blog home

Sunday’s Bears game was one of the worst Bears Packers games in recent history. For Bears fans that is. I guess we know how they felt last year when we demolished them late in the year at Soldier field.

The Bears DO have a chance to get their D back on track, and lift their confidence for a second half of the season run though. They play the Rams, the Vikes, and the Jags over the next 3 weeks.

Let’s hope they can rebound and forget this one.

Normally I would have a list of keys to beating the Packers. Not this time. This time there is only 1 key. Thats right, just 1.

Adjust.

We have been horrible all year at making adjustments. Really only on defense. We have said it time and time again, but Ron Turner with Neckbeard at QB looks like a different offensive coordinator. We kind understand why now. Orton is the better QB. Enough about that, back to adjust. We fail to make adjustments on defense, and this is how: When teams run slants on us and quick 3 step drops, we continue to crowd the line with our linebackers, then drop 2 of them back, and blitz 1. We continue to play off of the receivers way to far allowing mediocre QBs to have career days on us by throwing quickly to open men who are running slats, quick outs, etc. We continue to only blitz with safeties and corners only a couple times a game.

So how do we need to adjust?

1. We need to let Brian Urlacher be Brian Urlacher again. Let him sit back in the cover to, read the play, and react. He is best when he can see whats going on and make a play on it. He is not the same player when he has to crowd the line every time, then retreat 10-15 yards and get there too late to make a play on a pass.

2. Play more bump and run coverage with our corners. We have not gotten very good pressure with the front 4 this year. At first glance it looks like they are not doing well, and this is partially true. However, this is also because quarterbacks are throwing so quickly that they don’t even have time to get pressure on him. If we bump the receivers, this gives our linemen a second or two more to get pressure on the QB.

3. Blitz more with corners and safeties, and less with the linebackers. Teams are seeing that it is mainly our linebackers that are blitzing, and they are doing well against this. If we blitz more with corners and safeties, then we bring pressure from the outside, and this has proven to work. Do it more, and force the offense to adjust. They will have to adjust by trying to run the ball more, take double teams away from Tommie Harris, and force them to try to block the blitzing corners. On third and long, bring the house. Bring A couple of linebackers, and a corner. They will have to make quick decisions to throw and not be able to sit back there and wait until their receiver has run a long route then eat a sandwich, take a nap, and finally throw to a wide open receiver.

If we make adjustments like these, our defense will get back to looking like they did in years past. If they don’t, look for more of the same. Stopping the run, but allowing QBs to drop record numbers on us.
Let’s hope they make some of these adjustments when they play the Pack.

GO BEARS!!!

- D. Nate

Finally the Bears let you embed their “propaganda, bore-you-to-death” videos. Here is Kyle Orton talking about his injury.

The Chicago Bears team that I saw versus the Minnesota Vikings, and the team that I have recently seen, is not the Chicago Bears that I have known in my time. The Bears that I know have staggering, dominant defense, with a killer defensive line, and a knack for making big time plays in big time situations. Their achilles heal is when they come up against a good defensive team that forces the Bears defense to stay on the field for a large part of the game. The Bears I know struggle in the passing game, but run the ball with little imagination to grind out 17 or so points a game with emphasis on no turnovers that put the defense in tough situations.

Does this strike a chord with anyone else? The Bears that are starting to emerge recently are a team that has a less than average running attack, and a defense that struggles to come up with stops, even in very seemingly manageable situations.

However, they are starting to be a team that is very confident(and with good reason) in the passing game, putting up 300+ passing yards with apparent ease, and having the ability to put up 35 points a game. Their quarterback play has been more than consistent, it has been the stalwart of the team, and they are getting it done with patchwork offensive line and receiving corps help. I don’t know what to think when I see these new Bears, but I gotta say, I like what I see.

Why? You may ask. Well, the reason is that this organization has always struggled to find personnel offensively, ESPECIALLY at the quarterback position. Defensively, I have faith that they can get things turned around. I know there are still question marks, but the answers that are starting to form are ones that I think will produce for even as long as years to come.

Bearsaddict

It seem that the Bears have a clear advantage against defenses when they run the double tight end formation with Olson and Clark:

“When throwing with two tight ends on the field, Orton is 29-for-44 for 371 yards with four touchdowns and one interception. His passer rating is 113 and he’s averaging 8.4 yards per attempt, both well above his overall numbers.”
- That from a Chicago Sun Times article by Brad Biggs.

In fact, I did some more research and found out that combined Olson and Clark have 39 receptions between the two of them. There is only 1 team that has more receptions from the TE position - Dallas. Jason Witten has 45 receptions by himself (that is pretty sick). The closest team behind the Bears is New Orleans who has Jeremy Shockey and Billy Miller. They pass almost every down and the Bears still have more production from the TE position.

Look for the Bears to use more of the 2 TE formation, and look for them to continue to dominate teams with their TEs. The number of receptions between Olson and Clark has increased steadily throughout the year. Here are the numbers:

Bears vs. Colts: TEs - 4rec (Olson 2, Clark 2)
Bears vs Carol: TEs - 4rec (Olson 2, Clark 2)
Bears vs Bucs: TEs - 4rec (Olson 2, Clark 2)
Bears vs Eagles:TEs - 5rec (Olson 4, Clark 1)
Bears vs Lions: TEs - 5rec (Olson 3, Clark 2)
Bears vs Falcons:TEs - 8rec(Olson 3, Clark 5)
Bears vs Vikes: TEs - 9rec (Olson 6, Clark 3)

This means the Bears are using this a little bit more each game, and Orton is getting more and more comfortable throwing to them. It is great to see him get comfortable with our TE weapons. Olson’s size speed combo, and Clark’s size provide difficult match-ups for linebackers and DBs who try to cover them.

What would be really interesting is to see how Kellen Davis would fair out there. My feeling is that the Bears don’t really need him right now based on the production they continue to get from Clark, along with Clark’s ability to block well. He will be a great weapon in the future though.

- Decatur Nate

The Chicago Bears won against the Minnesota Vikings Sunday at Soldier field mostly throwing the ball.

It wasn’t with their stifling D, it wasn’t through their battering running game either. In fact neither of those parts of the Chicago Bears showed up. Instead it was on the arm of Neckbeard himself Kyle Orton.

Orton threw for 283 yards, and completed 65% of his passes. He also threw for 2 TDs and had a 112 passer rating. All against one of the best defenses in the league.

Orton continues to look better for Chicago and he is doing it with enthusiasm. It seems that Ron Turner is opening up the playbook with Orton like he never did with Rex, or Griese. He is more creative and he trusts Orton to put the game on his shoulders. In fact the “Get off the bus running” Bears threw almost 63% of the time against Minnesota and won the game because they were aggressive and not because they played typical ball control offense.

They knew that with their secondary decimated and with Minnesota strong in stopping the run, they were going to have to trust Neckbeard, and they did.

One of the best things to see out of Orton is the consistency he is playing with. He is starting to put together full games of good play, and when he does have a bad half, he at least plays one good half. He is starting to make Chicago have a glimmer of hope that they might have a decent QB.

- Decatur Nate

Some interesting things to note here that we talked about in our podcast previewing the game.

1. Roddy White has 26 receptions. The Falcon with the next highest receptions is Jarious Norwood with 11 and he is a running back. The next receiver with the most receptions is Michael Jenkins with 9. That means Matt Ryan rarely looks anywhere but to his #1 target. If there was a good game to rest Nate Vasher it would be this game because of Ryan’s inability to look more than 1 place.

2. The Falcon’s have the #2 rushing attack in the NFL. The Bears have the #4 rush defense in the league. This is a good match-up for the Bears D. In the Falcons 2 losses Michael Turner has been held to 56 yards(Carolina) and 42 yards (Tampa Bay). Michael Turner can be stopped and when he is, the Falcon’s struggle.

3. The Bears have a more balanced attack than the Falcons with the emergence of Matt Forte. The Bears have had 1 aspect of their game shut down in games and the other aspect has come through, so it is not like the Falcons where if you shut down Michael Turner they are very limited on offense. The Bears are 12th in the league in passing and 9th in rushing.

Additional note: the Bears put together 2 wins in a row. They didn’t do that until the final 2 games of the year last year (when Kyle Orton was the quarterback).

I think the Bears come out on top in this one 24 -10.

- Decatur Nate

Marty Booker made one of the all time amazing catches in Bears football. It wasn’t so much an important catch (especially considering we would have the ball on the 2 anyway because of a pass interference call), but it was one of the best looking catches. The athleticism it took is undeniable, but as Marty Booker said, it was about 80% luck. I don’t care who you are, to make that catch you need a lot more than luck.

Props MB.

The Bears looked great against the Lions. They didn’t make some of the mistakes that have plagued them last year, and in their 2 losses earlier this year.

These are my thought on the Chicago Bears as I have seen them under Lovie Smith. I like Lovie as a coach, but I think that he needs to work harder at reducing the Bears mistakes. Chicago commits a lot of penalties, and a lot of turnovers. When we lose, it is generally not because a team outright beats us, it is because we beat ourselves.

Over the last 3 years you can only point to three games where the Bears were beaten soundly by an opponent, and they didn’t make mistakes to beat themselves. Let’s start with 2006 the Super Bowl season. They were soundly beaten 31 - 13 by the Miami Dolphins in week 9. They then were beaten by the Packers 26 - 7 the last game of the year. This was were we sat most of our starters later in the game because we didn’t need to win. The only other games that we lost that year were to the New England 17-13, and the Super Bowl where we lost to the Colts 29-17, both where we obviously shot ourselves in the foot with costly turnovers and useless penalties.

2007 - the Bears lost a lot more, but again it was by fourth quarter collapse and unnecessary mistakes. The only game we lost by getting beat by a better team was against the Cowboys in week 3, 34 - 10. There was only one other game that we lost by double digits, and that was by 11 to San Diego in week 1, 14 -3.

This year we have lost 2 games by a total of 4 points and both have been lost in the forth quarter by blowing a double digit lead.

If Kyle Orton can reduce his mistakes, which he has looked like he can do, I think we have a good chance of being a very solid team this year, and years to come. Let’s go to Atlanta next week and play mistake free football. If we do, we will give them another “Daddy beat down”.

- Decatur Nate

The ONE thing you don’t want to do when playing an underdog is to say things like “We aren’t taking this team for granted.” Or “We know what this team is capable of, it doesn’t matter what their record is.” That is pretty much guaranteeing that you WILL take the team for granted. See USC vs Oregon State on August 25th. Pete Carroll assured everyone his team would be ready for Oregon State and we all know how that turned out (good for those of us who can’t stand USC).

The Bears do have one major thing working in their favor. They were demoralized last year when they played the Lions, and the Lions somehow managed to score 34 points (an NFL record 34 points) in the 4th quarter. This should stand as motivation for the Bears to not let this one get away from them and do what they have been trying to do (and did against Philly) all season… Finish. Lovie preached this all season in 2006 when the Bears went to the Super bowl, and it is why the Bears didn’t make the playoffs last year. They blew more 4th quarter leads than Patrick Ewing (link not relevant just awesome) missed clutch shots (as fans of all things Chicago we are all grateful for those).

Now if the Bears can limit the amount of times they say they are not taking the Lions for granted (the sure way to take a team for granted) and focus more on the way the Lions abused them in the fourth quarter, they should be ok.

Quick note: The players who led the team in passing, rushing, and receiving (the second game Greg Olson led) for the Bears in both games against the Lions last year are all playing in different cities this year. Brian Griese - Tampa Bay, Cedric Benson - Cincinnati, and Bernard Berrian - Minneapolis.

- Decatur Nate