Thread: A Solution to Poor Pass Protection.............

Chicago Bears O-line under scrutiny vs. Giants



By TOM CANAVAN, AP Sports Writer
August 21, 2011


EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. (AP) The Chicago Bears' offensive line couldn't protect Jay Cutler against the New York Giants last season, and there are doubts whether this time will be any better.

Forgotten last year? Well, in another nationally televised game, the Giants registered nine first-half sacks and sent Cutler to the sideline early with a concussion in a 17-3 win that handed the Bears their first loss of the season.

The teams will meet in a preseason game at the New Meadowlands Stadium on Monday night and the Bears' line hasn't shown much improvement so far this year.

How bad has the line been? Well, it gave up nine sacks in a 10-3 win over the Buffalo Bills in the opening weekend of the preseason.

Bears coach Lovie Smith said there was a lot blame to go around for the sacks, which included four by the first team unit of J'Marcus Webb, Chris Williams, Roberto Garza, Lance Louis and Gabe Carimi.

Smith said all the linemen made mistakes, and the quarterbacks held the ball too long. Not having much time together because of the lockout was another issue.

"Again, you get to the first game, you see where you are and you start making adjustments from there, which we'll have to do," Smith said. "It's good to come back and play a good Giants team that we didn't have a lot of success against last year."

After playing only one series last week, Cutler will see more action against New York, which lost 20-10 to Carolina in its preseason opener. He isn't worrying about last year.

"You know, it's a preseason game so we've got to take it for what it is and do our job and hopefully we won't have a repeat of last year," Cutler said.

New York had four sacks in the preseason opener, including two by impressive second-year pro Jason Pierre-Paul, who will be taking on a greater role with two-time Pro Bowler Osi Umenyiora expected to be sidelined at least a month following arthroscopic surgery this week.

"I didn't know I was going to get two sacks, but I went out there and played good football," Pierre-Paul said. "I kept rushing the quarterback and that's what happened. The expectations are going to be high, I just have to play to my full ability."

Justin Tuck, who had three sacks against the Bears last year, told everyone to forget about that game.

"Us beating up their quarterback didn't help us get our job done," Tuck said. "We didn't make the playoffs and we didn't win the Super Bowl, so I really don't care about last year. I'm focused on what we are going to do this year.

"Obviously, they will have a chip knowing that we killed and embarrassed them as far as O-Line and things like that," Tuck added. "I know Coach (Mike) Tice is going to bring that up and they are going to come in here ready to play."

The Giants' offense is coming off a dismal performance. New York's lone touchdown against Carolina came on an interception return by linebacker Michael Boley, who has battled a sore back this week.

New York coach Tom Coughlin plans to have his starters play about 25 plays with David Carr following Eli Manning at quarterback. Free agent Ryan Perrilloux will finish up.

Both teams might rest some players.

Lance Briggs has been ruled out by the Bears, and fellow linebacker Brian Urlacher could be held out because he has had some "camp soreness," Smith said. Return specialist Devin Hester also is a question mark.

Besides Umenyiora, the Giants are not sure whether starting cornerbacks Corey Webster and Terrell Thomas will be available. Webster missed the last two practices while attending the funeral of an uncle. Thomas watched Saturday's workout because of a sore knee.

The Giants' kicking will be handled by Rhys Lloyd, while Lawrence Tynes rests a bruised thigh.

Originally Posted by soulman

NFC North Blog



Bears: A path around poor pass protection

August, 20, 2011Aug 20
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By Kevin Seifert



KC Joyner was kind enough to cull and share a few NFC North nuggets from his annual fantasy football draft guide. Many of them provide real football context, and I'll be sprinkling them into the blog throughout the preseason.

We'll start, fittingly, with Joyner's insight into how the Chicago Bears adjusted to the collapse of their pass protection last season -- a lesson they might have to utilize again in 2011. The Bears, of course, will play Monday night at the New York Giants, who ravaged them for nine sacks in the first half in the teams' Oct. 3 meeting last season.

Last season, the Bears responded by putting a dramatic and ultimately successful emphasis on the short passing game. According to Joyner, the Bears had the NFL's third-best production on throws that traveled 10 yards or fewer in the air. Quarterback Jay Cutler averaged 7.3 yards per attempt on such throws.

The Bears hope to be more explosive this season, because last year Cutler ranked No. 20 in yards per attempt on passes of 11 or more yards and No. 28 on passes of 20 or more yards. But if their pass protection doesn't allow it, the Bears at least know they can fall back on the short-range game they worked with tailback Matt Forte, receiver Devin Hester and others last season.

That dynamic has obvious fantasy implications, but I think it also foreshadows the Bears' likely alternative if they aren't able to stabilize their pass protection before the start of the season.

Unless this Oline picks up their pass blocking this week there are some significant changes which need to be made starting with putting Spencer at OC and moving Garza back to RG. After that I think Tice should be questioning if the Webb LT/Carimi RT is the right way to go about protecting Cutler from the outside rush. One thing is for sure. Gabe Carimi will not show up unprepared for the job.

This article is 100% dead balls on accurate. With no pass protection all Martz can depend on is using his running game to the max and using the short 3 and 5 step drops that aren't characteristic of his offense. With our defense we can win with this kind of an offensive gameplan if he'll use it. It worked last year with less success running the ball than we're likely to have this year so if he can't do what he wants let's hope he takes the path of least resistance.

Originally Posted by motownbear

I got an idea on fixing the oline....make a damn emphasis to be fixed. This is 4 years and counting it had been in shambles. The past three damn years we have OTs playing lg unacceptable. Fix the oline then we can truly see if ja and his weapons r turds or not but at this point the way the oline is no real evaluation can be made except it's a 30 th ranked offense

That assumes they actually know how to do that. So far they're not exactly instilling confidence in us that they do, are they? Like I said, it's like a Chinese Fire Drill with guys playing out of position and no one sure that they can actually play the position they've been assigned. When you draft two LT's in four years and neither one of them is playing LT and your best OG is playing OC while the guy you signed for that spot plays 2nd fiddle you really do have to wonder WTF they're doing.

Honestly, if they go this route, I think Bennett, Forte and Sanzabah are gonna shine (Sorry, i've had too much koolaid, he's already starting opposite Bennett in my head). Plus, if the line gells at some point in the season, the deep pass is gonna surprise the **** outta everyone. That is, of course if Knox or Hester are going for it, as opposed to Rwill.

Interesting note on Rwill, he and Mordecai Brown have the same nickname.....

Originally Posted by The Benjamin

direct snap to the running back!!!

Best way to keep Jay healthy!

The we should have signed Brad Smith. Maybe that's why Martz was so interested in the guy, LOL.