Bear down, Chicago Bears

The goddamn Bears. After acquiring Cutler, there was much hope for this season. After all, we traded Orton, the 'game manager' for a young, franchise quarterback. With the neckbeard last year we managed a 9-7 (winning) record, so it didn't seem too far-fetched to think about a 11 or 12 win season. Things just haven't fallen into place. The hype about of a new star on our team hid the now obvious problems that this team suffers from. Injuries could be a factor in these struggles, but in reality every team deals with them and they seem to adapt.

As I see it the major problems are:

The whole Defense
O-Line
Coaching Staff
Receivers

Bears have always been known for their furious defense. Just a couple of years ago, The Bears made it to the Super Bowl mainly because of their Defense and Special teams generating points. Last year The Bears organization and it's fans saw a decline in D's performance, so they made coaching changes. The Bears put head coach Lovie in charge of making the defensive calls, and also brought in Former Lions head coach Rod to address the D-line. Well, if anything these coaching changes have made things worse. in the last two games against winning teams the D was lit up. In both games, the first 6 drives resulted in scores for the other team. The D-line hasn't generated enough pressure on the quarterback so they are always able to find a open receiver down the field. The rest of the D is just kind of there, it seems like somedays they show up and get 3 interceptions, and the next game they give up a huge amount of passing and rushing yards.

If you watch the highlights of a bears loss, such as last nights shit-fest against the 49ers, you will see clips of Cutler throwing interceptions. Although there are times when Cutler just makes wrong decisions (especially in the red zone), much of this blame needs to be placed on the Bear's offensive line. Cutler is always under pressure, thus he is forced to get rid of the ball quicker then desired and therefore these turnovers happen. The O-line also struggles with run blocking. The Bears have a damn good runningback in Matt Forte, yet he has yet to do anything this season simply because he often gets tackled in the backfield because the o-line loses their one on one battles against blitzers and thus Forte has no chance.

As I already mentioned, Lovie Smith has stepped in as the head defensive coach, yet no progress has been made. They look worse to be honest. He has one more year left on his contract and unless he turns things around this year and has a decent year next year he is not going to get a contract extension. The fans are sick of him and will want him to be canned asap. The main problem with the coaching staff has to be offensive coordinator Ron Turner. No joke, 90% of the time I can accurately call what offensive play is going to be run. If I, a twenty-something kid watching on TV can predict which play is going to be called, then imagine what the other team's coaches and players must know. Turner's play calling is very boring and predictable. 3rd-and-long will almost always be a screen pass to the running back... 3rd and short in the redzone will always be a play-action-pass to either one of the tight-ends or the full-back. 1st and 10 will either be a run up the middle, or a slant route to the receiver. If the first play was a run, then the 2nd will almost always also be a run. So predictable. When you are predictable then you will have less chance for success. Catching other teams D's off guard is when those big plays happen.

"Who is Cutler going to throw to?" was the main question that was asked once we made that win-win trade to Denver last spring. It is no secret that we do not have any big name receivers as our number 1 guy is Devin Hester - who just two years ago was just known as a special teams superstar. Our other guys are just young inexperienced wide-recievers. Johnny Knox has shown talent, but still obviously is a young guy who doesn't entirely know the system yet. Our biggest threat is TE Greg Olson, and other teams know this and they double team him. In a few years these young guys will establish themselves as threats downfield, but as of now they just are not all the way there yet. I just can't help but feel that this team would be doing much better if we had a Steve Smith or a Chad Ochocinco to throw the ball to. Players like those guys find ways to make great plays even in undesirable situations, such as when your QB just throws a jump ball in your direction because he is about to get sacked.

At the time of this writing, the Bears are 4-5 with 7 games left to play. The unwritten rule is that 10 wins will get you into the playoffs. If the Bears can either win out or take 6 of 7 they might have a chance to play in December. This seems very unlikely mainly due to the reasons that I have listed, but it is not entirely impossible. If they could somehow turn things around that would be grand, but otherwise one cannot call this successful season. If the Bears do not get a winning season this year then i expect some massive changes from Halas Hall.