Chicago Bears Review

Jay Cutler threw 3 interceptions in a 31-7 losing effort for the Chicago Bears yesterday against the Baltimore Ravens. It looked like it might be a game that the team could win. The weekend, in fact, didn’t even start off very well, with the team having lots of trouble getting to Baltimore due to cancelled flights and a huge snowstorm. They even moved the start time a little bit later for them. But alas, it didn’t matter much. The Bears struggled with the same problems that they’ve had all season and ended up with a similar result. Once you get to this point in the season with a team, you usually know what you have. We know what we have, and a lot of people know what they need to change. Next year, they’ll be able to fix some of these endemic problems and get back to playing real strong football!

There is a big weather system headed towards the northeast this weekend and we’re going to be excited to see exactly how much snow comes down before the Bears game against Baltimore on Sunday. We didn’t expect this, but they’re talking about as much as 12-18 inches of snow in the DC metro area, not too far from Baltimore. If I’ve ever heard of Bears’ weather, this is it! It’ll be snowy and cold. It’s almost as good as Packers weather, but who knows what could happen. Jay Cutler is from Denver, so he knows how to play in the snow. They’re going to have to play hard against this team; even though the Bears are clearly out of it, but Ravens are fighting for their Wild Card spot, so they will be playing with full Ravens intensity!

This has been a bit of a struggle year for the Bears and their fans. We have seen some silly mistakes that don’t need to happen and as the season goes on and the pressure rises, the coaches and players start making mistakes on that basis too. So we can almost expect more of the same as the season continues. But when things are tough, we can see some of the young talent that this team does have and that we need to get a system going in order to develop it throughout the next seasons. We can’t let Cutler stop his development and we have to be able to take advantage of Devon Aromashodu’s ability in the future. In fact, it appears that Cutler greatly prefers Aromashodu over his other current receivers. Yesterday in their one touchdown loss, Aromashodu got some great catches including a touchdown against the Packers. It was a tough loss with some silly mistakes, but there are glimmers of what next year could look like. The Bears are out of the playoffs officially now, but let’s be hopeful that next year will be better!

It’s been a couple months since the first time these two teams met this year and we know a lot more. The first time, it was the first season of the year up in Green Bay. It looked like it could be a huge battle between two teams with big franchise quarterbacks and strong defenses. But it turned out to be a relatively weak effort from Cutler. But his first week in a new place was tough. We know Aaron Rodgers is a tough competitor too and has led his team towards a potential wild card spot in the next few weeks. The Bears are clearly not going to be in the playoffs this year. But remember, against the Packers, anything can happen. It’s always a strange game, with the intensity of both sides right on the field. Hopefully the Bears can pull it out with a good running game and some bump in their ability to pass the ball.

The Bears won on Sunday against the Rams. This was expected, but still it’s a good change. Meanwhile, the team has become one of the biggest issues talked about in the city. The latest bit of information is that former Notre Dame coach Charlie Weis might be interested in a job as offensive coordinator or head coach with the Bears. Is this what we’re going to do? It’s not confirmed or anything yet. Don’t expect any announcements on thie front for about a month, right after the season is usually when such discussions are actually put forward. Hopefully we’ll see a change, at least in attitude even if we keep most of the same personnel. This year has just looked like there wasn’t quite enough intensity. But with the Packers coming in this week, we might get a sense of where the offseason might be headed.

While the Bears have underperformed, there are a lot of options for the team moving forwards. The first thing that you’re going to want to do is try to get the team to win at least some of the rest games. Perhaps the most likely for a win is this Sunday’s game between them and the St. Louis Rams. St. Louis has one win this season, sitting at 1-10 so far. But the Bears have had some major playbook problems which have been talked about in great detail lately, so it’s hard to tell whether they will be able to get their offense fired up. The running game that most of the playbook is based on hasn’t made the cut and the passing game was underdeveloped. This will have to be developed during the next offseason in one way or another. Hopefully, what we’ve got is good enough to take on the Rams…

Let’s face it, Sunday was not a big surprise. The Minnesota Vikings have been an amazing football team this year, with their new QB Brett Favre doing more than just handing off the ball, as had been suggested at the beginning of the year. Yesterday, the Bears were able to shut down Peterson during the course of the game. But instead, Favre took to flight, throwing nearly 400 yards in the afternoon. Hardly any turnovers. It was just a rough afternoon for Chicago. Afterwards, finally the coaches started sounding like realists, with Lovie calling the team bummed out, or something along those lines. After the whole “we are still right in the thick of it” over the last years, we can finally see that they might not be headed to the Super Bowl this year. A valient effort yesterday against Minnesota, but not enough against a team that strong.

With the battle between Jay Cutler and Brett Favre this weekend, the comparisons between the two players has been in full force over the course of this week. People are saying that Cutler reminds them of a younger Favre, with the willingness to take big chances and with the arm power that both men possess. This bodes well for Cutler, who could mature into an amazing quarterback over the next few years. He has the power and the willingness to throw tough passes. He just needs helpful people lining up on scrimmage with him and getting everything done. Next year, he will be much better and then each year after that will get even better from there.

Lovie Smith hit it on the head after the close loss to the Eagles this weekend, saying that the team just has to take each game as it comes without getting too far ahead. They can’t start getting dark about their playoff prospects. They play Minnesota this weekend. This will be a rather important pivot point, in which we’ll get to see if the Bears have any chance to make up some ground or if this year just isn’t going to happen. Cutler seems to be having some confidence issues, so hopefully they can get some offensive plays going that will work better for him than the system that he’s been up to. This team looks like it could have a bright future, but there will be some changes in personnel before we get there.

If you thought the 49ers were tough last week, just look at this week’s Sunday night game with the Philadelphia Eagles. It’s been talked about ad nauseum that the Bears have struggled in evening games this year. They have talked about Cutler not having time to pass and about the defensive line working like an open screen door. But don’t forget, this is a team that shut down Pittsburgh in the early stages of the season. They will be able to hit hard and do a great job this week. They need to do some particular things, though. Short passing has been good for them, especially to the tight end position. The running hasn’t been up, but if the offensive line can strengthen a bit, then the offense will be in business. The defense will need to make sure they know their film room information and watch for the same plays to happen again!