11-5 (It’s actually harder to blog about a team that has been playing well as opposed to a dumper of a team, but it’s certainly easier to enjoy watching them play)! Da Bears locked up the North Division Championship weeks ago, yet Lovie decided to treat the last game of the regular season versus long time rival Green Bay Packers like it was a playoff game. The reason for doing so was valid seeing as though they had a chance to deny the Packers a spot in the playoffs. So the game began and Lovie played all of his regular starters, which was fine. It could be strategic to put your best starters out there in order to beat a team now that you could possibly meet again in the playoffs; however, you must also keep in mind that whole injury factor. As the game wore on, you could easily tell that the decision to play all of the starters went from questionable to unconceivable.
Cutler was brought down a total of six gut-wrenching times and left six Cutler shaped dents in Lambeau Field. I understand that Da Bears were in the game the entire way, right up until their last drive when Cutler was picked-off for the second time, but that was just asking for trouble. Lovie played a quarterback who was sacked the most times, by far, in the NFL this season. Even if he did ride the bench for week 17, he STILL would have been the most sacked QB by six sacks. And let us not forget that Cutler had already missed one regular season game due to a concussion. Maybe Lovie has some sick personal future-wager that Cutler will be diagnosed with post-traumatic cephalopathy? Highly improbable, yet surprisingly appropriate. I’m kidding of course…but seriously. Lovie knows that if Cutler goes down the season is effectively over, right? I mean, he saw Todd Collins and Caleb Hanie run this offense before, right?
I admit that I was wrong and I’m extremely shocked and amazed that Da Bears even made it to the playoffs, let alone the second seed in the NFC. A lot of credit does go to the coaching staff. Whatever the Lovie-Marinelli tandem is doing is working for the defense. Julius Peppers is working for the defense. There’s been much talk in this blog about how Lovie’s one-gap scheme only works when there’s pressure up front allowing the other seven pairs of eyes to be on the ball. This allows the squad to swarm the ball and gives them more opportunities for turnovers, ya know, strip-tackles and such. (Da Bears had 33 takeaways this season, which gave them a +4 differential). The pressure should really be coming from the three-technique tackle (Harris or Toeina), but as this season proved, it can come from anywhere up-front and it’ll still be effective. Thank Peppers. The opponents game-plan for Peppers. Every blocking scheme revolves around Peppers. Stat-sheets aren’t everything folks, especially defensive football statistics. These aren’t sabermetrics. Football is a true team-sport.
I want to give the offensive side of the ball credit, but I’m not sure if I can. Yes, they certainly turned things around after the bye-week. Martz’s rush to pass play-calling ratio was essentially reciprocated and pounding the ball with Forte was working. But did Martz do this on his own or did Lovie realize that his neck was on the line and put a leash on Martz? There’s no way I believe Martz did this son his own merit, just look at what he did this past week, filling the air with footballs at almost a 2:1 ratio compared to the run. Da Bears were down a mere seven points in the third quarter, yet he opted to pass NINE consecutive plays! I hope that was just a result of Lovie loosening the slack on what was a short leash on what was basically a game which had no direct impact on Da Bears regardless of the outcome. I’d like to give some credit to O-line coach Mike Tice as the O-line started to get some of it together once they had a little continuity with the personnel, but then the O-line goes and has a game like this past week giving up six sacks on the franchise QB. A good amount of the sacks were a result of confusion at the line along with bad reads and blown assignments.
Congratulations to Da Bears on the whole, but the road to Dallas will be a rough one. Da Bears will face the either New Orleans, Seattle, or Philadelphia. (I think any way you slice it, it will be GB in the NFC Cahmpionship and hopefully it's Da Bears they're playing). It was a fun regular season and a huge turnaround since the circus press conference they held 366 days ago. GO BEARS!
ATTENTION: Tune in to the commencement of the Chicago Sports Fix radio show tomorrow January 7th from 6 to 8PM only on chicagolandsportsradio.com and listen every week same time same website!
PREACH
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