Rapid Reaction: Bears 20, Giants 17

http://espn.go.com/blog/chicago/bear...s-20-giants-17


EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- It's difficult to truly gauge whether the Chicago Bears failed their most significant test of the preseason Friday in a 20-17 victory over the New York Giants at MetLife Stadium.


On one hand, the first-team offense struggled to put up points as quarterback Jay Cutler appeared to be out of sync with the receivers, while the rushing attack was virtually nonexistent through the first two quarters. But looking at the performance from a positive perspective, despite the line allowing pressure, it never gave up a sack -- which at least shows some progress from this unit, which was expected to struggle tremendously against an elite Giants defensive line.


*This is a legit point; the pass blocking was actually better then the run blocking*

It's also important to note the Bears leave MetLife Stadium fairly healthy with no major injuries reported by the team.

“We're doing some things, but not good enough,” Bears coach Lovie Smith said at halftime.

The question now is whether the team can turn things around before the start of the regular season.

Chicago's defense allowed the Giants to convert 43 percent of third downs in the first half, which led to the Bears falling behind 17-7 at the half. Giants' rookie David Wilson averaged 9.8 yards per attempt against the Bears, while Matt Forte -- playing behind an ineffective line -- rushed for four yards on eight attempts in the first half. That's right, 18 inches per carry.

*For all you fantasy nuts, talk is this Wilson kid is the real deal and might end up starting for NY over Bradshaw; and you saw it here. He trucked our starting D.
For our D it was embarassing. Didn't see who it was, but some tried to dive and knock him down w/his shoulders(that's right no arms) and it was insulting as a fan to see. Our D w/out Urlacher seems completely ineffectve against the run. Benson, for all the fan hate, is going to have a field day if we don't straighten that out.

“We're in a good place. We're heading in the right direction,” Cutler said. “We just need to clean up a few things. Really, it's communication things, which (are) the easiest part to clean up.

Physically, we're in the right place. We're doing the right things. We just have to execute a little better.”

What it means: The Bears need to make several corrections and adjustments over the next 16 days with the Sept. 9 regular-season opener against the Indianapolis Colts looming. Realistically, the club exhausted its last real opportunity in the preseason to make live-game evaluations on potential starters because the Bears won't play any of the front-line contributors in the exhibition finale Aug. 30 at Cleveland.

Typically, the bottom of the roster is decided by performances in the final game of the preseason.

What's next: Roster cuts come Monday, with the team needing to trim its current 90-man roster down to the 75-player limit. Over the next few days, the club will engage in preparations for the final preseason game at Cleveland, with roster cutdown to the final 53-man limit coming on Aug. 31.

*IF the announcers were right, and Unga was the one that whiffed on the punt block, I could see him getting cut. He's already a solid bubble player w/the team looking at keeping 4 TE's, and Clutts being a ST need. Booker and Allen both look like they should have a shot to make the team; and maybe you can sneak one onto the PS. You never see Unga getting a shot to carry the ball, he's been passed. Davis looks like he might be on the bubble, Dane looked pretty good on the punt returns, and MUCH better as a pass option. Didn't see Davis making plays on ST's(or outside of the returns Dane either). Who was that Joe Johnson cat that caught the ball for that 2nd TD from Campbell? He made some noise w/that TD and the catch before it.


*are my thoughts not the writers*

Quote:

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What it means: The Bears need to make several corrections and adjustments over the next 16 days

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They can fix everything bad from last night, except the oline woes. I am 100% confident the defense and special teams will be fine.

But you don't fix an oline as bad as ours in 16 days. We've had YEARS to fix it. We haven't. At some point you realize there is no magic Tice pixie dust. Just like there is no Santa Claus. You either have NFL-level talent. Or you don't.

Other than Carimi, we don't.

We all bought into the idea that there was magic Tice could perform, and he could make chicken salad out of chicken crap. But it still looked like a steaming heap of smelly crap to me last night. It's not just a LT problem (oh, how I wished it were that simple). Our interior linemen were totally outclassed. Men against boys (including Garza).

Cutler had to hurry his passes, and THAT is why so many passes were bad. And Forte/Bush averaged less than 1 yard per carry against the starting defense (about 24 inches per carry). Cutler is a dead man walking we we can't run the ball this year. Teams will just pin their ears back and beat him like a drum all game long, all season long. But, we've seen this before.

I'm so angry this morning I'd better get off this board, and stay away from people.

Even if we find better O linemen after this weeks cut they still won't be really to play until after the start of the season. You dan win with the Right side or the Left side of the line being bad but not with both side being bad.

I didn't see the game but if they prevented Cutler from getting eaten alive by the pass rush then something good came out of last night. They improved their pass blocking at the very least.

They know how to run block. We piled up over 1700 yards rushing from our RBs last year and this years bunch is better than last so they'll come around as far as run blocking goes. With Cutler off his game last night the Giants just focused on stuffing the run and that was just smart football. We do it to teams with better lines that ours all the time (not last night though).

There are no real solutions for other help to be had save maybe someone lets a vet OT go who can be counted on well enough to backup out starters and allow Tice to move CWill back to LG. That's about it as far as expecting outside help and even that's far from certain.

The right side of the line will be OK. It's getting the left side settled in by getting this so called "competition" over with that needs doing.

my rapid reaction to the o-line play last night:

:stooges::tornado::3_8_14[1]::36_11_11[1]::cray: http://www.freesmileys.org/smileys/smiley-sick029.gif


But then I woke up this morning and we just have to deal with it. I said in another thread it'll take a couple years to get this team together. Emery was given a short stick and although IMO he's done well, you can only work so many miracles a season.



(Why don't we have a vomit smiley? I had to steal one from somewhere else.)

The absence of sacks had nothing to do with the oline. Cutler was chucking that ball out as fast as he could to keep from getting killed. That meant the WR's were often not in position to make the catches, and that's why the passing game against the 1st team defense of the Giants sucked, other than that first drive. After NY adjusted they just "schooled" us.

You could tell Cutler was PISSED too. Bigtime pissed.

Forte stacked up big yardage last year mostly on his own. He made his own holes. He didn't get his yards because of the oline. He made most of them in spite of the poor oline.

He should be able to do this again against the weaker defenses we will face this year. Against the better teams (like last night) we will have problems. He had less than 1 yard per carry last night against the 1's. Get used to that. The better teams (even Detroit) will stop him cold.

My preliminary thoughts before re-watching the game on DVR w/o distractions FWIW.

LT: Webb whiffed on one running play that caused a TFL but he looked pretty decent on pass pro. Most teams are going to give their LT help going against Osi/NYG just like they do going against Pep. That doesn't bother me. Like it or not, Webb is the starting LT. CWill (fully admit I was wrong here leading up to TC) is simply is nothing more than an emergency stopgap backup at the position. He wasn't good and shouldn't start.

LG: Rachal was BAD all around. I see why SF gave up on him. I didn't notice Spencer much which would indicate to me that he was better (or less bad) than Rachal. Know this is beating a dead horse here and won't happen, but we are way better served by having Webb @ LT and CWill @ LG like last year with Spencer, EWill, and JB being the backups. The one consistently good thing you can say about Webb is that he's been durable so keeping your best LG on the bench as a "vet LT backup in case of injury" seems all the more stupid now. It is not like CW can play RT for shit anyway so he's not really a true swing OT. If Tice just has to have that, then comb the waiver wire for a cheap vet and keep a 9th OLman cuz CWill is wasted there.

QBs: Neither Cutler or Campbell looked sharp at all. Both were missing on throws that could/should have been placed better. Cutler's stats were hampered by balls thrown to Bennett and (I think) AJ that should have been caught and weren't. The pass pro was hardly ideal (did we expect it would be against the best pass rush in the NFL?) but it wasn't an embarrassment like it has been in NY before.

Run Blocking: BAAAAD. See above. CW > Spencer > Rachal at LG. It was terrible in the early RS last year two and only got going after about week 4. Must get better and I hope that it will with the OL being set.

FB: I know we all like to pull for cinderella stories to make the team, but sorry guys Unga needs to be cut. Our FB must be rock solid as a blocker and on STs and Clutts >>> Unga. Clutts=definite keep imo.

RB3: With KBell gone its between Allen and Booker and I thought Allen all but had the job locked up, But Booker continued to impress yesterday. They both played pretty well. I dunno...

P: The block was entirely on Unga. I thought Quiqs did ok and he would be serviceable (and cheap) if we must have someone to fill in for Pods for a bit. I hope Pods is back by late September at the latest though.

S: Anthony Walters made a strong case to make the team since we can't seem to keep our starting duo healthy.

CB: Peanut got roughed up but I'm not worried. He got schooled last year vs. VJax but also shut down Megatron. He had a bad quarter nothing more.

MLB: David Wilson ran all over us in the 1st half and a big part of that was Roach. He was not good, washed out of play after play. I hope DeCicco's groin pull is healing up because I'd like to see him get reps in the final PS game. No question though--if BU is out/hindered for most of the RS our D is much more vulnerable. Very concerning.

Sanz: Has a couple of nice returns but I was disappointed the ball was never thrown to him. Still pulling for him to stick.

KAdams: Ditto. I like him more the more I see.

2nd half: If I was a NYG fan, I'd be a little concerned about depth (beyond the DL of course). Their 2nd/3rd teamers looked like shit and Carr was horrible. Injuries would have a drastic negative impact on this team even more than typical imo.

1st half: WE won the 1st Q and got scorched in the 2nd. Based on that, we would have lost 31-17 if this had been a RS game in week 1. Not good. And much of that has to fall on the blocked kick, the utter lack of running O & D, and a few dropped/mis-thrown passes.

All in all, I'm not as down as some of you are (I might change my mind after re-watching it in slo-mo on DVR) but Tice needs to lose the idea that CW is an LT or Rachal is an LG starter option--not there buddy. Oh, and the officiating continued to be atrocious...

MPBear that's a great eval of the game. I agree with it. You make a great point in that both our QB's did look "off" last night. Something you don't expect to see this late in the PS. But in fairness you are right about that. I did see some plays where Webb was ok. But for your starting LT, consistency is vital. Vital. The knock on Webb all along has been his lack of consistency.

You're a brave man to watch the game again. I may end up watching it again tonight if I can stomach it.

p.s. When I saw Webb whiff on that run block against Osi, I just about crapped myself. He looked like a lawn statue while Osi just scampered around him to blow up the running play.

Let me add a few things to MP who i agree w/100%. R Davis is not a nfl quality WR, and I didn't see or hear him on ST's, doesn't mean he didn't do anything, but I didn't see or hear him. He looked like crap on O.
Sanz did get a few passes his way and looked good on pr's...that last one he got licked good as soon as he caught the ball and stayed on his feet and got a few yards after, I was stunned.
Joe Johnson, someone give me some background on this guy, who is he? He looked amazing in the 4th qtr(i know it's against scrubs) but 2 tough catches back to back. The one he was upended by two defenders and still caught the ball, and the 2nd the defender was draped over him, he caught it, broke the tackle and got the TD. He made some real noise.
Quigly looked real solid.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by JustAnotherBearsFan99

MPBear that's a great eval of the game. I agree with it. You make a great point in that both our QB's did look "off" last night. Something you don't expect to see this late in the PS. But in fairness you are right about that. I did see some plays where Webb was ok. But for your starting LT, consistency is vital. Vital. The knock on Webb all along has been his lack of consistency.

You're a brave man to watch the game again. I may end up watching it again tonight if I can stomach it.

p.s. When I saw Webb whiff on that run block against Osi, I just about crapped myself. He looked like a lawn statue while Osi just scampered around him to blow up the running play.

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JABF,

I understand your frustration. I'm not "sky is falling" at this point (perhaps naively) but I do understand it.

Webb: WE are all sick of this guy's whiffs and mental miscues and "waiting" for him to step up. Yes, that run block miss on Osi was ridiculous no arguement here. But he was decent on pass pro off the edge and like it or not he's the STARTER this year. We just need him to be serviceable and have Spaeth/KDavis glued to his left hip on all pass plays beyond 10 yds. That's all we can do until FA next year. Drop the ridiculous "pseudo-competition" w/ CW--he can't play LT (or RT) for shit except as an emergency fill-in only.

LG: Terrible last night in the 1st half and it showed up a lot on runs. Rachal would be a "cut" for me on Monday. Others are posting this a lot more now: CW >> Spencer > Rachal for LG. Tice needs to set the OL as Webb-CW-Garza-LL-Carimi and play it a lot vs. Cleveland. A lot more than is typical for a 4th PS game. SET IT AND PLAY IT! at least 1/2 and maybe 3/4 of the last PS game. Max reps, I don't care what is "normal" or not.

SwingOT: I'm now firmly with Soul on this. CW can't play swing OT. He's barely adequate at LT (that's a stretch) and he sucks at RT. Tice/Emery NEED TO COMB THE WAIVER WIRE UPCOMING AND BRING IN A VET CASTOFF TO MAN SWING OT IN RESERVE. No doubt about it.

OL Roster: Webb, CW, Garza, LL, Carimi, EWill, vet swing OT, and 1 or 2 of the following (Spencer, JB, Henry). Cut Rachal and I might cut Spencer for $ except he's shown he can play RT and emergency OC. I no longer care if we lose JB off/before the PS. He's nowhere near ready to play anything. Hate to say this, and I'm not down on Shea at all, but I'm having that sinking feeling that it might have been wiser this year anyway to have taken DeCastro over Shea in the 1st round. That's water under the bridge of course, so set the OL as above and WORK THE SHIT OUT OF IT. Put the BEST 5 in their respective BEST 5 SPOTS and go with it. Rachal needs to go even if he's cheap.

As bad as that 2nd Q was yesterday (I'm not sugarcoating it--Tillman got toasted, Roach blew chunks, the pass pro was marginal, and the run blocking sucked ass), we should have gone into halftime up ~ 17-10. Unga's whiff on punt blocking was inexcusible (bye, bye Harvey) and cost us 7 on D AND key drops by EB and AJ cost us 7 on O. Questionable PI calls hurt too. Shoulda, woulda, coulda doesn't win games against top quality competition but clean up a few key mistakes that won't happen again and the whole complexion of that "starters vs. starters" half changes drastically.

Yeah, I'm gonna watch it again to learn more...I hope Tice is doing the same and gets his head out of his ass w/ regard to the left-OL.