By Jim Coffman
A special edition of Bear Monday.
Cris Collinsworth is the best analyst in football and he filled last night’s broadcast with intelligent and oftentimes wonderfully blunt commentary. He almost never pulls punches but for some reason midway through the fourth quarter he couldn’t help himself. When confronted with the realization that Brian Urlacher hadn’t made a play all night against the Redskins, he prevaricated. Instead of lowering the boom on a guy who was overrated even as the Bears went to the Super Bowl last year (first and foremost it has been years since he was good enough fighting off blocks and tackling running backs), Collinsworth told his national audience only “It has been a bit of a down year for Brian Urlacher.”
And it is has been a bit of a rough century for the Cubs.
On to the lowlights:
* First a bit more about Urlacher – Collinsworth’s comment was so irritating because he had an opportunity to begin to deflate the myth of a guy who is held in such undeserved high esteem by so many football followers. And yes, I understand Urlacher’s back hurts. But this was the first week all season there was any serious talk about the soreness keeping him out of the lineup (and what was Dan Hampton’s line earlier this fall on WGN? Something along the lines of “every player in the NFL either has a sore back or will have one”). It is almost as though praise for Urlacher is part of a sacred script for national broadcasters, articles of faith they must intone every time they see the Bears. It reminds me of when local fans knew Dave Wannstedt was a terrible head coach and so many talking heads kept telling us he was a good coach trapped in a bad organization. Nope, as he proved conclusively in Miami and beyond (until maybe last weekend when he led Pitt to that unbelievable upset win at No. 2 West Virginia despite scandalously bad officials desperately trying to save the Mountaineers), he was in over his head in the top spot.
Other than a defensive coordinator (Bob Babich) who gets out-coached every stinkin’ week, Urlacher’s difficulties are the biggest problem facing the Bears. The guy is their star, after all, the signal-caller and leader and highest-paid player. If he doesn’t find a way back to being at least a good player this team is in huge trouble.
* Rarely do you see a more stark indictment of a defense than the one Eli Manning delivered in the aftermath of Giants-Bears last Sunday. “We just kept running the same play . . . they had a hard time adjusting.” Yikes. And then the Trib’s David Haugh quoted Babich this week as saying the main problem for the Bears’ run defense recently had been the fact that it had been facing some of the best running backs in the league. Um, Bob? The Broncos’ Andre Hall (who had a combined 167 yards a week and a half ago) was at least fourth on just his own team’s depth chart at the position heading into the season. The Giants’ Derrick Ward (who piled up the yards last Sunday) was third. They’re not even the best running backs on their own teams.
* One must note that the other, biggest problem for the defense is Tommie Harris’ inability to get healthy. So much of Lovie Smith’s basic defensive scheme is based on linemen consistently pressuring quarterbacks up the middle. Harris hasn’t done that since doing the splits the hard way in a game late last season and doing serious damage to his groin.
* Bye, bye Lance Briggs. I’m almost hoping Urlacher will be out for at least a game down the stretch so perhaps we can take a look at Briggs at middle linebacker. But if the future free agent can’t man the middle (and therefore have value as an insurance policy on Urlacher) he should be gone. Briggs’ shortcomings have also been exposed this year, including the fact that he almost never gets to the quarterback on blitzes. On this, I’m taking my cue from Indianapolis Colt President Bill Polian (maybe the best talent evaluator in the game), whose big salary cap rules included avoiding overpaying outside linebackers. They aren’t that critical and it shouldn’t be that hard to find more.
* Who is that who almost blocked Brad Maynard’s first punt? It’s Rock Cartwright! I believe Rock is the adopted great-grandson of Ben Cartwright of Bonanza fame. Michael Landon (a.k.a Little Joe) is his great uncle. And Mr. Maynard, I know it is sometimes difficult to remember these things in the heat of battle, but c’mon man. How’re you going to get that roughing the kicker flag if you don’t fall down like you’ve been shot when a guy slides under you like that?
* Collinsworth highlights from the first half: He notes that Adrian Peterson ran hard for the Bears last week against the Giants but let’s not get carried away. “There were three or four times when if he could have just broken an arm tackle,” he could have made huge plays. He also notes that defensive linemen have the most fun. “When you went by their meeting room it was always louder in there than anywhere else.” And he mocks the Redskins’ ludicrously large assistant coaching staff (play-by-play man Bryant Gumbel tees that one up nicely).
* Rex Grossman suffers a gruesome injury, one that looks like it will end his season and perhaps his Bear career. Not long thereafter his counterpart, Jason Campbell, goes down awkwardly as well. When the camera zooms in on the injured Campbell, his forefinger and thumb form a circle and are pressed against the side of his leg. We later learn his patella has been traumatized. In other words, when he was laying there he was actually holding onto his dislocated kneecap.
* There hasn’t been a more unlikely touchdown pass thrown in the NFL this year (except perhaps for Vinnie Testaverde to anyone) than Todd Collins to Todd Yoeder.
* Offensively, the biggest problem for the Bears is that the line, or at least key components of the line (Ruben Brown, Fred Miller), got old and teammates were exposed. And oh by the way, wouldn’t it be nice to have some sort of explanation as to why the Bears offense seem so incapable of getting the ball to Devin Hester (whoops, they finally commit themselves to doing so late in the game and Hester records several catches and almost scores a touchdown. So it would appear the lack of touches for Hester were just a matter the coaching staff not trying hard enough).
* The Bears finally figured out how to stop the run. One of the real “best backs in the league,” Clinton Portis, never gets going, totaling only 12 yards on his first eight carries. Of course, they allowed Todd Collins, a longtime journeyman backup who hadn’t seen significant playing time since 2005, to throw for well over 200 yards and two touchdowns for the first time since 1997.
* The game perks up for a while as Bear receivers start making circus catches. But those plays are eventually buried in a blizzard of flags. Collinsworth notes that perhaps the fact that Brian Griese uses a different hut, hut, hut cadence excuses a false start or two. The only problem is Griese was playing a month ago. We mentioned before that Mr. Collins had been out slightly longer than that and the Redskins committed no false starts.
* Don’t worry any of you who threw your remote through the TV after the Bears were called for their sixth penalty IN A SINGLE DRIVE. We hung in until the very end to provide you with some details. Some more Collinsworth highlights from the second half:
– “That’s no good. That’s just a give-up play.”
– “It is even more of an indictment of the Bears’ offense that they’re struggling so much even with such great field position.”
– “There is professional football and there is unprofessional football and the Bears are playing unprofessional football.”
* Hester hauls in a pass near the goal line and . . . Don’t do that Devin! Hester extends the ball out toward the end zone in one hand to try to earn a touchdown. The problem is if the ball is knocked away from him, into the end zone and then out of bounds (and the ball is knocked away but it goes out of bounds before getting to the goal line), it is a touchback for the Redskins. One has to conclude that Hester’s occasional mental lapses also probably have something to do with his inactivity on offense.
* Another long, back-breaking opposing drive featuring less than the NFL’s best just about wraps this one up. The Bears finally decide to blitz Collins but he obviously knows it’s coming and has the perfect route called for a final touchdown. Throughout the second half the Redskins employed “max protect” schemes and only sent out a few receivers. Unless the Bears blitz everyone, they should be able to utilize manpower advantages in the secondary to shut down those limited options. Instead the Redskin receivers constantly break wide open. Can’t wait to see how Babich breaks this one down.
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Jim Coffman brings you Bear Monday every . . . Monday. Except when the Bears play on Thursdays, in which case he brings you Bear Friday. And so on.
Posted on December 7, 2007