With so many Bears to choose from, who's to blame?
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by Tstelnicki03
The 2007 Chicago Bears offense is utterly inept. Can we all agree on this before we move forward? Ok, good, that didn't take long, and it shouldn't have, considering that if you exclude those among us unfortunate enough to be in comas, everyone is aware of the fact that the Bears can't move the football towards the endzone. Actually, I take that back, they can move the football, just not towards the correct endzone.
But I want to complain about this 1-3 team. And I mean really piss and moan. So who can I blame?
Well, after today's debacle, any citizen of Chicago could give one big nod if the question were posed, "Is the rust-encrusted Brian Griese really just an older, weaker armed Rex Grossman?" In Griese's first real action in almost two years, you can't exactly expect him to go out and throw, oh I don't know, 50 passes, right? I mean, no offense would really be pathetic enough to expect that out of Griese, right? You'd ask your running game to step it up, to be the fall-back, the alternative, the one consistent aspect of the offense, at least until the QB can get up to speed, wouldn't you think?
Unfortunately for Griese, he was not only asked to heave his patented dump-off screen pass more than 50 times this afternoon, he was asked to shoulder the entire workload, to be the single, solitary functioning unit of the Chicago Bears' offense, something he, quite frankly, was not prepared for after two years of headset wearing and clipboard holding. But the Bears' problems aren't limited to the quarterback position. (Although they might start there.)
Don't go and blame the coaching staff though, what are they supposed to do, make the running game more prominant and send Cedric Benson into the gnashing teeth of the ferocious, hard-hitting, all-world Lions defensive line? (Note: the Lions defense surrendered 56 points last Sunday, 121 all season, good for dead last in the league, and are currently 13th in the NFC in rushing defense. That "all-world" stuff? Yeah, you guessed it smarty, sarcasm.)
But don't entirely blame the men in the trenches either. Sure, they're the oldest line the NFL, and sure, linemen burn out their knees after a good 7-8 years in the league, but it's not like Ced-Bens is the most tenacious runner this league has ever known. In fact, I'd wager a guess, and a bit of cash, that he's near the bottom of that long list. After having the incredible privilege of watching Mike Hart attack Big Ten defenses every Saturday for the past 3 and 1/2 seasons of Michigan football, I feel like I'm qualified to say that I know when a runner WANTS it. Mike Hart is 5 foot 8, but he will make a bee-line for that first down line, no matter how many bigger, stronger, faster linebackers stand in his way. He'll hit the hole running hard, he wants to get there, it's clear as day, Mike Hart wants it.
Cedric Benson does not. Ced will dance around in the backfield, skip to the left..maybe on special occasion to the right, casually hit the non-existant hole, often times at a speed that reminds some of 30 year old offensive linemen, and finally hit the turf like a sack full of Idaho potatoes. Cedric Benson does not run hard. This was supposed to be his season, he knew it, Lovie knew it, the fans knew it, everyone knew it, this was Cedric's year, he was finally the focal point of the rushing game. And he responds to the hype with 189 yards through 4 games, 3.2 yards a rush, 1 TD, 2 lost fumbles. This is probably one of those situations where the stats effeciently back up the point I'm trying to make.
So Bears fans, who to vent upon? Well, due to Benson's complete lack of rushing ability and/or heart, and also due to the fact that the Bears O-line can't block one of the worst D-line's in the conference, the coaching staff was forced to put Griese into a 50-pass-a-game situation, something he and his 32 year old right arm were clearly not ready for, as evidenced by his poor decision making in the red-zone situations. Would Rex have been able to throw 50 a game, and would he have been able to throw the football farther than 15 yards downfield? Yes and yes. But, through his horrid play the last few weeks, didn't Rex put the coaching staff in a situation where they had no choice but to show him the pine? Again, yes.
The defensive line put enough pressure on Kitna and his vaunted offense so that he didn't have enough time to pick apart the depleted Bears' secondary, up until the 4th quarter at least. But who were the ones that couldn't give the defense 10 seconds to catch their breath on the sidelines? The offense. I'd say, after considering all that, that the entire Bears offense had something to do with this 10 point loss, the first in the last two years to come at the hands of the Lions.
So let the complaining commence! But before you start chanting for Rex's return, I'd pause and consider our mangly 3rd stringer, and next week, let out a casual, "WE WANT ORTON!" (BUT WE ALSO WANT HIM TO SHAVE!)
