Special teams save Bears, offense helps...
All I could say at the end of the game was "astonishing".
Jerry Azuma on the post game show the Devin Hester was the closest thing in the NFL to cheating and it rang true on so many levels.
Anyway ignoring the stellar special teams effort.
The defense was hot and cold, there were big stops on drives, but they gave up big plays. The combination of injuries and depleted talent at tackle and in the secondary are really showing.
On the offensive side prior to the 4th Quarter, the Line was like a revolving door, and passes we're dropped or penalties nullified gains. But the offense had two big drives, one at the end of regulation and one in OT, to help win the game.
Grossman threw an interception early, it was a long throw, not particularly well delivered, but Berrian didn't do him any favors by falling over rather than at least trying to make a play on it. He fumbled twice, one on a designed QB draw where he just dropped it while trying to swap hands to protect the ball (go figure) and one on a sack. What the stats fail to show is how many time he was pressured, and how many times he threw the ball away. All those throw aways count as incompletions, but for the most part they were good plays and something we didn't see much of in the first 3 games from Grossman. All in all even without the last couple of drives where the offense stepped up I though Grossman had a tolerable game, including those drives it was certainly passable.
Benson of course was hurt and lost for the Year. All those Adrian Peterson fans got to see him as an every down back, and his average looked like Bensons earlier in the year, although his 4yd pile pushing run was impressive. Benson had started pretty well and frankly I think he'll be missed. Whether he's the back of the future for the Bears, who knows, I suspect unless the injury raises long term questions, his contract and the salary cap situation will dictate that he's back next year.
The Bears are still in the hunt for a wild card spot and they play the Giants this week, a loss to the Giants will pretty much eliminate them, but every time I watch the Bears play I see flashes and if they play a good game they can beat the Giants.
Sunday, November 18, 2007
Bears run out of time against Seattle
There were flashes against Seattle,the offense did enough to win, but Matt Hassleback exploited the weekened secondary leaving the Bears with another loss.
Grossman was fine, he fumbled once trying to make a play which I think is par for the course, Benson had a couple of big runs, but other than that the running game remained stagnant. The 4th and inches call in which the Bears had Garza pull resulting in Olin Krutz sitting on his ass 4 yds behind the line of scrimmage and a turnover on downs, summed up the Bears Season in some ways.
It was a game they could have won, and another one where the plays just weren't there.
The Bears can still finish 10 and 6, and that might be enough, if they can build on the good things in today's game, get Vasher back and fix some of the problems they may even have a shot at it, but at this point it's just about the next game on the schedule and stringing wins together.
There were flashes against Seattle,the offense did enough to win, but Matt Hassleback exploited the weekened secondary leaving the Bears with another loss.
Grossman was fine, he fumbled once trying to make a play which I think is par for the course, Benson had a couple of big runs, but other than that the running game remained stagnant. The 4th and inches call in which the Bears had Garza pull resulting in Olin Krutz sitting on his ass 4 yds behind the line of scrimmage and a turnover on downs, summed up the Bears Season in some ways.
It was a game they could have won, and another one where the plays just weren't there.
The Bears can still finish 10 and 6, and that might be enough, if they can build on the good things in today's game, get Vasher back and fix some of the problems they may even have a shot at it, but at this point it's just about the next game on the schedule and stringing wins together.
Monday, November 12, 2007
Two none losses in a row!
Not the most exciting game, but like most Bears fans I'll take any win this year.
The story of the game was Grossman coming back in just before the half, and winning the game with a great looking long ball to Berrian.
There were a couple of things of note in a game that minus the last 4 minutes was pretty uninspired.
1. The Defense turned up or 4 quarters and played well. Last season against the Raiders we'd have expected that, but this season it was a pleasant surprise.
2. The running game is still struggling, whether it be the O-Line or Benson I can't tell, it's probably a combination of the two.
3. The O-Line continues to struggle to protect the quarter back.
4. The offense looks very different with Grossman on the field.
I think the last point is worth discussing, I don't know if it's Ron Turner calling different plays or just Grossman making different decisions, but I much prefer the look of it with Grossman in there.
If it was my call against Seattle I'd start Grossman he wasn't dramatically better that Greise but I prefer the way the offense works when he plays, and from the comments after the game the team seems to have faith in him. Having said that without more consistency from the line and the running game it's going to be a struggle for anyone playing quarterback for the Bears, they struggled against the Raiders and their remaining schedule has many teams who are better.
Still we're still in the play-off race, it probably won't last, Seattle next week will be challenging up at qwest field.
Not the most exciting game, but like most Bears fans I'll take any win this year.
The story of the game was Grossman coming back in just before the half, and winning the game with a great looking long ball to Berrian.
There were a couple of things of note in a game that minus the last 4 minutes was pretty uninspired.
1. The Defense turned up or 4 quarters and played well. Last season against the Raiders we'd have expected that, but this season it was a pleasant surprise.
2. The running game is still struggling, whether it be the O-Line or Benson I can't tell, it's probably a combination of the two.
3. The O-Line continues to struggle to protect the quarter back.
4. The offense looks very different with Grossman on the field.
I think the last point is worth discussing, I don't know if it's Ron Turner calling different plays or just Grossman making different decisions, but I much prefer the look of it with Grossman in there.
If it was my call against Seattle I'd start Grossman he wasn't dramatically better that Greise but I prefer the way the offense works when he plays, and from the comments after the game the team seems to have faith in him. Having said that without more consistency from the line and the running game it's going to be a struggle for anyone playing quarterback for the Bears, they struggled against the Raiders and their remaining schedule has many teams who are better.
Still we're still in the play-off race, it probably won't last, Seattle next week will be challenging up at qwest field.
Tuesday, November 06, 2007
The Bears Offense
Random thoughts following a Bears none loss.
You cannot ask an offense not to loose the game for you.
Offense has to be able to win games, it has to be able to score points when given the opportunity.
Football is a game where teams take turns trying to score, give or take one possession, you have as many shots as the other guy to score. If you're more successful in your turns you win as simple as that.
The concept of playing conservatively on offense and having your defense "win" the game has always seemed somewhat short sighted to me. If your offense doesn't score touch downs you leave even great D's in a position where a few good plays by your opponents or a couple of mistakes by your D can loose you the game.
Now understand I'm not saying you need to throw the ball or espousing a particular offensive philosophy, just that if you expect to be consistently good you need your offense to score and not simply to manage the game. Great teams have had both offense and defense, when one falters the other steps in.
It appeared early last season that the Bears were a truly great team and had both, when they blew out Seattle during the regular season I loved every minute of it, I thought "they finally get it". But now that's looking like it was more an aberration than a accurate reflection of the team. Grossman became inconsistent and Ron Turner became more and more conservative trying to avoid loosing games with turnovers. This year things are much worse.
Trying to avoid turnovers is understandable, making your offense predictable and conservative to do so is just stupid, it makes the offense less effective, it often leads to playing from behind having to go into a predictable pass happy mode, which in the end puts more pressure on players to make plays, increasing the mistakes and leading to more turn overs, reinforcing the cycle.....
Ignoring the running back situation for a minute, we have many of the same personnel on offense as we did in the heady days of early 2006, something broke somewhere (and before this year started) and I don't believe it was just the other shoe dropping on the Rex Grossman situation, or defenses around the league suddenly waking up. So what was it?
I think the difference is almost entirely psychological, the 06 teams offense believed they could win games for the team, between the media and fan base laying into Grossman, the Superbowl loss and the mauling the Bears got in the second half of the Wk 3 Dallas game and we are where we are. A couple of good 2 minute drives by the replacement quarterback isn't going to fix that.
I think Ron Turner came into the season wanting to give Grossman the best chance to perform, unfortunately he did this by taking the risky plays out of the playbook and trying to play conservatively. Relying on what we now know is a none existent running game to take the load, and as I've said before I don't think this does your QB any favors, he ends up having to predictably throw the ball from behind more pressure, more mistakes etc etc all the way to the bench.
Maybe I'm too much of an optimist but I don't think benching Grossman was the right decision for what it's worth, having said that team psyches are often bizarre things and how a move is perceived within a team is as important as anything else. Unfortunately the Bears are very dead pan to the media, showing nothing but support for team mates regardless of there performance, so it's difficult to get a read on the team dynamics. if the team had really lost faith in him, then I cede the point and benching him was the right move. If they read it as Grossman taking the bullet for what had been sub par performances all around then it was a bad call.
Good offenses aren't pass happy, but they aren't afraid to pass either, they exploit defenses where it works, and keep the calls balanced where it makes sense. Ball control has it's place, it can help let a defense rest, but despite a lot of talk, it doesn't win games, scoring and stopping the other team scoring wins games.
I like Lovie Smith as a coach, but he seems very defensive minded and historically that has been the Bears mantra. But that needs to change we need to be winning minded, that means offense and defense as equal partners. Statements like "the Bears get off the bus running" are just none sense statements, the Bears offensive plan should be built to exploit opponent weaknesses and create mismatches where ever possible, if that means run off the bus great, if that means throw every down do it, and don't worry about matching some historical stereotype in Chicago. With the exception of 85 and 06 to a lesser extent it hasn't been very successful stereotype anyway.
Random thoughts following a Bears none loss.
You cannot ask an offense not to loose the game for you.
Offense has to be able to win games, it has to be able to score points when given the opportunity.
Football is a game where teams take turns trying to score, give or take one possession, you have as many shots as the other guy to score. If you're more successful in your turns you win as simple as that.
The concept of playing conservatively on offense and having your defense "win" the game has always seemed somewhat short sighted to me. If your offense doesn't score touch downs you leave even great D's in a position where a few good plays by your opponents or a couple of mistakes by your D can loose you the game.
Now understand I'm not saying you need to throw the ball or espousing a particular offensive philosophy, just that if you expect to be consistently good you need your offense to score and not simply to manage the game. Great teams have had both offense and defense, when one falters the other steps in.
It appeared early last season that the Bears were a truly great team and had both, when they blew out Seattle during the regular season I loved every minute of it, I thought "they finally get it". But now that's looking like it was more an aberration than a accurate reflection of the team. Grossman became inconsistent and Ron Turner became more and more conservative trying to avoid loosing games with turnovers. This year things are much worse.
Trying to avoid turnovers is understandable, making your offense predictable and conservative to do so is just stupid, it makes the offense less effective, it often leads to playing from behind having to go into a predictable pass happy mode, which in the end puts more pressure on players to make plays, increasing the mistakes and leading to more turn overs, reinforcing the cycle.....
Ignoring the running back situation for a minute, we have many of the same personnel on offense as we did in the heady days of early 2006, something broke somewhere (and before this year started) and I don't believe it was just the other shoe dropping on the Rex Grossman situation, or defenses around the league suddenly waking up. So what was it?
I think the difference is almost entirely psychological, the 06 teams offense believed they could win games for the team, between the media and fan base laying into Grossman, the Superbowl loss and the mauling the Bears got in the second half of the Wk 3 Dallas game and we are where we are. A couple of good 2 minute drives by the replacement quarterback isn't going to fix that.
I think Ron Turner came into the season wanting to give Grossman the best chance to perform, unfortunately he did this by taking the risky plays out of the playbook and trying to play conservatively. Relying on what we now know is a none existent running game to take the load, and as I've said before I don't think this does your QB any favors, he ends up having to predictably throw the ball from behind more pressure, more mistakes etc etc all the way to the bench.
Maybe I'm too much of an optimist but I don't think benching Grossman was the right decision for what it's worth, having said that team psyches are often bizarre things and how a move is perceived within a team is as important as anything else. Unfortunately the Bears are very dead pan to the media, showing nothing but support for team mates regardless of there performance, so it's difficult to get a read on the team dynamics. if the team had really lost faith in him, then I cede the point and benching him was the right move. If they read it as Grossman taking the bullet for what had been sub par performances all around then it was a bad call.
Good offenses aren't pass happy, but they aren't afraid to pass either, they exploit defenses where it works, and keep the calls balanced where it makes sense. Ball control has it's place, it can help let a defense rest, but despite a lot of talk, it doesn't win games, scoring and stopping the other team scoring wins games.
I like Lovie Smith as a coach, but he seems very defensive minded and historically that has been the Bears mantra. But that needs to change we need to be winning minded, that means offense and defense as equal partners. Statements like "the Bears get off the bus running" are just none sense statements, the Bears offensive plan should be built to exploit opponent weaknesses and create mismatches where ever possible, if that means run off the bus great, if that means throw every down do it, and don't worry about matching some historical stereotype in Chicago. With the exception of 85 and 06 to a lesser extent it hasn't been very successful stereotype anyway.
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