There was plenty to like, plenty to dislike, and plenty to be just plain old confused about in the Bears 38-34 victory over the New York Jets. In a game that was supposed to feature two of the league's preeminent defenses, we instead witnessed an offensive shootout. As surprising as the back-and-forth flow of the game was, the most important thing is the Bears walked away with a win and are now in position to lock up the #2 seed next week-if not sooner assuming the Eagles don't collapse against the Vikings on Tuesday. Even more amazingly since the Saints beat the Falcons Monday Night, the Bears (gulp) have an outside chance of home field throughout the playoffs.
I'll get into that later, but with the Bears continuing to rack up wins, they also have put themselves in this advantageous position by once again staying freakishly healthy as a roster. Here's how I saw it:
Offense : You can't accidentally put up 38 points against the 5th ranked defense right? Especially when you put up 40 points the week before? A short week at that, might I add? Well that's exactly what the Bears did on Sunday, and it could have been 41 if Robbie Gould didn't miss a field goal late in the third quarter.
As for the forensics, the main star of the game was Matt Forte. Forte played exceptionally by gaining 113 rushing yards for a 5.9 yards per carry, 56 yards receiving and rushing touchdown on the day. Jay Cutler did his usual Cutler Act of doing something stupid and then making up for it in a major way by throwing a Pick 6 to Dwight Lowery in the second quarter to put the Jets up 14-10, and then rallying to throw 3 touchdown passes on the day while rushing for another TD as well. Cutler's TD passes weren't exactly on 1st and goal either. These were long TD strikes of 40 yards to Johnny Knox, 25 yards to Devin Hester, and another 25 yard TD pass to Knox in the fourth quarter. All of Cutler and Forte's success couldn't happen without the continued improve play of the Offensive Line. I asked them to keep it up last week, and they did so, by allowing Forte to run wild and giving Cutler the time to chuck it deep and take the chances Cutler needs to take in order for defenses to know the Bears are not a one trick pony offensively.
Something that I've noticed the past couple of games is that the Bears seem to be going back to more of the traditional Mike Martz looks. This is mainly evident by the pre-snap shifts that are happening with more frequency. These shifts are designed to help Cutler determine what the coverage is and/or force a favorable match-up the Bears can take advantage of i.e. Forte being covered by Jason Taylor and beating him for a deep pass late in the second quarter. These shifts were largely absent for most of the season as it was painfully obvious the Bears weren't ready to run Martz's playbook. Looks to me that the Bears are getting more comfortable with the Martz system and will hopefully catch teams by surprise with it come playoff time.
Defense : Don't be fooled by Chris Harris' fumble recovery and interception late in the fourth quarter. For as nice of a game as Chris had, this game was a big reason why I can't stand the Tampa 2. When the Bears face a team with a good offensive line and a quarterback that knows what he's doing in Mark Sanchez, they will get beat up and down the field like they did. The Tampa 2 is vulnerable to quick slants, play action fakes, and Seam Routes. Always has been, always will be. Don't believe me? Go ask Tom Brady. The numbers back it up too as Sanchez was 24-37 (13-15 in the first half!) for 269 yards and a TD as the Bears had no pass rush and did not generate the turnovers necessary to justify the scheme.
Unfortunately as the Bears enter the playoffs, they will run into more quarterbacks that know what they're doing, and it's too late to change things up defensively now.
Special Teams : Overall a good game by this unit despite a couple of hiccups. Even though they are full of crap by saying they "made the play" (Brad Smith dropped a very catchable ball) on the bizarre fourth down fake the Jets ran in the second half, they still did some nice things. Maynard punted the ball well, and Hester when given the chance almost added to his all time Touchdown record. Gould missed a 35 yarder however that would have put the Bears up 41-34.
Where Do We Go From Here : As I mentioned, with this win the Bears are now in a good position to lock up the #2 playoff spot-with the outside chance of home field throughout. Before you get your hopes up though, here's how that would have to happen : the Falcons have to lose to Carolina, the Eagles have to lose to either the Vikings or the Cowboys, the Saints have to lose to Tampa, and the Bears have to beat the Packers.
The more logical scenario is the #2 seed, and the Bears control their own destiny in that regard as they simply need to beat the Packers-barring an Eagle loss on Tuesday Night. On paper it seems that the Bears should win this game, but in my opinion I don't like giving Aaron Rodgers & company an opportunity to play for their playoff lives at HOME, do you?
Either way though this is one opportunity where Lovie's "#1 goal" would work out real well overall for the Bears.
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