By Jim Coffman
Let’s cut right to the chase. What does it mean – all this highly competent football during the past two weeks against teams that had something to play for (the Packers were still alive for overall home-field advantage and the Saints had an outside shot at a wild card) even if the Bears didn’t? The answer, I’m afraid, is not much. The big picture is all that matters at this point, and in the big picture this season sucked. Also, a final few words about last week’s win. Beating the team from an otherwise completely inconsequential small town in Wisconsin does not matter when the Bears can’t even win enough other games to squeak into the playoffs.
But these last two games did mean a few things. They meant that Kyle Orton should get a legit shot at the starting job next year. There was a lot of chatter a month ago about how the Bears should play him the last three weeks to improve his trade value. Excuse me? Exactly who do the Bears have at quarterback who makes Orton expendable? That would be no one. So in the off-season, the Bears brain trust will see if it can sign Grossman to a reasonably salary-cap-friendly deal (the cap is going up so fast these days in the NFL that very few deals really qualify as cap-unfriendly). If you sign Grossman, trade (not likely) or release (probably) Brian Griese. If Grossman doesn’t re-sign, hang onto the forever-more back-up who has proven he can win a few regular season games in relief of a starter but shouldn’t be trusted with the top job. Then draft the best quarterback you can get in the fourth round or later (barring the availability of a Devin Hester-like game-changing talent at a different position, the first three rounds have to be used for an offensive lineman – or two – a running back and, if possible, a wide receiver). And this year, the quarterback who plays best in training camp starts, period.
I would also argue the last few weeks meant a case can be made (not a terribly convincing one, but a case) for not firing either coordinator. First of all, I virtually guarantee Lovie is going to make that argument if he hasn’t already (in post-game remarks). And unless Jerry Angelo absolutely demands a change, Lovie’s wishes will prevail. Ron Turner shouldn’t be fired – although Ron, how about a mea culpa for your ridiculously inconsistent use of Hester? It was still less than a year ago that Turner called the plays for an offense that was at least an equal partner in the Bears going to the Super Bowl (yes, the defense was good but the opposition scored all sorts of points in the post-season people). As for Bob Babich, I’d like to see him gone. He was completely overmatched in too many games in which there seemed to be obvious ways to attack opposing offenses (like, say, blitzing the Redskin back-up quarterback who hadn’t thrown a meaningful pass in a decade – by the way, if the Bears had won that game they would have finished in a tie for the second wild card spot). But there also is something to be said for avoiding the three-coordinators-in-three-years-scenario.
There were a few other conclusions to be drawn but let’s have some bullet points already.
* A little more about the quarterback position: Plenty more will be said about Grossman, Orton and Griese perhaps qualifying as starting quarterbacks in the league (when they had decent support – solid running games and overall offensive line play – they all recorded victories this year) but not as potential Super Bowl-winning quarterbacks. Incorrect. Always, always, always remember – Trent Dilfer once quarterbacked the Ravens to a Super Bowl championship – with a lot of help. If Orton or Grossman or Griese (cringe) or anyone else (a draft pick, a free agent, Donovan McNabb – yeah right) is to lead the Bears to post-season success in the next few seasons, they will do so only in concert with a great running game and a great defense.
* And oh by the way, enough of the less-than-gushing assessments of Orton’s performance last week with some saying it was nothing more than a quarterback “managing the game.” Folks who didn’t lavish praise on Orton in the aftermath of the trouncing of Green Bay a) apparently didn’t begin to understand how bad the weather conditions were and how difficult it was to complete any sort of pass at any point in the game and b) were willfully ignoring Hall of Famer Brett Favre’s complete inability to accomplish anything whatsoever on that day. From critical pinpoint third-down passes that kept the epic game-opening march alive to huge tosses to Garrett Wolfe and Bernard Berrian that accounted for virtually all of the drive that finished with Adrian Peterson’s touchdown run, to the a touch pass to Desmond Clark for the critical touchdown that began to put the game away, Orton had an amazing game. He wasn’t quite as good against the Saints, overthrowing a bunch of passes early and missing several other opportunities. But the deep balls to Hester (and the other deep ball to Hester that seemed to result in an obvious pass interference penalty that wasn’t called) and Mark Bradley (any sort of competent receiver catches that ball in stride and goes in for a score) and a bunch more strong intermediate throws were awfully good signs.
* The Bears need to not overpay Berrian (although again the observation about the skyrocketing salary cap comes into play). He has good hands and has at times shown the ability to get deep but he doesn’t run great routes and I’m still waiting for his first memorable run after the catch. On the other hand, Muhsin Muhammad clearly seems to have run out of gas and Bradley struggled all season. They may have to address this position in free agency and the draft.
* We’ve been spoiled lately by a run of top announcing teams but on this day we were stuck with Dick Stockton (enough already, Fox – you really can’t find a play-by-play man better than Stockton, who was good for a long time but has fallen off dramatically the last few years?) and analyst Brian Baldinger, who struggled during a Bears broadcast earlier this season. Surprisingly enough, Baldinger had a great day Sunday. From commenting “It’s CSI: Chicago down there” as Bear receivers pointed to a mark in the turf at the back of the end zone where Greg Olson just missed getting his second foot down inbounds on an early pass, to pointing out, more than once, what we all know was the Bear offense’s biggest shortcoming this year – not enough touches for The Ridiculous One – Baldinger had all sorts of sharp stuff to say.
* The latest entry into the Here We Go Again file: Pierre Thomas, New Orleans’ fourth-string running back, became the latest totally-obscure-until-today back to have a huge day against the Bear defense this season. See previous Bear Mondays addressing games against the Broncos and Giants in particular for further details. After a couple early fourth-quarter runs, Thomas had piled up 101 yards rushing and 60 receiving. If anyone knew Thomas had this sort of potential it should have been the Bears coaching staff, specifically Ron Turner. Thomas starred for Turner at the U. of I., but then slipped back in the depth chart (mostly behind Rashard Mendenhall and partly due to injury) after Ron Zook arrived a couple seasons ago. The former superduperstar at south suburban T.F. South was thought to have pro potential going into college but not coming out, when the Saints signed him as an undrafted free agent. But look at him now.
* Brian Urlacher certainly stepped up and reestablished himself as an elite player in the league in the last month of the season (he had four picks in the final five games). But it wouldn’t kill the Bears to start planning for his transition to weak-side linebacker (he is perhaps the best ever dropping back into a huge middle zone in pass coverage but Thomas’ big day was yet more evidence that Urlacher isn’t a good enough run stuffer in the middle). Unfortunately, there wasn’t an opportunity to see either Lance Briggs or Jamar Williams in the MLB spot down the stretch to begin assessing their ability to take over at that spot. And it doesn’t matter anyway, at least as far as Briggs is concerned because I bet he’s gone anyway as a free agent.
* Speaking of the defense, Brandon McGowan and Danieal Manning (I still can’t get over the fact that Manning wants us to pronounce his first name Danielle – can we just call him Dan next year?) could turn into a very good safety tandem. They need to work on their form tackling (not just trying to ram into guys and ineffectually pawing at the ball in an attempt to strip it, but going in with head up and arms wide and wrapping good, solid tackles consistently) but there is a great deal of potential. McGowan is a big hitter with great strong safety size who seemed to improve considerably in coverage late in the season. Manning also played very physical football at times, although I don’t think he’s a perfect fit for the classic cover-2 scheme with both safeties playing deep in the secondary and mostly concerned with covering their zones.
* In the second half, Tommie Harris seemed to awaken from a season-long slumber and we’re reminded of what a powerful disruptive presence in the middle of the defensive line can do. A fully healthy Harris is a big reason to look forward to better things in 2008.
* Roberto Garza put a capper on the season with one final false start less than six minutes into the game. But otherwise, the offensive line avoided penalties, protected Orton and opened up at least a little bit of running room for Adrian Peterson. Peterson earned some hard yards and some tough first downs but on any decent team he has to be a back-up (and a big-time contributor on special teams). In fact, unless Wolfe is a total bust in training camp 2008, Peterson should be the third-stringer behind last year’s third-round pick and whichever stud running back the Bears bring in to replace Cedric Benson (with a high draft pick or as a veteran free agent).
* Thank goodness the Bear defense finally had enough stops early in opposition drives to force enough punts from deep on the other side of the field to almost force the kick that Hester returned for the touchdown (if you kick straight out of bounds too many times from your side of the field, the Bears’ average field position will just be too good). He went through a huge hole and initially I was going to write something positive about the blocking on the play. But the key element was a trio of Saints cover guys who banged together, Three-Stooges-like, in front of Hester as he began the return. Clearly two of those guys had failed to maintain gap discipline and that’s what set the greatest returner ever free. It was a wonderful reminder that no matter what else happens, Bears fans can take comfort from the fact that the Devin Hester-era is still in its infancy.
Posted on December 31, 2007