3-2), TB (3-2), DAL (2-2), ATL (2-3) and SEA (2-3). The Bears own the head-to-head with the Falcons and will take on the Bucs and Seahawks later in the season.
Don’t give up on these Bears just yet. Its very easy to give up on them now, considering their leading receivers last game were their No. 5 (Sam Hurd) and No. 6 receivers (Dane Sanzenbacher).
Bright spots are hard to ignore. Jay Cutler and Matt Forte’s efforts on Monday night seem wasted now, but it only shows how good this offense can really be.
Mike Martz needs to change the playcalling. He needs to protect Jay Cutler better with perhaps more personnel. He needs to help Cutler out, so why not call plays that get the ball out of Cutler’s hands faster.
Martz needs to realize this offensive line is not very good. It’s time to call on players that help Cutler out because Cutler is starting to lose some confidence in the unit.
Right tackle Frank Omiyale is a nice guy, but he shouldn’t be in the NFL. He consistently gets beat. Lance Louis should slide over to right tackle if Gabe Carimi can’t go and Chris Spencer should be at right guard.
Last year’s seventh-round pick J’Marcus Webb was called for way too many false starts on Monday night. The Bears wound up with 14 penalties total.
More penalties than points is pathetic. The team needs to be more disciplined on both sides of the ball on Sunday night.
Defensive woes:
Safety Chris Harris didn’t seem to be at 100 percent on Monday night, consistently being out of position.
He was beaten over the top on the 73 yard touchdown pass to Calvin Johnson, was too far in the end zone on Brandon Pettigrew’s touchdown catch and was nowhere to be found on Jahvid Best’s 88 yard run.
At halftime the Bears led 10-7 and seemed to be in control. But the defense came out soft.
They weren’t flying around like they usually do. They were out of their gaps too often and weren’t getting any pass rush on Matthew Stafford.
Brian Urlacher needs to find a way to get this unit going because he was furious after the game. He has every right to be upset, but honestly he might want to look in the mirror.
Urlacher might not be able to cover the field in the cover-two defense like he used to. Changes need to be made to help him out.
How to fix this team?
It’s time for the Bears to make changes on both sides of the ball. The play calling needs to be altered. The run game is working, but Martz needs to help Cutler out by calling more quick passes.
The defense needs to be more sound. They’ve been allowing way to many big plays and that’s very uncharacteristic of them. They could just be over the hill—a lot of the players on this unit are over 30 years old.
Last week I thought they would be much improve on defense, but they keep making the same mistakes.
The Bears thrive off of good defense, so expect a little different game plan since Vikings RB Adrian Peterson is coming to town on Sunday night.
Sunday night is a must win for the Bears. That’s obvious. But the future for the Bears could be figured out as well come game time.
Lovie Smith and Jerry Angelo’s jobs are in jeopardy if the Bears unravel in the latter parts of the season.
Jake Perper is the owner and head writer for Bearsbacker.com. He is also the Chicago Bears writer for NFLTouchdown.com. Follow him on Twitter, @Bearsbacker for up to the minute news about the Bears.
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