This week I was listening to L Holmes on the score and he asked what did you want to see, besides a win that was obvious. And I thought to myself, w/the weather being what it was going to be, an O that didn't screw up, not even an O that looked great, w/the Hou D I expected them to not be very good, but just don't F it up for the D and ST's.....sigh....did anyone else fee like de ja vu and the GB game? To be fair I didn't expect a win, so I'm not angry about that. This was always a toss up game, I just really disappointed at how poorly the O played.
Chi O. This O had field position all night and still could not do anything with it...that is pathetic. Hester on ST's, even when he doesn't touh it still scares teams enough to not want to kick to him; or is it just that teams don't worry about this O so they don't care that they give the Bears field position. For weeks I've said the team will go as far as the OL will take it, or that the OL was the blight holding the O back. Tonight they did okay, didn't give up a sack that I can remember, and Houston is damn good at getting those, so they really did their job. I know I know, you're saying they couldn't open holes for the run game, but the Texans dared the Bears to throw it and sold out to stop the run, and it worked. Chicago's two qb's, and their wr's/te's failed miserably. If the pass was on target, it was dropped, and that's only when it was on target b/c there were a ton of over/under/bad passes to go around for both QB's. No one had a good game, Marshal had a few highlight catches, but also had 7 catches on 12 shots. And he was the only one that had decent night. Hester's only great play was called back b/c Cutler was over the line, and it was the only play that Hester was put in position to succeed at. Don't know why this team cannot see what is so obvious, Hester needs to be over hte middle, behind the lb's and in front of the cb's facing the ball as he catches it, don't ask him to run the sidelines, or the bubble screens, that's not his strength. But for his poor night, he looked like an all pro compared to Davis; lord he's a big ol' bag of garbage on a stick. If this was the 80's/early 90's, he'd be cut before he got on the bus, but that doesn't happen in today's nfl. Cutler/Campbell made this O look worse then it was though, both missed wide open wr's and their passes were all over the place, and far to often high. Is it that Cutler NEEDS go up and get it WR's, and not that he just perfer's or wants them? His passes sail a lot he apparently though Forte was 6'7", and Jesus, how does Campbell over throw a 6'7" TE? Not that Davis could have caught it anyways, but seriously how do you throw it OVER him.
Chi D: What can you say? This D should have been gassed nidway through the 3rd qtr, and they just kept going strong. They got a couple of picks on a team that doesn't turn the ball over much, 2 in one game for a team that had only 6 all year. Tillman again shut down a top teir WR in AJ, who only had 35 yards on 4 rec's. Jennings 2 more picks, if this was a win might well be the D player of the week; but that could goto an ex bear on the other side...get to that in a moment. Urlacher had another big game also. Melton/Peppers/Izzy were huge also. This D has 3 of the 4 areas just covered w/great players, only the safeties lack that elite player, but they are still really good.
Chi Coaches: Rod get's an A, that was a great gameplan and well executed by his side of the ball. Tice, why do you insist on throwing to much to early? Establish the run, or at least attempt to. Or shit hell at least go w/play action. Again we saw a D sell out to stop the run, even if it meant singling Marshal. Think play action might work there if you do want to pass? I think it would, hell it's what teams tend to do. Lovie missed that challenge, but it was the right call to challenge, I had no issue with it.
Hou O: Sadly their O looked 100x's better then ours, and they didn't look good. How they looked is what I was hoping the Bears would look like. That O was completely shut down outside a few drives, and they were benefitted from a D that was constantly on the field. Foster got shut down for the most part, Johnson WAS shut down. We got more pressure on Schaub.
Hou D: D Manning made a strong statement to the Bears today didn't he. He might well have DPotW after that game. He single handedly stopped this from being a game in the 1st qtr w/that Int and Fubmle. Their goal was to stop Forte, and they did, and the QB(whoever it was) and his WR's couldn't make them pay.
Hou Coaches. They had the better gameplan. And their team executed better, nuff said.
