Bears Sloppy in Ugly Loss to Falcons
Awful! Painful! Sloppy! Ugly! Careless! Inexcusable!
The Bears came out of their bye week to completely suck it up in Atlanta, as they fell to the Falcons 21-14. Dumb penalties. Fumbles. Interceptions. Mental mistakes. Defensive calls coming in too slowly from the sidelines. That’s 100% on Lovie Smith, who’s calling the defenses. Coming off a bye week to put out that effort is completely inexcusable. Someone should be fired after that effort. If you need help throwing up, check out NFL.com’s highlight reel here.
Let’s face it Bears face, the running game is dead in the water. Lovie Smith can say all he wants about how the Bears “get off the bus running” but that bus must be the short bus. All you need to know about the rushing attack is that Jay Cutler led the way with 3 carries for 34 yards. Matt Forte, meanwhile, had only 15 carries for 23 yards. Woeful! To make matters worse, he had 2 fumbles in the red zone, one of which the Falcons recovered.
I can’t even blame Ron Turner. How can he keep trying to run when they’re averaging less than 2 yards per carry? OK, actually I can blame him because his play calling down in the red zone when the Bears ended up fumbling it away.
Frank Omiyale needs to be fired Tear up his plane ticket. Let that worthless piece of crap walk home. Or take that broke-ass bus that the Bears supposedly get off of running. The next block he makes in a real game (forget the one block he threw to spring Forte in the preseason) will be his first. Beekman should start. Now.
Jay Cutler continues to struggle under the lights. He’s thrown six picks in two prime time games. Despite the 2 INT’s, he’s far from the Bears’ biggest problem. He was running for his life half the night, as the pass protection, especially in the 2nd half, left a lot to be desired. Cutler still went off for 300 yards and 2 TD’s, but when it mattered most, he couldn’t lead the Bears down to tie it up. A costly false start by “future Hall-of-Famer” Orlando Pace didn’t help matters.
The defense got nickel and dimed to death. Matty “Ice” Ryan went to a no huddle and carved them up like a Thanksgiving turkey. Nick Roach, who looks to be physically adequate in the middle, struggled to make the necessary adjustments and had the Bears out of position throughout the 2nd quarter when the Falcons turned the tide. That was especially the case on Roddy White’s 40-yard TD reception. The Falcons set up with trips right, but the Bears only had 2 defenders. Two Falcon receivers took out the Bears defenders and White was off to the races.
The Bears bend-don’t-break defense broke down in the 2nd quarter. Ryan and the Falcons executed the break the Cover-2 playbook to perfection. They repeatedly hit quick slants and short little underneath routes. Does it take until halftime to figure out how to adjust for that? It’s a good thing the Falcons didn’t come out to open the game with the no-huddle or it could have gotten ugly early.
Even special teams doesn’t get off the hook tonight. After the Bears marched down the field to tie it up in the 4th quarter, the Falcons returned the ensuing kickoff 62 yards to set up the decisive score. Maybe I know why they squibbed it last season.
The loss wastes a great start by the Bears defense. The Bears held the Falcons without a first down on their first 3 possessions. Cutler and the Bears marched the ball right down the field, but a costly interception by Cutler down in the red zone kept the Bears off the score board. Missed opportunities in the red zone will haunt the Bears as they fall 2.5 games behind the undefeated Vikings. Plenty more to break down, but I need to go throw up again.
BEAR DOWN!!!
Through the month of October, my usual BEAR DOWN signoff will be in pink to raise awareness for National Breast Cancer Awareness month.