Oct 7, 2012; Jacksonville, FL, USA; Chicago Bears quarterback Jay Cutler (6) throws a second quarter pass while pressured by Jacksonville Jaguars defensive end Jeremy Mincey (94) at EverBank Field. Mandatory Credit: Jake Roth-US PRESSWIRE

This is one of those days when I wish I had written up a First Half Observations post where I could have singled out the poor performances that dominated the 3-3 first half of the Bears game versus the Jaguars down in a hot, steamy Jacksonville.  Instead I’ll break this post into a tale of two halves. (more…)

Jan 23, 2011; Chicago, IL, USA; Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers (12) is hit by Chicago Bears defensive end Julius Peppers (90). Mandatory Credit: Rob Grabowski-US PRESSWIRE

It’s finally here.  The moment Lovie Smith and the Chicago Bears fans wait for every year, Bears-Packers week.  It’s a rivalry that dates back to 1923 and Thursday will mark the 185^th meeting of the two Midwestern franchises.  The Windy City versus the Cheeseheads.  Chi-town versus Titletown.  The City of Big Shoulders versus the Toliet Paper Capital of the World.  (It’s really is called that, I swear.)

Lovie has compiled an 8-9 record against the Green Bay Packers, losing seven of the last nine meetings.  However, this is a new Bears team coming to Lambeau Field to play against Mike McCarthy’s Packers on Thursday night.  We are going to see two of the top offenses in the game, led by Aaron Rodgers and Jay Cutler, with the Bears having a chance to take a two-game lead in the division.  It’s going to be a marquee matchup.  We will see where the Bears really stand in 2012.  The Packers running game and defense are big question marks and could be their Achilles heel if the Bears can take advantage.  Packers top wideout Greg Jennings is doubtful for the game, giving the Bears an even better chance of coming out on top.

Thursday night can’t come soon enough, so let’s take a look at some important numbers heading into the game.

230.75:  Average passing yards per game for Aaron Rodgers against the Bears at Lambeau.

222.50:  Average passing yards per game for Jay Cutler against the Packers at Lambeau.

7.1:  Average point differential in last 8 Bears-Packers games (including playoffs).

10:  Turnovers forced by Bears in last 6 games against the Packers (including playoffs).

199:  Bears rushing yards the last time they faced the Packers (Week 16 of 2011 season).

6.79:  Average points per game scored by Robbie Gould against the Packers.

2000:  The last time both teams scored more than 21 points in a Bears-Packers game at Lambeau (Bears won 27-24).

13/201:  The number of receptions/yards for Brandon Marshall in his 2 career games against the Packers.

103.33:  Average yards from scrimmage (rush/rec) for Matt Forte against the Packers at Lambeau.

113.25:  Overall average rushing yards per game for Matt Forte in his last 4 road games.

3:  Number of times the Packers have started off the season 0-2 since 2000; they missed the playoffs all three times.

7-3:  Jay Cutler’s record in September as the Bears quarterback.

9-5:  Aaron Rodgers record in September as the Packers quarterback.

9:  Number of 20+ yards offensive plays by the Bears in Week 1 of 2012, the most in the league.

0:  Overall number of interceptions thrown by Aaron Rodgers in 4 previous Thursday night games.

7-1:  The Bears overall record in Jay Cutler’s last 8 starts.

That last stat is one of the most important ones to look at.  Cutler and the offensive line have righted the ship recently, and the Bears are performing like everyone hoped.  The multitude of weapons on offense will be something that the Packers have never seen from a Chicago offense.  However, even without Greg Jennings, the Packers still have four capable receivers.  I have a feeling this one is going to be a shootout.  The box score is going to be overflowing like a female Packer fan wearing jorts and a tank top.  I wouldn’t be surprised if we see over 900 yards of offense and Packer fans crying limburger cheese tears when this one is over.  Game on!

I thought I would do the Chicago Bears weekly report card a little different this year.  I’m going to grade by position as a whole rather than just a few individual players.  Hopefully, I can give a little analysis on the whole team.

For Week 1, I’m not going to lie to you, it was easy to give out a lot of good grades for the blowout victory against the Indianapolis Colts.  Any time the defense gets five takeaways and the offense scores five touchdowns, everyone is going to pass my class.  However, a few people played like it was still the preseason, including Lovie Smith and his red flags.  He’ll never get it right.  Anyway, let’s get to the grades.

Quarterback – A-
Despite completing only 1 of his first 10 passes, Jay Cutler found his groove against a bad Colts defense, finishing the game 21/35 for 333 yards, 2 touchdowns and 1 interception.  The pick-6 on the second drive of the game gave most Bears fans a scare, but seeing how he settled down afterwards showed his maturity.  He led four drives of 70+ yards, hitting Brandon Marshall all over the field and connecting with Alshon Jeffery on a 42-yard touchdown strike (the throw sailed 60 yards in the air) late in the game.  We are finally seeing what Cutler is capable of when he has reliable receivers.  He deserves high marks for starting off the season with a bang.  Jerry Angelo is somewhere complaining that Marshall is too tall to be a good receiver.

Wide Receivers – A
Brandon Marshall singlehandedly brought the grade up with his 8 catches, 119 yards and 1 touchdown.  He’s going to be difficult for any secondary to handle.  Jeffery made a beautiful catch for a touchdown late in the game, showing what he can do when defenses put all their focus on Marshall.  Earl Bennett and Devin Hester didn’t have a huge impact on the game, but both had nice catches of 25+ yards to keep drives moving.  Hester as a fourth option makes me pretty confident that the Bears can compete offensively with any team in the league.

Running Backs – A
I would have liked to have seen a little more Matt Forte (16 carries, 80 yards, 1 touchdown) and a little less Michael Bush (12 carries, 42 yards, 2 TDs) around mid-field.  Bush is a capable back, but he needs to stick to what he does best, short yardage situations.  He did have a 20-yard run, but it late in the fourth quarter when the game was out of reach.  Either way, both guys did their job, Forte got them down the field and Bush got them in the end zone.  They almost made me forget we ever had Marion Barber and Chester Taylor.

Tight Ends/Fullback – D+
My apologies to rookie Evan Rodriguez who had a great first career game.  He showed that he can block out of the backfield or from the line.  He will be used more and more as the season continues.  Starting TE Kellen Davis is a waste of size and athleticism.  He missed a bunch of blocks (including the first play of the game that resulted in a sack) and had a holding penalty that negated a 21-yard run.  He is going to be in the dog house more than he’s going to be in the end zone this year.

Offensive Line – C+
Overall, they held their own throughout the game.  Even JWebb nation looked like a capable tackle at times. Colts LB Robert Mathis was the only guy who really got to Cutler, sacking him twice against Gabe Carimi and Davis.  The Bears also rushed for three touchdowns and 114 yards.  After the first few drives, the only guys who looked a little shaky were Carimi and Chris Spencer.  The rest had a solid all-around game.

Secondary – B+
You never like to see a quarterback throw for 300 yards against you, but three interceptions make up for it.  Tim Jennings played like he was 6’8” rather than 5’8”, grabbing two interceptions and tipping two other passes.  Reggie Wayne looked unstoppable at times, but the Colts longest pass play was only 26 yards.  Losing Tillman for most of the game could have been bad, but Kelvin Hayden filled in nicely.  Major Wright was his usual sloppy self, but Chris Conte showed that he’s a mainstay in the Bears secondary with an interception and another pass deflection.

Linebackers – C
I will admit it, Brian Urlacher looked more like Brian Boitano.  He’s definitely needs to get back up to game speed and I applaud Lovie Smith for taking him out of the game in the second half.  No need to risk injury.  Urlacher can consider this game his preseason warm up and we should see a motivated middle linebacker in Green Bay.  Nick Roach and Lance Briggs performed adequate, but the middle was open all day for the Colts.  Geno Hayes was decent, but didn’t do much to show that he can fill in if Urlacher gets hurt.  Overall, the linebackers were just adequate.

Defensive Line – A-
Andrew Luck might have thrown for 309 yards, but he was under pressure all day.  Henry Melton sacked him twice and Corey Wooton sacked him once, causing a fumble that Julius Peppers recovered.  Their run defense only gave up 63 yards on 15 rushes (4.2 yards per carry).  They did allow two 18 yard runs on one of the Colts touchdown drives, but throughout the day they held the running game in check, especially Melton who had three tackles for a loss.  Give Hank the game ball for this one.

Special Teams – A
Hester wasn’t ridiculous, but he did break a 23-yard punt return.  And I must admit, it felt good to see him returning kicks again after oh so many months.  The coverage team did a nice job creating a turnover when JT Thomas forced a fumble and Hayden recovered it.  Blake Constanzo also made his presence felt with two special teams tackles.  Punter Adam Podlesh looked a little rusty, but I expect him to get back in the groove once his hip flexor is fully healed.  Finally, Robbie Gould just keeps on being Mr. Reliable making all of his attempts (2 FGs, 5 XPs).  It was just another game where the Bears won the Special Teams battle.  Dave Toub is a genius.

Coaching – B-
Just when I thought Lovie figured out when the throw the red flag, he whips it out to challenge the spot of the ball that was clearly not a first down.  Stupid Lovie.  Oh well, at least it didn’t cost them anything this Sunday.  It will one of these games.  Mike Tice looked pretty good as the new Offensive Coordinator, outside of the first few plays.  In tandem with Cutler being able to audible, I’m very confident that we are going to see a good mix of looks from this new high-powered offense.  I just hope Lovie doesn’t put his two cents in on play-calling.  We’ll have to wait and see.

If Mad Scientists could have alter-egos, then the Bears’ offensive game plan against the Lions was Mad Martz’s version of Clark Kent.

Observations from the game:

1) First Down Performance – Just looking at Martz’s first down playcalling and the offense’s performance illustrated how erratic they were as a team. All of the following happened on first down:

• 15 Rush Plays versus 17 Passes
• Martz rushed more on first down in the second half (8 rushes vs 5 passes) than the first (7 rushes vs 12 passes) – demonstrating (I think, “wisely”) a conservative approach to the game (once it was apparent that Stafford wasn’t coming back in).
• 7 of the First Down Rushing Plays netted no gain or negative yardage (not including 2 sacks) & 8 rushing plays netted positive yardage (not including two good scrambles by Cutler). Again, consistently inconsistent.
• 10 of the 33 plays went for over 6 yards
• 3 Penalties put us in 1^st and long
• 3 Fumbles happened on 1^st down (2 after medium gains)

Some say that teams reflect their leadership. Hopefully Mad Martz’s unconventional mind isn’t creating havoc with the minds of his players!

2) Got everyone involved – From a playcalling perspective, I believe that Mad Martz accomplished some key things:

• He did a nice job of keeping a balance in his playcalling – across the receivers and the RBs.
• After a player fumbled the ball, Martz dialed that player’s number on the very next play, giving Forte and Olsen a chance to redeem themselves immediately after their mistake.
• And, on first down at least, he seemed to keep the Lions somewhat off-balance, by continuing to rush the ball, even though they weren’t having great success with it overall.

3) No early checkdowns – Cutler did not throw to any of his RB’s until 10 seconds were left at the end of the 1^st quarter, even though RB check downs were available most of the game. I believe this is an issue for Cutler; he doesn’t seem to “see” his outlet options. Martz picked up on this (I believe) and started calling screens.

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