-
Attention, Bears offense: This is your last bad defensive foe this year
Steve Rosenbloom
The RosenBlog
9:25 a.m. CDT, November 1, 2012
Jay Cutler was asked to explain his NFL-best fourth-quarter ability.
“I don’t know.’’ Cutler said Wednesday. “I’m getting lucky, I guess.’’
No, you’re getting behind, and that has to stop right now.
Look, the Bears are running out bad opponents. They are at the end of their exhibition season that has seen them beat teams that are a combined 15-28.
This week in Tennessee, it’s not a question of whether the Bears can get their offense where it needs to be. It’s a statement that they have to.
It’s not that the Bears have to do it because they have to do it. No, they have to do it because their remaining seven games after this week are against opponents that rank in the top 13 in defense. That starts with No. 3 Houston and No. 1 San Francisco.
The Bears offense is ranked 26th. Can you say “suicide mission,’’ boys and girls? Good. I knew you could.
The Titans’ defense, meanwhile, has allowed 25 touchdowns, second-most in the NFL. The Titans have allowed 257 points, most in the NFL by more than four touchdowns.
You’d think that even the Bears offense could score a couple times in the first half, huh?
Or just make a yard on first down.
The Bears rank last in first-down offense. They face second-and-omigod more than just about every other team.
So, they should be willing to hustle down to Nashville right now to face a rushing defense that allows almost 140 rushing yards a game, which ranks fifth-worst, and a passing defense that allows more than 280 yards, which ranks worse still.
For now, the Bears have to admit they can’t run the explosive offense they said they would. Parts of it are there. We see them in the fourth quarter most of the time. But admitting you have a problem is the first step toward recovery.
The offense seems to have dropped off since Alshon Jeffery got hurt, but should a rookie be the cause of futile first halves? I mean, seriously?
Look, the Bears have gone at this thing backward, stressing the passing game from minicamp through training camp through the first half of the season at the expense of the running game.
And that’s a running game that is better and more diverse than ever with Matt Forte looking like Matt Forte and Michael Bush looking like a starter. With Cutler’s dented ribs, you’d think that handing the ball for Forte would be a gimme.
But no. The Bears called a deep drop to open the Carolina game, learned they couldn’t block it even with maximum protection, and the badly bruised quarterback got hurt again.
“I’m With Stupid’’ T-shirts all around.
As a last resort, read the directions for fixing an offense. Start with the basics. Rely on the run to set up the pass. Hard to believe, but Forte has fewer touches under offensive coordinator Mike Tice than he averaged under Mike Martz last year. That’s as nuts as Martz was.
For the record, the Bears have scored six rushing touchdowns, the same number of TDs the defense has scored. Fix this.
That would be the first big step toward looking like a Super Bowl offense, or even like a big-boy offense.
Cutler said Wednesday that the Bears’ opportunistic defense gives the offense some room for mistakes. But there is no guarantee that will continue. Same goes for dramatic comebacks and Cutler’s “just getting lucky, I guess.’’
Before the season, people wondered about the age of the defense and projected that the offense with the new toys would be able to carry the defense.
Turns out, it has gone the other way. But it gets tougher to continue that kind of opportunistic defense in the second half of a season, especially if the age questions bring the wrong answers.
That will require a professional offense. Starting right now.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports...6885955.column
Arguing on the internet is like winning the special olympics, even if you win your still messed up.
Restore the roar!
-
-
Doesn't / haven't the Def scored as many ( or more?) then rushing TD's?
The passion of a few, to rule the many, that's Washington D.C.. Where else was that said before, about whom?
-
Junior Member
Didnt read the article but thats been my big point this week. This is a terrible defense and the last of its kind we'll see this year. You have to get something going and figure out where this O is going from here on out. But we still do have some favorable matchups vs Minny(x2) and Det. The Cardinals D is looking worse by the week but theyre beat up and exhausted from the offense. Det did well vs Sea in Det and theyve had struggles of their own.
Its just going to be important for them to not forget to abandon the run when its not working out early.
-
Member
That article pretty much sums it up in a way I've been trying to do since I posted the thread "we haven't played anybody."
As the article points out, our opponents are a combined 15 - 28. As soulman and others will be quick to point out, that makes no damn difference because us winning changes things.
Well lets see what happens when we take out the bears games. We get: 14 - 22. Hmm, that's still pretty bad, 8 games under .500. If we kept score like nba players kept fg percentage it'd be 14 of 36, or 38.8% win rate, Yikes!
Idk about you guys but id hate to be in that unlucky 38, oh hell 39% that lost to those teams.
-
Vikes will come twice, Seahawks will come. Play the Lions again. Those games alone should end us at 10-6
We have played against 7 NFL Teams and all of those teams have won against other teams. IND for example has beat the team we lost to.
you need to win every game and talk is cheap. SF still has to beat us, HOU still has to beat us, GB still has to beat us a 2nd time.
This is some kind of magic year. Just like the 09/10 Hawks season. You know this year is something special
-
High Fives / Like - 2 BEAR DOWN!, 0 Dislikes
-
We have 1 more powder-puff team to play, and then the real opponents begin to come. I don't know how much we can continue to depend upon our defense for scoring our points to win games. We barely squeeked by Detroit by 1 point. And that was in our own house.
We have a dysfunctional offense right now. Tice needs to get the offense figured out (finally) in this last powder-puff game.
Vikes will come twice, Seahawks will come. Play the Lions again. Those games alone should end us at 10-6
The heck of it is, German, that there's no guarantee we can beat any of those teams if our offense isn't better. The Vikes and Seahawks are not "gimmees" this year. And like I said, we just squeeked by the Lions by 1 point in our own house. It's not going to be that easy in Detroit.
I love the fact that our scoring is coming in a big way right now from our defense and not our offense. But you can't count on the defense scoring like this every game - not against "real" opponents who won't be shooting themselves in the foot like these powder-puff teams.
The only real team we've faced so far is the Packers, and they schooled us.
It's time for Tice to get his head out of his butt (Cutler too for that matter.....he needs to play well all game, and not just show up in the 4th quarter). Time to stop the stupid oline whiffs, false starts and missed blocks. Time for Cutler to learn some pocket-presence and not hand onto the ball so long, resulting in sacks and fumbles. Maybe learn that there's other WR's out there (open) too.
Time for our offense to put on their "big boy pants" and begin to show up, like the defense has been doing each week.
Last edited by JustAnotherBearsFan99; 11-02-2012 at 10:36 AM.
-
One last point. Wouldn't it be heartbreaking to waste this year's opportunity, with this lights-out great defense - and blow this season due to the offense not playing up to its potential? The talent is there. They just need to get the unit hitting on all cylinders, playing up to its full potential.
This defense is breathtakingly great this year. It's a Super Bowl WINNING defense. But then you watch the dysfunctional offense with the 3-and-outs, ints, QB fumbles, stupid drive-killing penalties, sacks, poor play calling, and it makes you angry.
The window is starting to close on some of these older defensive players. They won't be able to play like this year forever (Pep, Url, Peanut etc). This is our year. If only Tice can get this offense going, and stop the bleeding with self-inflicted mistakes.
Last edited by JustAnotherBearsFan99; 11-02-2012 at 11:59 AM.
-
Not really worried here. Just keep the D rested. No huddle was a success, gotta go with that more. Running the ball early is a success too. Everything in between was full of fail. Not difficult to look at the game and come away thinking we don't need that many TE's on the field, especially w a quick passing attack.
-
Originally Posted by
Henry Burris 
Not really worried here. Just keep the D rested. No huddle was a success, gotta go with that more. Running the ball early is a success too. Everything in between was full of fail. Not difficult to look at the game and come away thinking we don't need that many TE's on the field, especially w a quick passing attack.
It sure looks like we have all of the pieces to be highly successful on offense moving forward. This upcoming game is the perfect opportunity for the offense to put the pieces together and deliver a solid game. Now is the time. It's almost like we've had (mostly) pre-season games so far, when you compare who we've played, to who we will have to play in this 2nd half of the season.
No more easy teams.
After Sunday, the "heavy lifting" begins. Time to put the pieces together so we can beat the better teams - and to be playing our best moving into the playoffs.
Last edited by JustAnotherBearsFan99; 11-02-2012 at 11:59 AM.
-
Member
Originally Posted by
JustAnotherBearsFan99
It's time for Tice to get his head out of his butt (Cutler too for that matter.....he needs to play well all game, and not just show up in the 4th quarter). Time to stop the stupid oline whiffs, false starts and missed blocks. Time for Cutler to learn some pocket-presence and not hand onto the ball so long, resulting in sacks and fumbles. Maybe learn that there's other WR's out there (open) too.
Time for our offense to put on their "big boy pants" and begin to show up, like the defense has been doing each week.
Anyone who thinks Cutler is magic in the 4th qtr is crazy. Carolina's prevent D allowed us to drive the ball down the field with ease and set up a nice field goal for one of the best kickers ever to lace it up.
Only thing Carolina's prevent D did was prevent them from winning. They went no huddle and threw the exact same play to Marshall twice in a row, easy pitch and catch.
Don't get me wrong, I know people are desperately trying to cling to some positive here with this offense but that 4th qtr stuff is a bunch of hooey.
What people should be paying attention to are the two early scores we had, one against Detroit and one against Carolina. Both drives were obviously pre-scripted series, well executed and both resulted in scores.
LinkBack URL
About LinkBacks
Reply With Quote
