With that piece of business out of the way, let's address the most immediate issue, which is to say that the Chicago Bears 2011 season is over. No, it has nothing to do with Sam "Nino Brown" Hurd and his silly arrest. Hurd has nothing to do with why the Bears are bad now. There are plenty of other reasons as to why the Bears season is over.
I know mathematically, the Bears are still alive, but realistically it's over. Done. Finished. Hello-Goodbye. Adios. Don't get me wrong, I certainly don't want it to be over, but today's game left me with no choice but to accept it. If I was smart, I would have accepted it on November 20, when Jay Cutler broke his thumb.
Not sure if anyone else feels this way, but I always thought that quarterbacks were supposed to - I dunno - IMPROVE with more experience? If you're Caleb Hanie evidently, the complete opposite of that line of thinking appears to be true, as he has gotten violently worse each week. Here's why I'm looking forward to the Draft and Free Agency:
Offense : How's 111 passing yards from your starting QB sound? How does not one, but TWO pick-6's on top of the 111 sound? How's a 44% completion percentage and 3 picks overall sound? In my odd little football world, that QB stat line prompts me to ask "Have you ever played football before?" Unfortunately Caleb Hanie has played before. Unfortunately Lovie Smith and Jerry Angelo couldn't figure out that Hanie isn't an NFL QB in time to prevent this disaster from ever taking the field.
Normally I'd be more diplomatic in assigning blame, but not today. This one is all on Hanie. Both Pick-6's were completely inexcusable and unacceptable. Hanie was as inept in the pocket as any UFL QB you can name off the top of your head. Irony not being lost on me, Hanie ended up being benched for a FORMER UFL QB in Josh McCown.
You want to say the running game wasn't there? I think it actually was there, but fine. You want to say the pass protection wasn't there? OK. To me, that's focusing attention away from where it deserves to be, and that's at Hanie.
In my odd football world, energy starts from the top and works it's way down. When Jay Cutler is under center, it doesn't matter what the situation is in the game, the 10 players in the huddle believe in him. Hanie, on the other hand, clearly shows that the other 10 are very far from belief in him. As a matter of fact, it's pretty obvious that there are nothing but 10 players showing nothing but doubt...and they should doubt.
Defense : Yawn...hey at least they played hard for the first half of football, right? Julius Peppers registered the one sack on the day, but it took place in the end zone while simultaneously causing a fumble leading to 6 Chicago points. Other than that, not much to report here.
Even though Seattle was 6/16 in third down conversions, it sure seemed like 15/16. It's not often that Tavaris Jackson looks like a competent QB in this NFL, but the Bears made him look like exactly that, as Jackson passed his way to 226 yards on 19-31 attempts and 1 TD.
The Bears had a solid enough game plan of stopping Marshawn "Beast Mode" Lynch, and putting pressure on Jackson to beat them through the air. It worked well in the first half, but the second half was a different story. Give Seattle credit for making the proper adjustments, and taking advantage of Chris Conte being injured, as they consistently attacked the middle of the field.
Special Teams : Boy, Devin Hester's ankle must be injured real badly. Quite frankly as morbidly as this sounds, it better be that bad. All day long he was in for returns, then out, then in, then out again, etc. Hester clearly hasn't been himself for quite some time, and as a result the return game has been very pedestrian as well as impotent.
Where Do We Go From Here? : As I wrote earlier, this season is over. The Bears were "in position to be in position" as Bobby Knight once said, when the Bears were featuring a 7-3 record. Once Jay Cutler went down with a broken thumb, that was it. Not only was Cutler playing outstanding football, not only was Cutler masking how bad the rest of this Bears offense was, but more importantly the Bears had a backup QB that looks like Jonathan Quinn's long lost brother.
Maybe now we know why the Bears seemed so eager to bring Kyle Orton back? Looking back now it makes sense because they had to have suspected Hanie was as bad as he is. Mike Martz certainly knew Hanie was this bad.
Speaking of Mike Martz, I'm optimistic that he'll end up being the fall guy this offseason. Part of his termination will be deserved, part of it won't. Either way, the Bears will benefit from his departure. While Martz showed some flexibility as a coordinator, he still needs to go. His system is too antiquated, let alone dangerous to the long term health of Jay Cuter. The Bears, and Cutler's spleen, will be better off with a coordinator that believes in running plays that maximize Cutler's strengths, rather than put him in harms way.
As far as the immediate is concerned, I really hope that they don't throw Cutler to the wolves next week, and have him start a meaningless game against the Packers. The game means nothing, and there's no point in starting him with some naive belief the Bears can still make the playoffs.
Then again this is the Bears...where the obvious is not always apparent.
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