Bears lose opener, What – Me Worry?

Sep 7, 2014; Chicago, IL, USA; Chicago Bears running back Matt Forte (22) is pursued by Buffalo Bills inside linebacker Preston Brown (52) during the second half at Soldier Field. Buffalo won 23-20 in overtime. Mandatory Credit: Dennis Wierzbicki-USA TODAY Sports

It was a tough week for the Chicago Bears, losing a close one to the Buffalo Bills. We also saw the Saints, Patriots and Packers lose too. Seeing this reminds me of a tag line the NFL had back in the Roselle days, On any given Sunday.  That axiom still holds true. No matter how good you think your team is, they can and will be beaten on any given Sunday. So the Bears lost in overtime, am I worried? Nope! Why you might ask?  Because I set an appropriate expectation on the team.   Yes, I said here that they can deliver a 10-6 record, but reality says 9-7 or even 8-8. However, I could see early that the Bears are in a significant rebuilding phase from the Angelo/Smith mess.  So with that reality planted lets look at the Bills game, which in truth had probably more good things happen than bad (regardless of the Chicago media compulsion to wringing hands an gnashing teeth).

Defense:

Defensive line play wasn’t all that bad.  13 solo tackles, 1 sack. The Bills rushed 33 times for 193 yards. Two of them totalled 85 yards. So without those two runs the defensive line handled a very good Bills running game. True, the last run by Jackson was a back breaker. The sick irony of it is, Jerry Angleo’s very own Chris Williams had a career block on Paea. While we are on that run, it is unbelievable how everyone is on Conte for not tackling Jackson. Conte was going for the ball, tackling him wouldn’t have mattered,  when Conte got to Jackson the Bills were within a chip shot FG to win the game. Game, set, match. Conte did the right thing.  There are already rumblings about the pass rush, Young got one sack, but I felt they made Manuel look better than he is.  I know you have to be careful with a running team but still we could have been more dynamic. Overall, a lot better than last season.

Linebackers: I said this before, the truth is they are not very good. Briggs is done. He is trying no doubt, playing his heart out, but Lance is not Lance of 5 seasons ago. He now is a liability. Bostic, Williams are mediocre and the Bills game plan took McClellin off the field for most the game.  As Emery shored up the defensive line this year, next off season it will be the linebackers.  In time, I would like to see Christian Jones get in, can’t hurt.

Corners: Nothing has changed since the Lovie days. No matter what, they seem to give up the critical pass play to keep the other team going.  Tillman and  Jennings are holdovers from the old days and play like it.  I like Fuller, and I think he will be a good one. Otherwise, we are in for a frustrating season with this group.

Safeties:  People are already whining about Mundy and Conte having too many tackles. Mundy I would expect since he is the SS and plays down near the line of scrimmage. It appeared also that Conte was edging in a lot. So out of 56 plays the safeties had  20% of the tackles. Is that too many? Who knows.

The defense has a long ways to go but in many respects they took some positive steps forward.  We can expect to see some good games and bad ones.

Offense:

The first series was a thing a beauty, then it got herky jerky. Marshall’s fumble, Bennett blown route and it seemed after that they really got nothing going. Like the defense, there was some good things, like not one three and out.

Offensive line: In general, handled an outstanding defensive line. The running game got a 4.8 average and opened some nice holes.  Handled the rush pretty well, expect Mills when he got beat badly.  Slauson and Garza went down and Ola and BDLP stepped in and some respects it looked even better.  I have all along said BDLP would be the starting center, and I see no reason to make the change back to Garza (who is in his last season too) when he is cleared.  We do need Slauson back, even though Ola did play well.

Receivers: Overall not a bad day. The ball was spread around with four receivers, including Forte, getting over 70+ yards. Bennett looked good and expect him to become more relevant.   On the negative, Marshall’s untimely fumble, Jeffery’s injury. The second tier receivers didn’t show much,  this is one area many are worried about. Should we be? Maybe, but let’s be fair Holmes and Spurlock haven’t gotten a lot work with the first team. Regardless, they as a collective body need to step up now.

Running backs: Forte had a stellar game. 169 total yards. I got to say Matt seems to get better with age! Carey got one touch for 4 yards, I would like to see more of him, but at least he didn’t hurt the team.

Quarterback  Cutler had a good game, spread the ball around to the receivers, seemed comfortable in the pocket. He made one errant throw, and now the world is crashing down. What people don’t understand, is Jay is a gambler, ala Brett Favre (and he had loads of untimely INT). Even Trestman alluded to that and with that sometimes things work, sometimes they don’t. I could even point the finger to the Bear he threw it to, who was just standing there and not moving to the pass.  There was a lot of motion on that play and first rule is don’t stand still. It wasn’t a deal breaker, there was plenty of time left.  In the end, Jay fell on the sword, and said he shouldn’t have thrown it.

Special Teams: With all the hew and cry during the preseason, it was a non event. As suspected, kick off returns didn’t happen. The key was coverage which was well done. O’Donnell punted effectively. Gould 2/2.

Summary: With 22 new faces on the roster and still getting in synch not such a bad game. Still nagging drive stalling behavior but the team is on the right track.  No doubt, a disappointing loss but now its the 49’er’s, am I worried? Nah. Remember, On any Given Sunday!