Chicago Bears: The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly
As Bears fans around the country wake up this morning, most have a feeling of dread about the season in their stomachs. While those feelings are definitely warranted after last night’s catastrophe, there were some good things that happened as well. Going down in a game against a divisional rival like the Packers hurts, but we have to look deeper than the win-loss column (and the horrific low-lights) to get a grip on the real stories for the Bears this week.
The Good
Can we talk about Rod Marinelli and that defensive line for a minute? Was anyone else having flashbacks to that great Bears defense of 2006? Ogunleye was flying around, Brown looked great, Anderson was stopping the run (the last two years he’s been a “pass-rusher” who couldn’t get to the quarterback), and Tommie Harris looked reborn. That safety was a moment of pure euphoria. We’ve all been reading about how hard Marinelli has been pushing these guys all camp and preseason, but it really showed here.
Also, the secondary didn’t look bad, besides the one terrible play at the end of the game. Afalava looked good for a rookie, and even Tillman and Vasher seemed to have the receivers locked down. I mean, those quick slants are almost always going to succeed against a Cover 2, but overall the CBs were on top of things. And I just want to say one more thing about the secondary: Why isn’t Danieal Manning starting?
The Bad
That first half game plan was a joke, right? Why did the Bears throw the ball so much? All Lovie talks about is how the Bears are a running team. Run the goddamn ball! In the 2nd half they got it going a little bit, but why wait? It’s generally a bad idea to try to “establish the run” halfway through the 3rd quarter of a game you are trailing 10-2. In other offensive news (double meaning), the offense looked like complete shit for 75% of the game. I’ll get to Cutler himself in “The Ugly” section, but lets look at the wide receivers. Devin Hester was a stud, no doubt about it, but where was everyone’s head? The timing was way off. Guys were breaking off routes too early, or cutting in the wrong direction. It is clear that Jay Cutler, the wide receivers, and Ron Turner were not on the same page. They need to get that chemistry going soon or we will see Jay forcing passes into his subpar security blanket Earl Bennett all season long.
Vasher got smoked on that last play. I mean smoked. It’s really too bad since him and Tillman looked pretty good the rest of the game. Hopefully that play was the exception and not the rule.
The Ugly
Jay Cutler. Wow. So all I could think about the last 12 hours is: “Am I going to try to defend him and be positive, or 
turn on him as I’m sure many fans and MSM are doing.” A little bit of both is in order. Let’s get this out of the way now. He looked really really bad. Worse than bad, horrible. In fact, the Bears are lucky he only had 4 interceptions, because he got away with a lot more bad passes than that. The line, the wide receivers, and the play calling are all factors, but Jay has to own this one. While he did try to force the ball in to some tight spots, what really seemed to be the problem is that he didn’t have a sense of where his guys were on the field. Were they out of position? Was he still a bit unfamiliar with the playbook? Or was everyone just a bit out of sync? Whatever it is, it needs to be figured out and figured out quickly. On the bright side, he can throw the long ball on a tight spiral into the exact right spot for his wide receivers to catch it on the run. It’s been a few decades since we could say that. And at least he doesn’t have to deal with Polamalu this week (injured in the Thursday night game).
I’m never quite ready for football when it comes to injuries. I know having a bunch of people get hurt during one game is normal, but it always catches me by surprise. Tinoisamoa, McBride, Clark, and of course Urlacher with the wrist injury. We won’t really know how serious they all are until Wednesday, but its still a bit jarring to hear we might lose our middle linebacker for the season. Especially when all we’ve heard this offseason is about how Urlacher is finally healthy again.
Please lay off Patrick Mannelly. Although the direct snap to Garrett Wolfe on 4th and 11 was an unfortunate mistake, Mannelly is a Pro Bowler and a consummate professional. He called the play he was required to call when he sees 12 men on the field. I’ll leave you with his explanation of what went wrong:
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