5 Things We Learned: Still work to do

**JustAnotherBearsFan99** · 08-25-2012, 08:40 AM

Lots to do. Not much time left to do it. I'm not sure the oline CAN do it.

LINK to the article

5 Things We Learned: Still work to do

1. Bears need to clean up the fundamentals: Even though the third preseason game is the main tune-up for the regular season, it's still the preseason. Keep that in mind when you evaluate the Bears' performance on Friday night. We simply don't know what plays or coverages are being called on a given play, so it's difficult to get too upset when the Bears play poorly in an exhibition contest. But there is never an excuse for poor fundamentals and the Bears had too many missed tackles, dropped passes, bad penalties and blown assignments. Those are the types of mistakes that cost teams games in the regular season against inferior opponents. The Bears will have a difficult time beating elite NFC teams such as Green Bay or San Francisco if they commit costly mental mistakes like allowing a punt to get blocked.

2. J'Marcus Webb and Chris Spencer appear to be the left side of the offensive line: Unless the tape shows something we didn't see, the Bears look as if they are going to go with Webb at left tackle and Spencer at left guard, the same combination that started every preseason game up to this point. Chris Williams and Chilo Rachal did get some time with the rest of the starting offensive linemen, but Webb and Spencer saw the bulk of the action. Since the regulars barely play in the preseason finale, is switching up the line even an option at this point? Only Mike Tice knows if Webb and Spencer showed him enough the last few weeks, but time is of the essence. If the preseason were a week longer, maybe the Bears could drag out the “competition." Thankfully, the preseason ends next week and a decision on the line is due, if it wasn't already made leading up to the Giants game.

3. For some reason the Bears can't run the ball: It is only the preseason, but even with the powerful backfield combination of Matt Forte and Michael Bush, the Bears haven't been able to run the ball this summer. Why? Forte had eight carries for four yards in the first half when he faced the Giants' No. 1 defense. Only when New York put in its reserves to start the second half were the Bears able to move the ball on the ground. All the upgrades at wide receiver are nice but the Bears still want to be a team that runs the football. The club pumped a lot of money into Forte and Bush with the idea of being a balanced offense that can beat you through the air and on the ground.

4. Julius Peppers can still turn it on: Peppers has been quiet so far this year. The Bears have done a good job preserving the defensive end by allowing him to occasionally sit out certain contact portions of practice. A lightened practice load, coupled with the fact Peppers never showed up to lunch for media availability during the Bourbonnais portion of camp, kind of made the veteran an anonymous figure. But Peppers jumped off the screen Saturday night when he blew up an end around play and tossed a Giants wide receiver down for a 13-yard loss on a play that nearly resulted in a safety. Those are the kinds of plays Bears' fans expect to see Peppers make on a weekly basis.

5. Ryan Quigley stepped up in a tough spot: Lovie Smith went out of his way to mention Quigley's performance in his postgame press conference which should give you an idea how impressed the head coach was with the undrafted rookie punter's performance. Quigley punted the ball seven times for an average of 43.6 with a long of 50 yards. Not bad for a rookie thrust into the starting role when Adam Podlesh injured his hip flexor last week. A strong argument can be made that Quigley deserves to again handle all the punting next week in Cleveland, and then, who knows. Podlesh's injury isn't believed to be ultra-serious, but there is always a chance he could miss a little time in the regular season. Did Quigley show enough for the Bears to consider letting him open the season as the No. 1 guy, if necessary? One thing is for sure, Quigley didn't hurt his chances with that effort against New York.

**JustAnotherBearsFan99** · 08-25-2012, 08:42 AM

3. For some reason the Bears can't run the ball: It is only the preseason, but even with the powerful backfield combination of Matt Forte and Michael Bush, the Bears haven't been able to run the ball this summer. Why? Forte had eight carries for four yards in the first half when he faced the Giants' No. 1 defense.

If we have NO running game this year, then Cutler is a dead man.

**Riczaj01** · 08-25-2012, 09:09 AM

Some valid points about play calling and what they were looking to do, but still a ton of dropped passes, and a few bad off sides/false starts. And we are healthy which is huge.

Again there was a lot of talk a few weeks ago about that LT battle being a fraud, and it's looking more and more like it. It seems it was all a ploy to push Webb, and it hasn't worked. It also cost them a solid LG in Williams who is heads and tails better then Spencer/Rachel.

I agree JABF99, the run is going to allow the pass to be effective, and not vise versa. The first drive looked sharp, but once NY figured out they didn't need to load the box to stop the run, the pass was shut down also.

Quigley did look solid; except that blocked punt, but that is more on Unga(just heard that again on 670 the score that he was the one that missed his block).

**Riczaj01** · 08-25-2012, 09:12 AM

http://espn.go.com/blog/chicago/bears/
Webb, Williams await word on LT battle

August, 25, 2012 Aug 25
12:03
AM CT

By Michael C. Wright |

Both said it’s time for resolution in the aftermath of the team’s
20-17 win Friday over the New York Giants, but an official decision isn't likely to come until after the club finishes the preseason Aug.30 at Cleveland.
“Man, that pasta… nah, I’m kidding,” Webb said, laughing. “I would like some resolution, but that’s not up to me. I feel like (if) I just keep working hard and playing the way I’m playing and everything will work out on its own.”
The coaching staff continues to wait for Webb or Williams to make a significant jump in the competition for the starting left-tackle position. The problem, is while both have shown flashes, neither has separated themselves far enough to make a decision easy for the coaching staff.
“Protection was O.K.,” Bears coach Lovie Smith said. “I don’t know if we had any sacks. They got some decent pressure at times, but I was fairly pleased. Sometimes I’m wondering if you’re watching any other part of the game, except for watching J’Marcus. But I think overall the line did a decent job protecting.”
Against the vaunted defensive line of the New York Giants, Webb played the first four offensive series of the game before giving way to Williams at the 5:33 mark of the second quarter.
With Webb manning the left tackle spot, quarterback Jay Cutler experienced pressure from the Giants, and completed 4 of 9 for 52 yards and a 21-yard touchdown to Brandon Marshall near the end of the first quarter.
Williams played just 12 snaps in the second quarter. Webb re-entered the game after intermission to start the second half. Williams expected to play sooner than he did.
“I had planned on it, but don’t know happened. Coach decides who goes in,” Williams said. “I don’t know if he was going off the play clock or what.”
Asked whether he’d done enough to win the starting job, Williams said, “Yeah, I think I will (be the starter). But that’s out of my hands.
That’s over now. I did all I can do, so we’ll see.”
Although Cutler experienced pressure, which in turn played a role in him struggling to hit the receivers, the first-team offensive line didn’t give up a single sack. For the game, however, the Giants were credited with five quarterback hits. Third-team defensive end Adewale Ojomo’s dropped Bears No. 3 quarterback Josh McCown in the second half for the home team’s lone sack.
“That’s definitely a good sign (that the starting offensive line didn’t allow any sacks),” Webb said. “We definitely wanted to move the ball up and down the field, and work as a unit; be physical and strong and come out with a win.”

Speaking of the LT battle....

**JustAnotherBearsFan99** · 08-25-2012, 09:21 AM

Although Cutler experienced pressure, which in turn played a role in him struggling to hit the receivers, the first-team offensive line didn’t give up a single sack.

The only reason we didn't have sacks was due to Cutler being hurried to get the ball out immediately. The passing suffered as a direct result. WR's couldn't finish routes. The ball would go one way, the receivers would be out of position.

This is what happens when you have a bad oline.

Get used to it. We're going to see 16 games of pitiful pass protection.

**JustAnotherBearsFan99** · 08-25-2012, 09:24 AM

Originally Posted by Riczaj01

Some valid points about play calling and what they were looking to do, but still a ton of dropped passes, and a few bad off sides/false starts. And we are healthy which is huge.

Again there was a lot of talk a few weeks ago about that LT battle being a fraud, and it's looking more and more like it. It seems it was all a ploy to push Webb, and it hasn't worked. It also cost them a solid LG in Williams who is heads and tails better then Spencer/Rachel.

I agree JABF99, the run is going to allow the pass to be effective, and not vise versa. The first drive looked sharp, but once NY figured out they didn't need to load the box to stop the run, the pass was shut down also.

Quigley did look solid; except that blocked punt, but that is more on Unga(just heard that again on 670 the score that he was the one that missed his block).

The LT "competition" is sad too Ric. Neither guy is an NFL-quality talent at LT. It's like looking into your toilet and trying to figure which turd is the "prettiest".....in the end it's all crap.

Like our oline.

Carimi is the only decent talent we have on that offensive line. The others are varying degrees of crap.

**JJ-30** · 08-25-2012, 09:55 AM

Due to being brain dead, and forgetting what time it was, I missed the first half. But all it took was about two minutes into the second half and seeing Cutlers stats to know that the O line sucked during the first half. What pisses me off is, if an old fart like me, that didn't see a second of the first half knows this, why hasn't this team done something about this by now.

As far as the running games goes if the O line isn't doing their job, the RB game isn't going to work. I for one know that if the O line isn't able to make opening for the RB then the running game is going nowhere. Sure you can run to the outside but if the Defense knows then can stack the line then it doesn't take a genius to stop the run to the outside.

**Riczaj01** · 08-25-2012, 10:08 AM

JJ-30, if you had watched the first half, you would wonder how Forte had any positive yards at all. he was constantly met by defenders 1 step after getting the hand off. It was pathetic how poorly the run blocking was.

**soulman** · 08-25-2012, 10:46 AM

Originally Posted by Riczaj01

JJ-30, if you had watched the first half, you would wonder how Forte had any positive yards at all. he was constantly met by defenders 1 step after getting the hand off. It was pathetic how poorly the run blocking was.

If the DTs were shooting gaps to get to him then they need to look to the film to find out why. Were the linemen just slow coming off the ball and getting beat or were the blocking assignments themselves messed up? We know this line can run block. They did with a patchwork line last year. So what was the problem last night? Indecision or are they just so bad physically that they can be manhandled?

I'm gonna hazard a guess that it's mostly because of two things.

One, is that neither Spencer or Rachal play LG. Spencer took awhile to get settled in at RG last year after a career as an OC and this move probably isn't a good one for him and Rachal was also a RG when he played in SF. So trying to make switch hitter out of those two isn't working. Rachal couldn't pass block before and now we've just added to that problem by moving him to the opposite side of the line. Square pegs all over again.

Two, we have a LG who can play that spot and plays it well enough that he was a key reason that the running game did thrive last year. The only problem is that we're using him as a stick to beat our LT into some sort of progress this year so we can't use him where he's proven he can start only where he's proven that he can't. So you want an answer for why it's misfiring well that's at least one place to look.

Whenever you're lost the best place to return to is always the last place you were when you knew you weren't lost. So solving this problem at least from my perspective seems fairly easy and it starts with getting CWill back to LG as the starter. In order to do that we need a backup OT to play swing tackle. Just one lousy addition to that line coming from another teams waiver list would do it. If we survived with OMG in that role we should be able to find someone marginally better than that so that we at least have someone with NFL experience playing that #3 OT spot and then we work like hell on James Brown to coach him up and maybe later this year he'll be good enough to handle it.

I've been making the argument that CWill needs to stay at #3 OT but only because we have no one else who can do it, not because I think that's the best spot for him. If CWill moves back to LG it can only happen after we locate a replacement for him at OT. If we can do that then the line that starts in 2012 will be exactly the same as the one which started in 2011 and that line did show some promise before injuries upset the apple cart.

This seems like pretty straight forward logical thinking to me or am I missing something here?

**JustAnotherBearsFan99** · 08-25-2012, 10:57 AM

Originally Posted by JJ-30

Due to being brain dead, and forgetting what time it was, I missed the first half. But all it took was about two minutes into the second half and seeing Cutlers stats to know that the O line sucked during the first half. What pisses me off is, if an old fart like me, that didn't see a second of the first half knows this, why hasn't this team done something about this by now.

As far as the running games goes if the O line isn't doing their job, the RB game isn't going to work. I for one know that if the O line isn't able to make opening for the RB then the running game is going nowhere. Sure you can run to the outside but if the Defense knows then can stack the line then it doesn't take a genius to stop the run to the outside.

QFT

And if we haven't been able to put together an oline in 3 years, how in the heck are we expecting to put one together in 16 days? It's total denial.

Our only hope is that Forte can repeat what he's done in past years. He's made his own holes. He's gotten good yardage in spite of one of the worst olines in the NFL.

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