Steelers Shmeelers

So after watching basically all the highlight available on the internet and reading every possible article, I think I finally understand what happened Sunday. The whole team started slow. The defense allowed a quick Steelers touchdown but then seemed to get into a rhythm. Cutler on the the other hand was having a little trouble shaking off last week's game. We all know the result of Sunday's game but I still have a few comments.

There is no doubt that this defense looks completely redone. With Lovie calling the plays and the addition of Rod Marinelli I'm starting to remember what good pressure looks like. Alex Brown has had back to back solid games and the front four have been stopping the run, for the most part. Lovie finally realized that Nathan Vasher has lost all his confidence and looks lost on the field, and wisely put Zachary Bowman in to start. Bottom line, defense looks decent. I'd like for them to force more turnovers and not let up so many big plays, but.... Oh yeah and Hunter Hillenmeyer looked excellent filling in for #54 to make us think, "Well maybe we don't need to rush and sign somebody".

I'm nervous with our offense. I am all for letting Jay Cutler throw, but when Matt Forte only has 13 carries, I scratch my head a little bit; oh yeah and 29 yards rushing doesn't sit well with me either. If it wasn't for two Jeff Reed misses this team is 0-2.

Here's what I like: Cutler was unreal. That pass he threw to Kellen Davis for our first score, lets just say no Bears quaterback since Sid Luckman could have made that throw. He was making a lot of throws on the run or off his back foot, but they were right on target. Oh and by the way, if you don't like that, too bad. Thats Cutler's style and it works for him. The other thing I really like is that the Bears may have found success in the draft at the wide receiver position. Johnny Knox still has a lot of learning to do, but he keeps making Jay look in his direction. He has killer speed and displayed incredibly soft hands in poor weather conditions, this kid might have what it takes. But lets not get ahead of ourselves. It was only week 2 but this was a completely different team than the one we saw in Green Bay. The absence of Troy Polamalu was obvious but at least we took advantage of it.

Here's what to expect next week. Matt Hasselbeck is all but ruled out for this week so expect Seneca Wallace to get the start. He's an extremely mobile quaterback who can make some throws if he has time. We can't let these receivers get open. If there is one thing to look out for in Seattle, its their receivers. Seattle doesn't have a main running back and they have-at best- an average offensive line, our defense could be a nightmare for the Seahawks offense, especially with an inexperienced Brandon Frye expected to start at left tackle. Offensively, look for Matt Forte to finally break through. This defense just gave up over 200 yards to Frank Gore and I think its about time, #22 breaks the pylon. Their front four can create pressure, (they had four sacks last week) let Forte open up the passing game and Cutler should be able to throw against a banged up secondary. Seattle is a tough place to play, if the Bears play the way they should we should be looking at 2-1.

Say Cheesehead!

"All right Sunday night, here we go. The stage is set for the ultimate show..."

The hype was there. The fans were there. The team... well, wasn't. The Bears seemed to start off this season right where they left off, losing. There was an unbelievable feeling of disappointment after this one. Now you could try to pinpoint some of the obvious reasons why we didn't come out on top, but it might not be possible. However, I am going to attempt to do so.

There may be a lot of finger pointing at Jay Cutler for throwing a career-high 4 interceptions but lets zoom out one second. We all knew that when the Bears acquired Jay that he was going to force some throws and make some bad decisions. Two interceptions a game would not be so uncommon. If you take a step back, you'll see, he technically gave you exactly what was expected. Lets say the first interception wasn't. He was no where close to a target on any of his few throws before the pick and you have to question, what was Ron Turner thinking? Your quaterback almost just threw 3 straight interceptions, why do you keep making him throw? Why not run the ball to help take some pressure off? The second interception by Jolly, lets be honest, was a spectacular play by a defensive tackle and any quaterback would have gotten picked off there. His third interception I'm going to put on him also. The pressure was in his face, and Johnny Know wasn't even looking back for the ball. Bad throw, bad result. The last interception was a desperation throw on another bad route by a Bears receiver.

Bad routes killed us. I'm not sure what was going through all the receiver's heads but for some strange reason, they kept breaking off their routes and wouldn't even look for the ball. Desmond Clark had several plays in which he looked like a rookie and not a 10 year veteran. Earl Bennett made some bad plays but was able to bounce back in the second half. Amazingly it seems like Devin Hester was the only player who really had his head in the game for almost the whole time.

Bad playcalling all around is my pick for why we lost this game. The defense started strong and held true through most of the game. It was obvious to see how Rod Miranelli has completely changed out defensive line. There was pressure almost all night on Rodgers and it was starting to show. BUT early on we saw the Packers trying to stretch the field and barely missing deep and their receivers were open. I told my dad and I told my friends, the Bears better fix that because eventually Rodgers isn't going to miss and the Bears aren't going to be ready for it. When Tinoisamoa went down on the first play I said, its ok, we have Nick Roach. But when Brian Urlacher went down I said #$%^ we're in trouble. Everyone in the stadium knew Hunter Hillenmeyer was going to get picked on, and we still couldn't pick the right plays to help him stop the run. Offensively, I was dumbfounded the entire game. We did not come off the bus running like Lovie Smith promises and we didn't call very good plays. Forte didn't have a ball thrown his way all night and Greg Olsen only had 1 catch. Just by the way, those two lead our team in receptions last year. Forte had 25 rushes for 55 yards, want to know why? Because on about 17 of those rushes we ran without a fullback or we ran plays to the outside. (In a 3-4 defense the holes are mostly up the middle, especially with a lead blocker)

The bonehead play by Pat Mannelly was nothing more than a bonehead play. Yes it cost us the lead but its really not such a bad play....if he would have snapped the ball 10 seconds earlier, it would have been a 1st down at around the 40 yard line.

What baffled me the most was both of Lovie's challenges. The first maybe would have made sense if it was more obvious that Williams fumbled the ball and then it rolled out of the end zone. (Which obviously wasn't the case) That challenge not only didn't help us, it actually made it worse because the ball was spotted at the 3 yard line before the challenge, the moved to the 1 after the challenge. Then, I understand Lovie, that you don't want to make any of your players look bad, but after what Pat Mannelly did, let him think about it a little more, feel bad about it but most importantly SAVE THAT TIMEOUT!!!

It looked like another unprepared Bears team in Lambeau Field and frankly, I'm tired of it. We've given Lovie everything he needs to win games (a pro bowl quaterback, a stellar running back, his old friends as coaches, a new contract and a #1 ranked special teams unit) and yet somehow he still can't get us wins. I will say this, if the Bears don't play drastically better against a Troy Polamalu-less defense next week and struggle in Seattle the week after, don't be surprised if our head coaching spot has a sudden vacancy by the bye week. And if that turns into the case, we may start interviewing for a new General Manager as well. I want to see a better prepared football team when we open at Soldier or this could make for a long long season.