
Originally Posted by
Dagan81
I think the offense mailed it in at the end of the season. The defense sure as hell didn't, though, and that was encouraging. The defense actually stepped it up a notch and played its best football of the season in the last six games.
The offense definitely mailed it in, BBPB. Caleb Hanie did the best he could with that son of a bitch Mike Martz having him take seven step drops when the offensive line was not built to handle those kinds of play calls. But the offensive line quit, I think. After that game against San Diego, the line deteriorated, in part due to Martz's play calling, and in part due to just mailing it because they thought that since Cutler went down for the season, the offense couldn't function, and therefore the team was going to be very bad. I think it was exacerbated by losing Matt Forte in the Chiefs game, and that was arguably one of the worst games the line played all season because the Chiefs had one of the worst pass rushes in the league...they might have even been ranked at the bottom of the league for all I know. The Chiefs sacked Hanie six times, I think, total.
In truth, the Bears should have finished the season 10-6 and earned a playoff berth, which would have undoubtedly been short lived because we would not have had the offensive weapons to seriously challenge the Saints in the Wild Card round. I don't know if Jay Cutler would have recovered in time for the playoffs or not, but apparently Forte would have been ready to go. However, the offense, and especially the offensive line, mailed it in at the end when Cutler and Forte went down with an injury. I know that I didn't watch the Packers game on Christmas night because I was simply too frustrated with the team's play.