Bears provide more of the same in loss to Green Bay

One man’s breakdown of the Bears 21-14 loss to the Packers after the jump and after I take two consecutive timeouts.

Outside of maybe Devin Aromashodu, it would take an inordinate amount of time to come up with a list of players who I thought played really well. (And Aromashodu playing reasonably well in Week 13 brings up an entirely different set of issues).

That’s been the thing with this season: Every game it’s just too damn hard to find a list of people whom Bears fans could say of, “I thought so-and-so played really well.” Of course, this is just an attempt to simplify a bad season in one sentence, but I think it’s true.

After each game there’s never any discussion about one particular person who’s to fault it is; it’s trying to decide the correct percentage for each person. And after this game, everyone has new ammo to shoot at the person they believe to have the biggest slice in the pie chart of bad Bears football.

Don’t like Ron Turner, you’re probably upset over a rather vanilla game plan (even though it was at times effective). Want to see Lovie Smith fired, his consecutive timeouts blunder doesn’t change your mind. If you have bumped your head too many times and wish the Bears still had Kyle Orton, I’m sure you’re not happy about Jay Cutler’s two interceptions. The defense played good enough to win, but their first play from scrimmage is inexcusable.

My censorship of the 2009 Bears came because I was tired of figuring out the percentages of blame – How much is Cutler? How much is the O-Line? etc. It grew tiresome.

Really, it’s just the same shit, different Sunday.

Ron Turner Vanilla

Ron Turner was rather vanilla against the Packers. The Bears ran a lot of really basic stuff – 42% of the Bears’ offensive plays were run from a 2-back, 2 wide receiver set; usually the I formation. For those who say this is Turner being unimaginative, surely there are plenty of people who’d agree. Color analyst Brian Billick talked a lot about the limitations of these formations and wondered aloud why the tight ends haven’t played larger role in the offense.

But to defend Turner, the Bears were often successful in the I formation. On the Bears’ second TD drive, five of the six plays came out of the “I,” and it was a rather convincing 56-yard drive. It kept the Packers in their Base 3-4 defense, and it allowed Cutler plenty of time to throw. Which leads to the larger issues: The steady dose of one tight end and 2-backs may also be considered a necessity in order to provide help for Chris Williams.

Speaking of Chris Williams

Not just Williams, but still it was not smiles times for Williams’ second game at LT.

First off, Williams was kind of beat on Cutler’s first sack. Williams stayed in front of Clay Matthews long enough to give Cutler time to throw, but was driven deep into the pocket by Matthews; then, when Cutler was forced to step up in the pocket, Matthews shed the block for a sack.

These are the plays where we see Williams’ limitations, and why he was defined as a finesse player.

A number of other plays in the game, Williams didn’t even have a chance to get beat by Matthews; instead, he just tried to rip his face off. Williams had three penalties on Sunday – a false start, a 15-yard face mask and an illegal hands to the face. Both in-play penalties, came on plays in which Williams was clearly beat.

To sum up, Williams didn’t exactly respond to the challenge of playing a better team than the Rams like many Bears fans hoped he would.

More than just Williams (*)

(*) This clearly breaks the censorship rule, but I can’t help myself.

Penalties were a killer on Sunday. Williams will take a lot of heat for a couple of bad plays and because he’s about the only offensive lineman that matters in the future, but he wasn’t the only one. As a whole, protection was OK, but there were seven penalties on the offensive line and tight ends. Penalties in bad situations, too.

One penalty negated a 22-yard run by Cutler on third and long, and another eliminated a 16-yard screen pass. But all of them made it real difficult to do something the Bears were doing surprisingly well: run the ball. For most teams 3.5 YPC wouldn’t be too exciting, but for the Bears it’s a minor miracle. However, it’s hard to stick with the run when your ranked 31st in rushing, and you’re looking at a 1st and 15 because Frank Omiyale forgot the snap was on “one.”

Without the penalties, it’s safe to assume the Bears run the ball more than 19 times. And at least for them, run the ball effectively.

Cutler the Complainer

Hidden within all the bad plays and stupid penalties was the highlight of the game for me.

When each Bears game looks the same, I tend to look for little things that make me happy for like … a minute. This week it was Cutler complaining to a referee while he was being tackled.

First of all, I though the big to-do about Cutler’s complaining was people not having anything else to say about the Bears. Nearly every quarterback puts their hands up in disgust looking for late hits and pass interferences, so I never understood the big deal. Obviously, neither did Cutler because he was complaining while being sacked by Johnny Jolly.

Calm Down, Thom

Cutler didn’t care about people’s issues with him complaining, and he didn’t care that Charles Woodson was on the field. Cutler attacked Woodson like he was a referee, throwing to his side throughout the game; even when coverage was good.

Woodson answered with an interception, and he probably should have had about two more.

Woodson’s impressive play drew him the praise of Billick and Thom Brennaman. If Woodson circumcised poor kids in Zimbabwe or had the ability to make a man’s life better within minutes of meeting him, someone would have had to hose Brennaman down.

No public interview for Billick

Overall, the broadcast was pretty good. Though I am somewhat surprised Billick didn’t turn into a public interview for the Bears’ offensive coordinator position. Billick talked a little bit about the Bears’ heavy 2-back offense and what’s wrong with Cutler, but I half expected him to start every single sentence with “You know what I’d do in this situation … ”

Even though it was a pretty good broadcast, I’m not watching the Sugar Bowl.