tshanno@gmail.com
10-05-2008, 09:10 PM
http://chicagobearsfanforum.com/blog/?p=311
Defense
1. The Bears had some well designed blitzes in their game plan.
One in particular stuck out in the first quarter when they overloaded
the right side of the offensive line to get Charles Tillman free on
the blitz.
2. The Bears definitely won the line of scrimmage despite Tommie
Harris' absence.
3. You've got to like the way that the Lions tried to adjust in the
second quarter by going to four wide and feeding Roy Williams. When
the Bears bring pressure they back off and let those wide outs run
free. That's an invitation to Williams to catch and run. Too bad
(for the Lions) that they executed so poorly.
4. Those fans calling for the Bears to trade for Roy Williams might
want to think more about it. As I just mentioned in 3 above, they
needed him to catch the ball today. You could argue that as an
individual he had more to do with this loss than any other single
Lions player on the field.
5. I was surprised when the Lions brought in Dan Orlovsky. I
probably shouldn't have been. There were rumors during the Detroit
bye week that Drew Stanton might start against the Bears. Earlier in
the game, color man Brian Billick had thrown out the fact that Jim
Colletto, the Lions offensive coordinator, spends the game on the
sidelines so he can "calm Jon Kitna down". Translation: He needs to
be there to keep Kitna from screaming at the coaches on the
sidelines. Personally I think that when you look at the things that
are wrong with the Lions, Kitna as a team leader is near the top of
the list. So the clues were there. In fairness to Kitna, I didn't
see much that he did wrong on the field this game. Nevertheless,
maybe it was a good move in the long run for the team around him.
Offense
1. I'm kind of surprised that the Lions started with a standard
cover two defensive alignment with seven in the box as often as they
did. They sometimes basically invited the Bears to run. You'd think
the team with the worst run defense in the league going against a team
that makes no secret of the fact that they want to run might adjust to
that.
2. In fairness, they did start to throw more guys into the box
before the first quarter was out and they did do a much, much better
job against the run because of it. The Bears need to do a better job
of taking advantage of the defects in coverage in those situations
(i.e. take advantage of the corners playing off in single coverage).
They did try but they didn't do it well enough and they ended up in
third and long too often.
3. The Bears should have attacked the edges more and run away from
Cory Redding. When they ran it straight up the middle for the most
part they got nowhere. One wonders if having John St. Clair at left
guard (should it ever happen) might not help with that. Redding
aside, the Bears generally don't do a good job of moving defensive
tackles out of the middle. The Vikings will eat them alive in there.
4. Kyle Orton missed a hot read on a blitz in the first series ala
Rex Grossman. No excuse for that.
5. Orton had a very, very nice game, though. He was moving well in
the pocket under pressure and he ws pretty accurate throwing to all
points on the field.
6. How nice was it to see Greg Olsen getting the ball and moving
with it so well?
7. There was some bad Detroit tackling out there.
8. Matt Forte is a man out there getting all kinds of yards on his
own. This might be the best game I've seen him have.
9. Most of the receivers were catching the balls today. Not many
drops. That has to continue to be the case.
10. You have to love the way the first quarter went but shouldn't
there have been more than 3 points on the board?
11. It seems to me like Rashied Davis isn't quite concentrating like
he should. Its hard to put my finger on why but sometimes I got the
impression that he wasn't quite all there. Like he wasn't zoned in.
In any case, he certainly wasn't sharp.
12. Detroit did have the Bears well scouted. For instance they were
looking for Jason McKie coming out of the backfield on that wheel
route that worked so well in previous weeks.
13. I was as surprised as those in the announcing booth that the
Bears challenged the Marty Booker reception in the third quarter. I
guess they did get about 4 yards near the goal line on it but I do
wonder if it was worth it. I guess it does help Booker out as well in
that he's been struggling to get catches from Orton in the offense.
Miscellaneous
1. Those rumbling about Devin Hester not scoring touchdowns and
being over paid should note that he's still getting some really nice
returns for good yardage. For the most part, the Bears have had some
good starting field position this year.
2. Bears time of possession - 38:37 Lions - 21:23. Now that's
what I'm talkin' about.
3. FOX needs to lose the animation playing baseball coming out of
the breaks. Perhaps it says more about my own insecurities but I find
the image of a robot adjusting his crotch to be disturbing. (OK,
technically the very low abdomen but close enough)
4. Solid job by Matt Vasgersian, Brian Baldinger and Billick. I'm
not going to say that they astounded me with their insights but they
made a lot of relevant points and, as far as I could tell, gave an
accurate assessment of most situations. Certainly it was evident that
there was a lot of football knowledge in the booth. Sometimes three
in the booth can be a crowd but these guys were careful to compliment
each other. I particularly liked the way Baldinger would ask "the
coach" for his opinion on things that Billick might bring a unique
perspective on. It kept things balanced. Vasgersian was very casual
about it but he snuck in some very short relevant comments as well and
it was obvious he did his homework. Vasgersian was much better here
than he was with J. C. Pearson last year.
5. With all due respect to the Bears, who did play reasonably well,
this game said a lot more about the Lions. I'm just amazed at how
often the they weren't on the same page. With all due respect to
Colletto, there were times when the offense was just plain
uncoordinated. There were a lot of echoes of some pre-Lovie Smith
days bouncing through my mind the entire game. For those fans who
constantly complain about the current Bears team and who can't seem to
remember those days, this was what a really bad football team actually
looks like.
Defense
1. The Bears had some well designed blitzes in their game plan.
One in particular stuck out in the first quarter when they overloaded
the right side of the offensive line to get Charles Tillman free on
the blitz.
2. The Bears definitely won the line of scrimmage despite Tommie
Harris' absence.
3. You've got to like the way that the Lions tried to adjust in the
second quarter by going to four wide and feeding Roy Williams. When
the Bears bring pressure they back off and let those wide outs run
free. That's an invitation to Williams to catch and run. Too bad
(for the Lions) that they executed so poorly.
4. Those fans calling for the Bears to trade for Roy Williams might
want to think more about it. As I just mentioned in 3 above, they
needed him to catch the ball today. You could argue that as an
individual he had more to do with this loss than any other single
Lions player on the field.
5. I was surprised when the Lions brought in Dan Orlovsky. I
probably shouldn't have been. There were rumors during the Detroit
bye week that Drew Stanton might start against the Bears. Earlier in
the game, color man Brian Billick had thrown out the fact that Jim
Colletto, the Lions offensive coordinator, spends the game on the
sidelines so he can "calm Jon Kitna down". Translation: He needs to
be there to keep Kitna from screaming at the coaches on the
sidelines. Personally I think that when you look at the things that
are wrong with the Lions, Kitna as a team leader is near the top of
the list. So the clues were there. In fairness to Kitna, I didn't
see much that he did wrong on the field this game. Nevertheless,
maybe it was a good move in the long run for the team around him.
Offense
1. I'm kind of surprised that the Lions started with a standard
cover two defensive alignment with seven in the box as often as they
did. They sometimes basically invited the Bears to run. You'd think
the team with the worst run defense in the league going against a team
that makes no secret of the fact that they want to run might adjust to
that.
2. In fairness, they did start to throw more guys into the box
before the first quarter was out and they did do a much, much better
job against the run because of it. The Bears need to do a better job
of taking advantage of the defects in coverage in those situations
(i.e. take advantage of the corners playing off in single coverage).
They did try but they didn't do it well enough and they ended up in
third and long too often.
3. The Bears should have attacked the edges more and run away from
Cory Redding. When they ran it straight up the middle for the most
part they got nowhere. One wonders if having John St. Clair at left
guard (should it ever happen) might not help with that. Redding
aside, the Bears generally don't do a good job of moving defensive
tackles out of the middle. The Vikings will eat them alive in there.
4. Kyle Orton missed a hot read on a blitz in the first series ala
Rex Grossman. No excuse for that.
5. Orton had a very, very nice game, though. He was moving well in
the pocket under pressure and he ws pretty accurate throwing to all
points on the field.
6. How nice was it to see Greg Olsen getting the ball and moving
with it so well?
7. There was some bad Detroit tackling out there.
8. Matt Forte is a man out there getting all kinds of yards on his
own. This might be the best game I've seen him have.
9. Most of the receivers were catching the balls today. Not many
drops. That has to continue to be the case.
10. You have to love the way the first quarter went but shouldn't
there have been more than 3 points on the board?
11. It seems to me like Rashied Davis isn't quite concentrating like
he should. Its hard to put my finger on why but sometimes I got the
impression that he wasn't quite all there. Like he wasn't zoned in.
In any case, he certainly wasn't sharp.
12. Detroit did have the Bears well scouted. For instance they were
looking for Jason McKie coming out of the backfield on that wheel
route that worked so well in previous weeks.
13. I was as surprised as those in the announcing booth that the
Bears challenged the Marty Booker reception in the third quarter. I
guess they did get about 4 yards near the goal line on it but I do
wonder if it was worth it. I guess it does help Booker out as well in
that he's been struggling to get catches from Orton in the offense.
Miscellaneous
1. Those rumbling about Devin Hester not scoring touchdowns and
being over paid should note that he's still getting some really nice
returns for good yardage. For the most part, the Bears have had some
good starting field position this year.
2. Bears time of possession - 38:37 Lions - 21:23. Now that's
what I'm talkin' about.
3. FOX needs to lose the animation playing baseball coming out of
the breaks. Perhaps it says more about my own insecurities but I find
the image of a robot adjusting his crotch to be disturbing. (OK,
technically the very low abdomen but close enough)
4. Solid job by Matt Vasgersian, Brian Baldinger and Billick. I'm
not going to say that they astounded me with their insights but they
made a lot of relevant points and, as far as I could tell, gave an
accurate assessment of most situations. Certainly it was evident that
there was a lot of football knowledge in the booth. Sometimes three
in the booth can be a crowd but these guys were careful to compliment
each other. I particularly liked the way Baldinger would ask "the
coach" for his opinion on things that Billick might bring a unique
perspective on. It kept things balanced. Vasgersian was very casual
about it but he snuck in some very short relevant comments as well and
it was obvious he did his homework. Vasgersian was much better here
than he was with J. C. Pearson last year.
5. With all due respect to the Bears, who did play reasonably well,
this game said a lot more about the Lions. I'm just amazed at how
often the they weren't on the same page. With all due respect to
Colletto, there were times when the offense was just plain
uncoordinated. There were a lot of echoes of some pre-Lovie Smith
days bouncing through my mind the entire game. For those fans who
constantly complain about the current Bears team and who can't seem to
remember those days, this was what a really bad football team actually
looks like.