0 Comments

Rapid Fire Thoughts on a Pivotal Conference Victory

| October 24th, 2011

The Bears are now a winning football team.  And they’re about to get healthy.

  • I don’t want to start negative but I’m pretty sure Chris Harris was the worst defender on the field yesterday.  LoveRod need to seriously consider Brandon Meriweather at SS against the Eagle if Major Wright is still incapable of playing.  Also I’m pretty sure I don’t need to hear Harris’ contract demands this week.
  • Lance Briggs.  Were you saving it?
  • The offensive approach in the fourth quarter was wretched by both the offensive coordinator and the quarterback.  If the Bears only ran the ball on their last five possessions, the game never would have been in question.  And Cutler made three or four throws he simply can’t make when nursing a late lead.  When you are trying to put away a football game, either in the end zone or by moving the chains, how do you rationalize not giving the ball to your best player?
  • As it was, Cutler played his worst game of the 2011 season and the Bears still won.  Good sign.
  • Anybody else notice how often we blitzed in this game?  It seemed like every down.  I could get used to this.
  • I like Chris Conte.  A lot.  Nice draft pick, boys.  Good to have a true free safety on the roster.
  • And I know it’s fun to kill Jerry Angelo but credit the man for stealing Amobi Okoye off the waiver wire.
  • Seems to me that Nick Roach is starting to emerge in this defense.  He’s terrific as a blitzer.
  • The Bears are getting more confident with their offensive line.  I saw less mass protect schemes, less tight ends beside J’Marcus Webb and Chris Spencer was pulling on every fourth play.  As Matt Forte accumulates run yardage week after week, it is unfair not to give this unit credit.
  • And I’d like to ask fans stop telling me our defense is old.  They don’t struggle due to age.  They struggle due to discipline.  When Brian Urlacher is rigid with his assignments, he can play like he’s in his prime.  He did in London.  The only player I might buy the “getting old” logic with is, you guessed it, Chris Harris.
  • If the Bears are relying on Roy Williams to catch the ball, they should stop.  He gets open but it’s the catching bit.
  • I am very interested to see how the Bears receiving corps will evolve with the inclusion of Earl Bennett into the rotation.  The quick toss over the middle has seemingly left the repertoire with his nursing a suffocated chest.

It was a strange game.  The Bears should have put it away three or four times throughout but could not punctuate the sentence.  Still it now puts the Bears in the thick of the wild card playoff race (if season ended today, they’d be in).  The Bears have two more games against wild card competition: at Philly after the bye and home to Detroit.  If they win them both, there’s no reason to believe this team won’t be in the playoffs.