The Bears played the season opener just like I thought they were going to. It was a bit chilly sitting in the 300 level just under the shade but it was a good day regardless. The offense, as expected, kicked ass after a slow start. The defense, as expected, wasn’t great. I’ll get to that in just a bit but it was a game that Bears were suppose to win and they did it. The Bears needed some good fortune to win this.
Offense: You know what makes me happy? Wide receivers who actually know how to run a route properly and at the same time, catch the ball. For the most part, we saw that in this game. Cutler was only sacked twice and it didn’t come back to haunt the team and he was able to throw to six different receivers. Brandon Marshall had a great game with nine catches for 119 yards and a touchdown. I am already getting a bit of a man-crush on Alshon Jeffery. He had a sweet touchdown catch and three catches total for 80 yards. I stressed this a lot in the last two seasons but the Bears, once again, almost had an even amount of carries to passes. If this continues, the offense will continue to be successful. Matt Forte nearly had 82 yards rushing with a touchdown and Michael Bush (by cracky), contributed in a fine way by getting two touchdowns.
Defense: I wrote this last week, but the offense can’t realistically score 40 points a game. It was great today but the defense has to get better. Urlacher left the game early because it was out of reach so that was nice to see. With 45 seconds to go in the first half, Luck drives the Colts down the field because the defense still cannot figure out how to cover a receiver. Luckily (no pun intended), he ran out of time to get a touchdown and Vinatieri missed a field goal. In the other three legitimate scoring chances, he drove his team down the field but threw for three interceptions. The first interception was by Jennings and that was the wind basically knocking it down right into his hands. It was a good pass though. Jennings did get another interception but the second one was tipped by him in Conte’s hands in the endzone. Let’s be nice and say the Colts had the potential to score 21 more points if it wasn’t for those fortunate bounces. The defense let Luck pass for over 300 yards. They can get away with this garbage in this game but in the future, it will come back to bite them in the ass.
Special Teams: Robbie Gould hit two field goals and Devin Hester had a good return or two to help the Bears with good field position. I give them an A.
Next up are the Packers at Lambeau. You can bet that Aaron Rodgers is pissed off with the loss against the 49ers. I have a bad feeling he is going to take it out on the Bears. He did the same thing last year on Christmas night.
Fire Ryan Poles | Fire Matt Eberflus 
September 9, 2012 at 11:04 pm
I forgot to add this in my recap: Lovie Smith met his quota of losing at least one challenge per game. The first challenge, I believe, was the Peppers fumble recovery which was successful. The second came up on the next drive in which he challenged the spot of the ball on a 4th and inches. Apparently, he’d rather challenge and lose a timeout over a few inches than call a quarterback sneak to get a fresh set of downs.
Ladies and gentleman, the coach of the Chicago Bears.
September 10, 2012 at 11:27 am
This will be a long season…mark my words.
September 10, 2012 at 11:44 am
Does anyone really think this performance will be good enough to beat Green Bay, New England, SF, or the Texans? I don’t. Urlacher is already hurt, and if they suffer any more serious injuries this team is done.
Plus, we have Lovie Lee Baker piloting this trainwreck to be.
September 10, 2012 at 1:55 pm
Or, maybe, and JUST MAYBE, he was going to call a timeout anyway to decide his course of action (and punting was a good decision), he would challenge it with the chance that it may move a few inches and give them the first down, or at the very least, he loses the challenge and uses a timeout like he intended to in the first place.
September 10, 2012 at 2:35 pm
Is that what he told you? Or are you just pulling excuses out of your ass again?
September 10, 2012 at 4:51 pm
Yeti,
Let’s have a legitimate conversation here. I know that may be hard for you but I am interested in knowing the answer to something. To my knowledge, you have never presented us with stats on how horrible Lovie Smith is at challenging plays. Why is that? You have bombarded us with stats on various arguments over the years but never the terrible stat of Lovie Smith challenges. You can also add that the Bears are a horrible team (according to stats) with pass defense. I think they were ranked in the bottom 10 last year.
September 10, 2012 at 4:58 pm
Fro….I think you’re being a bit harsh here. Being in the bottom ten doesn’t make you bad. It makes you…..serviceable.
September 10, 2012 at 7:39 pm
Thanks chucky!
September 11, 2012 at 10:47 am
Don’t get too excited, especially the way Dan Pompei in the Tribune today was ready to get on his knees and service J’Marcus Webb.
For the last time: Webb does not have enough talent to start in the NFL. All the coaching in the world cannot give him more talent. He’s a BACK UP at best. Seventh-round draft choice.
REMEMBER: the O-line is the same. The same players. They just changed the offensive scheme.
And factor in playing a team that won 2 games last year, is in the process of rebuilding, and Feeney going out fairly quickly and you have Webb’s playing level. He could handle it. A back up playing against another back up on a weak team.
Webb will NOT be able to hang like this against the 49ers or Lions. And let’s see what happens Thursday.
There were occasional plays where the line held on passes and–whatdya know?–Jay completed some fine strikes. Other plays, he was buying time, as Dan Dierdorf kept mentioning.
This is the O-line’s problem: they can’t push people around.
They can’t keep the pocket from collapsing and they CANNOT open holes for Forte to run through. If you notice, it’s the same as last year. Forte has to run OUTSIDE the tackles to get yardage. Very rarely can he get a hole between the tackles. So far this year, we’ve seen both Forte and Bush tackled in the backfield.
And that’s another problem. If Forte brings you down the field, you have to give him the chance to run the ball in. They can’t always bring Bush in. Not fair to Forte.
Next year’s draft–the Bears are going to have to address the O-line and find at least one solid DT. Now that they have everything else, right?
September 11, 2012 at 11:31 am
Wrong. They don’t have everything else. Emery couldn’t fix all of the problems in one offseason but he addressed as much as he could. He has picked up the wide receivers, backup running back and some pieces on the defensive line. For next offseason, he needs to address the linebackers, cornerbacks, safeties and offensive line and I am confident he can do that.
I didn’t expect him to fix all of these problems in short time either. Most of us here know that it would be at least two seasons, maybe three to put them where they want to be.
September 11, 2012 at 12:41 pm
http://www.pro-football-reference.com/years/2011/opp.htm#passing::15 (since Fro asked). The default sort is total yards allowed, which supports Fro’s contention that the Bears were in the bottom 10. Alternatively you could sort by QB rating allowed and find that they are 8th overall, or by expected points contributed by passing defense and find them ranked 7th… so it really depends on which stat you want to use.
September 11, 2012 at 2:04 pm
As for Lovie’s challenge ineptitude.. it’s well-documented. Here is the most recent story I could find on it. http://www.suntimes.com/sports/jensen/8459788-452/as-a-challenger-lovie-smith-is-no-champ.html
September 11, 2012 at 2:45 pm
5th worst since 2004? Hell, that’s serviceable! Leave him alone!
Seriously, I have a sick feeling about this Thursday nights game. This will not be good. If I’m wrong I’ll be here to admit it. And frankly, I hope I have to.
September 11, 2012 at 4:13 pm
That’s a lot of shit to fix in the offseason, Fro.
The defense better find the Fountain of Youth. Let’s not mention the Oh-Hell-No Line.
September 14, 2012 at 1:33 pm
That was SARCASM, FroDog.
Jerry Angelo screwed this team for years, and getting his stink off of it will take time.
Lovie is trying to make us believe that everything’s fine–in the last year of his contract–but we all know that he’ll be moving on in January.
I can only think that Mike Tice was trying to “feature” just how worthless J’Marcus Webb is, because he kept making sure that he was going one-on-one with Clay Matthews.
NO other team in the league starts a seventh round pick at LT.