The Bears defeated the Minnesota Favre's today, 27-13. With the win, the Bears have now taken up the top spot in the NFC North because even though they're tied with the Packers record wise, they own the tiebreaker. More importantly, the Bears added another nail to the coffin of the Viking playoff hopes, and we are one step closer to having a LOOOONG overdue Viking Funeral for the soon to be ending career of Brett "Wang Out" Favre. Here's my take:
Offense : You would think Cutler throwing a pick in the end zone would lead you to believe the Bears lost today, but obviously they didn't. Other than that typical bonehead hiccup, Cutler played pretty well. He threw the ball well on the run and when he hung in the pocket throughout the day. Cutler sensed pressure really well, and took what he was given on his way to 237 yards and 3 touchdown passes.
Running game once again left a lot to be desired as Forte had 69 yards on 21 carries. Not that thrilling. Offensive line pass protected anywhere from Adequately to Well in some spots but J'Marcus Webb, despite his basketball box out of Ray Edwards on the first Cutler TD pass, is still a big project. Omiyale was pretty effective overall on Jared Allen, and Kreutz had some stupid penalties, but the unit only gave up 1 sack on the day. That's two games in a row where they've only given up 1 sack, so I guess that's improvement.
Receivers played OK. They still dropped some passes that they shouldn't have and still run sloppy routes sometimes, but that's what happens when you have 3 kick returners for wideouts in your offense. They got it done when it mattered, particularly Devin Hester when he made a great run after the catch for Cutler second TD pass of the day.
Defense : Today's game was a typical example of why the Tampa 2 is so frustrating. It's not a smashmouth, complicated alignments, and designer blitz packages style of defense that say the New York Jets, or Pittsburgh Steelers run. It's not designed to put fear in a quarterbacks mind with high sack totals, nor is it designed to disallow any yardage. It's just a maddeningly effective scheme designed to take the ball away, when it's run correctly. Take the ball away, is exactly what the Bears did today forcing 4 turnovers by way of 3 interceptions and a forced fumble from Favre.
With that said though, the most important thing the defense did in my football world was limit Adrian Peterson to only 51 yards for a 3.0 yards per carry average (pay no attention to Toby Gerhart running for 20 yards on 4 carries please), and kept Peterson OUT of the endzone for a change. Peterson has owned the Bears throughout his young career, and is having one of his best seasons this year. None of it mattered today however, as the Bears got great penetration up front and did a good job funneling the linebackers and secondary towards the ball carrier.
Special Teams : You could give this group the game ball if you wanted to. Maynard punted well all day. Devin Hester looks comfortable again returning punts and kicks as he nearly broke a couple for scores today - particularly the 68 yard kickoff return he had. Ever since he got the monkey off his back in the Packer game, Hester is a factor again as the Bears are now receiving excellent field position thanks to him and the rest of the unit.
Where Do We Go From Here : It's so weird because even though the Bears keep winning, the outlook manages to get murkier? This was a pivotal game for the division race, and the Bears came through. This reminds me a lot of the Packer game in that the Bears managed to win the game even though they were not dominant in any phase other than Special Teams? It's not like the Bears are a disciplined team either since they had 11 penalties today!
Still, somehow, some way, the Bears are getting it done. The only real conclusions or winning formula we can point to on how the Bears are doing it is when they give Cutler time, Cutler doesn't turn it over, the defense generates turnovers, and the Special Teams unit gets good field position, the Bears usually win.
Sounds simple enough right? Yes, but I still don't know if it's good enough to make the playoffs.
The good news is we get a quick chance to see if the Bears can keep this up against the Dolphins on Thursday. Conventional Wisdom says that the Bears have a good chance at victory now that both Chad Pennington and Chad Henne appear to be out for the year which means the Bears will need to stop Tyler Thigpen.
For those of us who have watched the Bears for a long time, we know in the back of our minds that Thigpen could throw for 385 yards and 5 touchdowns on Thursday.
The key offensive statistic that stuck out to me was 11 third down conversions. That is remarkable considering thei 3rd down conversion percentage from week 4 to week 8. Plus that is 2 weeks in a row that Martz is committed to a "balanced attack."
ReplyDelete10-6 looks very possible in my book. They are relatively healthy (knock on wood) and the D seems to be jelling at the right time.
You're correct, that's a very telling statistic. I have to believe it's a byproduct of the improved pass protection.
ReplyDelete10-6 AND 6-10 are very possible in this version of the NFL you know what I mean? Just last week the Ravens, Giants, and Steelers looked like the elite teams of the league and they had their asses handed to them.