By Wes French
I’m a firm believer in the idea that a team can lose a game more than their opponent wins it. If you’re reading this and say “how is that possible, one team wins and that’s it” you need to simply watch a replay of last night’s Bears-Falcons game or read this recap. I recommend my version; it’s shorter, less painful and probably won’t give you that same frustrated feeling as Chicago’s redzone offense.
The Bears led time of possession by eight minutes, out-gained the Falcons by 120 yards and were penalized for five less yards yet still managed to lose. Here’s why…(in no particular order)
1. Four redzone possessions, seven points. You cannot expect to win games in the NFL when you leave 9-21 points on the field by making good on just one of four redzone opportunities. Combine this O-line with Cutler’s redzone troubles and the Bears may end up with the worst redzone efficiency since christ was a teenager.
2. Three plays inside the Atlanta one yard line: no gain, no points. First down-incomplete pass; Second down-forte failed dive over the pile, fumble recovered; Third down-pitch to Forte, hit and fumbled on the two, Falcons recover. Ron Turner is still trying to figure out how his players would have failed him on fourth down.
3. Offensive line…or lack thereof. Frank Omiyele can’t start again next week, can he? (the answer is no, let’s go Josh Beakman!) Olen Kruetz is the most overrated O-lineman this decade. Pace was fine until the last drive, where he was called for two penalties (the last on 4th and 1 for the game) and gave up a sack. It seemed like every time Matt Forte got the ball there was a red wall of defenders where his line should have been, which leads me to…
4. 83 Rush yards isn’t completely horrible, except when 34 of those yards come from your QB, 11 from a WR and the remaining 38 on 18 carries by your RBs. Forte had 23 yards on 15 carries. Jay Cutler had 30 on one run. In fact, every other ball carrier had a run longer than Forte’s long(5) as Garrett Wolfe had a run of 12 and Devin Hester had one for six. The really sad part? The Bears still out-rushed the Falcons(68) but each of their ball carriers had runs longer than Forte as well(11,8,7,6).
5. 43 pass plays/23 runs. So much for attempting to have a run game. Then again with the way this team run blocks they may as well let Cutler throw the ball 50 times a game. How much do you think all that play action on the final drive helped?
6. Turnover battle: Bears 3, Falcons 2. No matter what happens in the rest of the game the team with fewer turnovers normally wins. Seriously, look it up. Oh and when two of your three giveaways are inside the opponent’s 20 it probably doesn’t help that trend.
7. “Hey Lovie there’s three WRs on the right side. I think we should put two DBs over there to cover them then.” The defense was pretty good throughout, but how do you not cover Rody White at all times? They had two guys covering three receivers, one bubble screen later and the game was tied. Also Lovie claimed they weren’t prepared for the no huddle late in the half. Which is logical since no one runs the no huddle with time running out in a half. C’mon.
8. Inexcusable penalties. How about turning second and 10 into third and 25 on a late drive in the redzone for inexcusable? I mentioned Pace diving off side on the crucial fourth and one late already but having too many men on a punt return in the 4th quarter is totally unacceptable as well. The mistake gave Atlanta a first down at a crucial point in the game. Chicago was bailed out by a Matt Ryan INT on the next play, but that shouldn’t overshadow just how dumb that penalty was. Speaking of bad kick return plays…
9. Allowing 62 yard kickoff returns after tying the game late is bad. How do you gain momentum and give it away in less than two minutes realtime? Score a huge game-tying touchdown and then let the opposing team return the ensuing kickoff inside your 40. The Bears didn’t cover kicks well at all, allowing almost 40 yards per kickoff return and 20 yards per punt return.
10. Did I mention how bad the O-line was? The run blocking was so poor I almost overlooked the other O-line stats. They allowed seven QB hits, including two sacks, and five tackles for loss. They can learn from Atlanta’s line in film study this week. The Falcons allowed NO QB hits and just one tackle for a loss.
All that said the Bears still had a chance to tie or win this game. The redzone offense killed them. The offensive line could have been charged with accessory to murder. These two areas need to be addressed this week if Chicago plans on getting back in the win column at Cincinnati.
This game was eerily reminiscent of the Green Bay game to start the season. Chicago struggled mightily in many areas of that game but still found themselves with a chance to win. They rebounded well and rattled off three straight wins after that loss. If this pattern continues they’ll go 12-4 and fans will want to scream, cry and fight the offensive line once a month.
October 20th, 2009 at 2:03 pm
Maybe the O-line just doesn’t like Cutler. Or Forte.
October 20th, 2009 at 3:09 pm
Maybe…..I do wanna be a french fry
October 20th, 2009 at 4:34 pm
Well, you’re half way there
October 22nd, 2009 at 5:25 pm
As always very entertaining.