Da Bears lost at the Black Hole on Sunday. They lost 25-20 to the Raiders mainly because the new starting quarterback Caleb Hanie was bad. His performance wasn't a complete abomination, but he was bad nonetheless. I heard this on the radio and in the office "I thought he did pretty good." That's because you don't know NFL football. He was bad.
Da Bears were out-Bear'd. They lost the turnover battle. The lost it because they didn't create enough turnovers on defense. And because -- you guessed it -- Caleb Hanie was bad.
However, Hanie's being bad was a good kind of bad -- if at all possible --. He was bad due to his inexperience. Before Sunday, Hanie only had 14 snaps under his belt in regular season games. He was amped for his first regular season start. Too amped, like a six year old meeting The Wiggles AFTER a trip to the candy store. Being that amped leads to poor decision making. And that's what happened on Hanie's first two interceptions.
After a play fake, Hanie rolled to the right as he was flushed out of the pocket and instead of throwing the ball out of bounds while under pressure, he did the ONE thing you cannot do -- he forced the issue and threw the ball into coverage. That's inexperience at its best -- or would that be worst? But I digress.
As if Hanie's bad play needed any help being even more bad, he got bad help from an inexcusable play call. There was 35 seconds left in the first half, second and short on the Oakland 7, and OC Mike Martz decided he wanted to get cute and call a back-screen instead of shoving it down the Raiders' proverbial throat. This back-screen was the one Martz called in the season opener. You know, the one where Cutler couldn't complete the pass. But here Martz asked his inexperienced QB to make the same play. Aaron Curry remembered that play call too because the linebackers sniffed it out and switched before the snap! Granted, Hanie should have thrown the ball into the turf, but Martz still cannot learn from his mistakes and refuses to put his players in a position to succeed.
But at least it led to one of the coolest plays of the year with big Lance Louis rumbling 80 yards downfield to make a "horse collar" tackle and save a touchdown. Hustle baby. Good old fashioned huffin- and puffin' tacklin' then collapsin' and air suckin' HUSTLE.
By the way, Martz is reportedly interested in the Arizona State head coach vacancy. I'd happily miss a relative's wedding to drive him to the airport and help him unpack to make sure he stays out of Chicago. Who could replace him? Anybody without a throbbing ego, but Mike Tice is a good in-house option too.
Hanie's second half was better, not much better, but still better. It couldn't get much worse so let me wrap up Hanie's first half with this 7-15 for 72 yards with one touchdown and three interceptions for a QB rating of -- are you ready? 43.6.
Da Bears lost the special teams battle. Da Bears got out-Bear'd, again. Gould and Podlesh were good. Knox's kick-returns were good (he had enough chances). But Oakland's punt coverage along with Janikowski and Lechler were downright outstanding.
Dynamic Devin Hester became Humbled Hester after he returned two punts for a total of seven yards.
Janikowski went 6-6 in field goal attempts hitting them from 40, 47, 42, 19, 37, and 44. Recap: that's four FG good from 40 or beyond. Polish stud.
Lechler averaged 49.2 net yards per punt. He booted an 80 yard BOMB sending Hester into a Willie Mays style turn and sprint, only he didn't have a chance at catching the ball. It went into the end-zone for a touchback and he still netted 60 yards. Coolest. Punt. Ever. Lechler had himself a day pinning Da Bears back deep with directional punts, as well.
Da Bears average starting field position was their own 20. The Raiders average starting field position was their own 40. Just Da Bears being out-Bear'd. Tough to win a road game with an inexperienced QB like that.
The defense did a nice job holding Oakland to all those field goals given their average starting field position, especially when they held the Raiders to a FG when they started at the Chicago six yard line after the Martz/Hanie mishap.
Raiders RB Michael Bush has been shredding NFL defenses since McFadden went down with an injury, but not Sunday. He was held to a meager 69 yards on 24 touches. So that's a plus. He wouldn't be denied the goal line from three yards out or on fourth and one, though. Minuses.
Da Bears learned a few things about themselves along the way:
Conte still likes to take bad angles to the ball and uncontrollably over-run a play.
When Peppers is being neutralized with chip blocks and double teams, nobody else on the front four can step up -- where was that first half pass rush in the second half?
Meriwether CAN make a football play that doesn't involve launching himself as a human torpedo.
Tillman is NOT a pro-bowl cornerback.
Jennings is tough, but he's susceptible to the double-move.
Major Wright is progressing nicely as an NFL safety.
The Raiders had three third down conversions. They all came on that last 74 yard drive for a touchdown. The defense was good, but you have to play all 60 minutes to be great.
You can't win games as Da Bears if you keep getting out-Bear'd.
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