Observations on the Bears, Reality Sets In................

Observations on the Bears BY MARK POTASH mpotash@suntimes.com October 4, 2011



Updated: October 4, 2011 3:20PM


The Bears’ 34-29 victory over the Carolina Panthers would be a lot easier to celebrate if the Bears looked like they could beat better teams than the Panthers with 224 rushing yards and Jay Cutler throwing 17 passes.

Unfortunately, there’s no way that was the formula Jerry Angelo and Lovie Smith had in mind when they acquired Cutler in a trade with Denver and signed Mike Martz as offensive coordinator.

The Bears did what they do best. They took advantage of an opponent’s weakness to win a game they couldn’t afford to lose. The pounded a Carolina defense with three starters missing — including Pro Bowl linebacker Jon Beason and cornerback Chris Gamble — and with two rookies starting at defensive tackle. The Cardinals (21 carries, 100 yards, 1 TD), Packers (16-111, 1 TD) and Jaguars (29-126) all had success with running backs against Carolina. The Bears did it better.

The Bears’ defense, expected to be among the NFL’s elite, has been a disappointment. But when Brian Urlacher, Lance Briggs and Israel Idonije say they have ‘‘work to do’’ and will rely on their veteran leadership to ‘‘clean things up,’’ it’s not implausible to think they can do it.

But the focus is still on the unproven offense, which answered one question — Can the Bears run the ball? — but left way too much room for doubt Sunday. Cutler struggled to even manage the game. The Bears used three time outs to get the right personnel on the field. Matt Forte caught more passes than any of the wide receivers.

The Bears are 2-2 — not an unexpected result considering the difficult early schedule. But they’re not going anywhere without the offense they have spent nearly two years designing. The Bears still have work to do. But it’s Mike Martz’s offense that has the tougher job.

I realize that this article doesn't say anything that hasn't been said before but there is one small factor he brings up that I thought was important to acknowledge. Time after time the Bears have depended on their defense and special teams to bail the offense out of jams and in reality that just isn't gonna happen as much anymore. This is where reality needs to set in with Lovie, Jerry Angelo, and most importantly Mike Martz.

The defense is aging and injuries are also becoming more and more a factor. The secondary is dysfunctional without the leadership of Chris Harris, Lance Briggs seems to have forgotten how to cover a TE, and once again teams are running right up the gut on us unchallenged by either the DT's or by Brian Urlacher who seems to have forgotten that gap control is the hallmark of our run defense. Good offenses are consistently rolling up yardage and points on us and only some lucky stops and key penalties have prevented them from scoring more. When is the last time a Bears defense has been ranked 30th games into the season?

After a two year drought Devin Hester is proving once again why he's the greatest KR/PR in the history of the game and deserving of a spot in the HOF when his time comes. Given that fact it's foolish to think that teams will keep providing him with opportunties to beat them game after game and I don't think we'll be able to pull off many more fakes like we did against the Packers and get away with it. Scores by ST and by the defense are exciting but it's not a dependable way to win games and Lovie should stop expecting what happened last Sunday to become the norm.

It's high time this offense that has been two years in the making began to hold up it's end of the bargain. For the past three games we've been completely waxed in the battle for TOP. If the Mikes can't bring in a gameplan and playcalling that consistently controls the ball our veteran defense gets even more overworked and teams get way too many series of downs to outscore us. Lacking that this defense can't hold forever and God forbid that Peppers or Urlacher go down and the line and linebacking suffers as the secondary has without Harris.

As it stands I can't see anyway we repeat last years performance and we're just an injury or two and a few more bad games away from another .500 finish or worse. The magic and luck of last year won't carryover. Without much better results from the offense we're screwed.

Is this a game that Bowman needs to start ? This is one of the few times I'd say yes. He's not a good tackler but the Lions don't have much of a running game. Most important, he's taller than Jennings and gives them a better chance at defending Megatron. Plus he comes up with int's sometimes. Anything that is a help to this defense is the right move. Either it's that, or be more likely to get burned and lose the game. There's 1 guy they must shut down and we all know who it is. I say start Bowman. My 2c.

If we don't put either Bowman or Peanut on him we give up 9" in height and 50 lbs in weight. How you stop a guy like him with a CB as small as Jennings is beyond my comprehension. Where he''s gonna be most dangerous is in the red zone. All Stafford has to do is put it up and if it's anywhere near him it's gonna be a catch. We don't even have a WR on the team that Jennings can practice against that can emulate Calvin. Normally when we score 30 points that's enough to win but if we can't contain Johnson and Best that won't be near enough.