Bears Blitz

Published by Bryan Dietzler on October 24, 2010
Article Source: Bleacher Report - Chicago Bears

The Chicago Bears came into this game hoping to get a win before their bye week and give themselves something to feel good about heading into their week off. After all, a 5-2 record looks much better than a 4-3 one, right? They faced the 3-3 Washington Redskins heading into the bye.

As it turned out, the Bears had way too many turnovers to overcome and ended up losing for the second straight game at home, 17-14.

If they had half as many of those six, they would have won this game. If they would have run the ball better in the first half, they would have won this game.

So what happened in this game to make the Bears lose? What could they have done better? What went right? What went wrong? Let’s find in this extended review of the game at Soldier Field.  

Scoring Summary

The Bears got the first score of the game after nickel back D.J. Moore, coming in on a blitz, caught a Donovan McNabb pass that was tipped by defensive end Israel Idonije and ran it back 54 yards for a touchdown. That helped put the Bears up 7-0 early.

The Redskins answered shortly thereafter, when wide receiver Santana Moss caught a 24-yard touchdown pass from McNabb to help tie the score at seven apiece. Redskins kicker Graham Gano put Washington up by three after he kicked a 46-yard field goal in the second quarter. Chicago pulled ahead by four after wide receiver Johnny Knox caught a 9-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Jay Cutler to help put the Bears up 14-10.  

Both teams couldn’t seem to get much of anything going in the third and fourth quarters, as the Bears used some good time consuming drives to hold onto the ball, while their defense worked their usual magic, but were unable to capitalize on several opportunities.  As they got close to the red zone on one series, Cutler threw an interception that was returned by cornerback DeAngelo Hall 92 yards for a touchdown. That helped put the Redskins up 17-14 and ended up being the difference in the game.

Stud of the Game

The Bears finally scored on defense, when Moore returned an interception for a touchdown.

Moore could have had another touchdown had the Redskins not gotten a delay of game penalty on the play. For a guy that has been much maligned since being drafted by the Bears, Moore is having a pretty solid season on defense—remember his two interceptions against the Cowboys.

Dud of the Game

Cutler threw four interceptions, including one getting returned for a touchdown so he gets this honor this week. We can’t pile all of this on Cutler, as his receivers did have some problems running the proper routes, but he made some bad decisions and it cost the Bears the game. Hopefully he’s not reverting back to his 2009 form.

Analysis

This was a must-win game for the Bears, because they needed to pad their lead in the NFC North as well as give themselves some confidence heading into the bye week. A win would have helped them gain some additional respect from the NFL and the media, as well as their fan base. But it wasn’t meant to be.

Turnovers at critical times killed the Bears on Sunday. They ended up with two red-zone turnovers—both by Cutler—including a fumble at the goal line and the interception that Hall returned for a touchdown. Had either of those turnovers went the Bears’ way, we would be talking about a Bears’ win instead of a Bears loss.

So why did Cutler do so poorly especially when the pass rush had been contained? For one, he was forcing things a little too much. He was trying to make plays when perhaps those plays weren’t there and perhaps he should have thrown the ball away. There were also occasions where his wide receivers would not be in the proper place at the proper time, and that caused the Bears problems as well.

Running back Matt Forte had a fumble at a critical time, as well. You can’t lay all of the blame on Cutler, but you can lay most of it on him. Five turnovers in one game by one player is not going to get it done.

The Bears offense had a horrible first half, as it couldn’t get anything going on the ground or through the air. The offensive line was just as bad as it had been in the last game and it appeared as if there was no hope for the Bears offense in this game. But things got better after Chicago started to run the ball and use quick three-step drops for Cutler to move the ball down the field. Unfortunately, instead of getting into the end zone, the Bears turned the ball over in the red zone stopping anything positive that was happening for them from turning into something big.

The defense did as good of a job as they could in this game essentially giving up just 10 points overall. They had to deal with one of the NFL’s better running backs in Ryan Torain–and they managed to hold him to 125 yards–but most of those yards came on some intermediate runs. He never got into the end zone.

They also kept McNabb down to just 200 yards with one touchdown and two interceptions after giving up a lot of yards through the air the previous week to the Seahawks. Their defensive line got a lot of pressure on McNabb (including two sacks) and their blitz packages worked very well in this game.

The Bears may—and should—do more of this in future games.

Overall the linebackers did a pretty nice job and got some pressure on the quarterback as well. The secondary did get burned a couple of times but overall they did pretty well in both pass defense and run support.  Safety Danieal Manning had an interception in the game and played very well. Safety Chris Harris was out for a period of time in the second half but the defense didn’t really skip a beat.

The Redskins spent the entire game kicking away from punt return specialist Devin Hester. Had the Bears won this game, this may have made much more of a difference, but for now it looks like kicking away from Hester is the best way that teams have to defend against him and keep him from returning kickoffs.

The coaching staff, in particular offensive coordinator Mike Martz, made some pretty decent adjustments in the second half. But any good that those adjustments did was wiped away by the turnovers that the Bears got especially in the red zone. The short drops and quick passes really helped, as did getting tight end Greg Olsen much more involved in the offense. They were able to sustain drives by doing this and should learn from what they did and do it in future games.

Next up

The Bears will travel to Toronto to take on the Buffalo Bills in two weeks following their bye. Stay tuned for a full preview of this game coming up soon.

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