By Jim Coffman
It has been a long time since I enjoyed 60 minutes of Bear football more than Sunday’s dismantling of the Lions. And sure Detroit is detritus, but that doesn’t mean they won’t win some games later this season, especially at home (actually, maybe not – their schedule is tough enough that they could eventually open this season with double-digit losses in a row). The Lions were coming off a bye, playing in their dome and they have a quarterback (Jon Kitna) who has proven capable of at least respectable offensive output.
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But the Bear defense was dominant right from the start and all the way through. It took the offense a while to get going but once it did there was no stopping it. The play-calling was conservative early on and the run game never gained real traction but the Bears were committed enough to pounding away early to open things up for Kyle Orton. And soon enough the fast-rising quarterback just blew the doors off with great throw after great throw. There was one significant screw-up – Devin Hester’s fumbled punt return – the whole game (and when the other team punts eight times, basic probability demands a bobble doesn’t it?) And that didn’t happen until after the Bears led 31-0.
Most importantly, thanks ever so much to Lovie and the guys for quickly changing the subject after the Cubs debacle. The only bright side after the North Siders succumbed so incredibly meekly was that at least they got off the stage before kickoff Sunday.
Get your highlights here!
* Matt Forte doesn’t shimmy. And he doesn’t shake. But he breaks tackles (Orton hung him out to dry on an early swing pass yet he bounced off a defender who had a wide-open shot and almost gained a first down) and gets tough yards. Against the Lions, the Bears gave him a few more tosses than they had in the first four games. Forte was able to cut those runs up the field (the man runs north-south, especially important against so many speedy NFL defenses) and grab at least a few yards every time. The offensive line is still a work in progress (especially on the left side) and Forte is usually making the most of what is available. Backup halfback Kevin Jones, who was facing the team that released him at the end of last season, made the mistake of trying to bounce a run outside early and turned a second-and-six into a third-and-long and a fourth-and-punt. But he improved as the game went on.
The best thing is, Forte is showing signs of greatness as a pass catcher out of the backfield. Way to dive and keep that knee off the ground just long enough to go get that first touchdown big guy! Overall the Bears had very few drops, which is a credit both to the receivers and to Orton, who is putting the ball in good spots.
* More very good stuff from Hester in the passing game. He held onto a slightly high pass on a third-down route into the middle of the field with defenders bearing down when the game was still very much in doubt in the first half among several other strong catches. And he showed his instinctive feel for how to get the ball in the end zone when he had the chance shortly before halftime. Of course it helped that Lion cornerback Leigh Bodden was playing far enough back to evoke memories of former Bear cornerback Walt Harris, who specialized in strangely soft coverages in the red zone (as analyst Brian Billick put it – “all he (the receiver) can do is run through the back of the end zone – you might as well try to play him tight”).
* Mostly good work from the announcing crew of play-by-play man Matt Vasgersian, Brian Baldinger and Billick. Vasgersian botched one early on when he went on about how Kitna and the offense would be backed up against their own goal line while not one but two refs were signaling a touchback. But an early highlight from Baldinger was a story I hadn’t heard before about how the Bears realized Jones was recovering quicker from off-season knee surgery quick than they thought he could. “He was wrestling Olin Kreutz in the locker room in training camp.” When defensive end Alex Brown tomahawked the ball away from Kitna (one of several strong plays in a typically powerhouse game) Baldinger noted the quarterback’s “internal clock’s gotta be ticking. He’s gotta know to move up in the pocket before that.” And at the end of the first half Billick was all over Lion wide receiver Shaun McDonald for “lollygagging around” and drawing an illegal procedure penalty because he wasn’t set for a play in the hurry-up offense.
* Did we mention there were just so many great plays in the passing game? The best of all was the play-action, 50-yard bomb to Greg Olsen with the Bears leading only 3-0. It didn’t lead directly to anything other than a big shift in field position but it got everything rolling. And then there was Marty Booker’s catch on the deep ball down the far sideline in the second half. When Lovie challenged the ruling that Booker hadn’t caught the ball but had been interfered with and therefore the Bears got the ball where it would have been if it had been ruled a catch, the initial reaction was “Why bother?” But this was an “alert NFL Films” worthy reception that is to be included on the league’s next “50 greatest catches” commemorative DVD. And Booker’s one-handed masterpiece deserved Lovie’s advocacy and the eventual reversal even if the field position didn’t change. One pass catcher who didn’t impress was Des Clark. For the second week in a row, the veteran tight end was easily knocked off a route just short of the goal line, this time right before Forte ran in his second touchdown of the day in the third quarter. A similar Clark gaffe resulted in an interception against the Eagles, but this time around the Lions defensive back dropped the potential pick.
* In the second half, it felt a bit like ’85 when Peanut Tillman ran his interception back for the score and the 30-point lead relatively early in the third quarter. What a richly deserved touchdown. Tillman bounced back from a painful shoulder injury last week to dominate his side of the field on Sunday. He set the tone in the first series of the game, blowing up Kitna’s attempted pass to Roy Williams. He also assisted on an early sack and broke up several more passes as the game went on. In part because Tillman was so good, the Bears were able to make sure the subs on the other side (Trumaine McBride and Corey Graham seemed to alternate in place of the injured Nathan Vasher) always had help, like when Hunter Hillenmayer dropped into coverage late in the third and made a beautiful play to break up a pass.
* And just like in ’85, the Bears went through a couple Lions quarterbacks. Kitna took some shots and eventually was sidelined by back spasms (and his ineffectiveness). Back-up Dan Orlovsky wrapped up his day on a training table after Adewale Ogunleye hit him high and Anthony Adams almost broke him in half for the Bears’ final sack.
* Hey Lions coach Rod Marinelli – when your veteran receiver is pitching fits after just about every offensive series, perhaps you ought to sit him on the bench for a bit. It wasn’t like the Lions were all of a sudden going to stage a four-touchdown comeback. But instead of disciplining veteran Roy Williams for his pathetic little tantrums (again, Billick and Baldinger were all over them), the Lions seemed like they were kow-towing to him. They called Williams’ number continually and seemed to forget about ultra-athletic second-year man Calvin Johnson on the other side. Despite numerous drops (and a few poor throws), Williams finished with seven catches for 96 yards.
Then again, I suppose Williams is about all the Lions have at this point. A visit to the team website reveals a cover page dominated by a picture of the malcontent himself. Maybe they should change that to a shot of finally former team president Matt Millen with a red slash through his face. It looks like last week’s outrageously overdue firing of the incredibly inept executive will be the team’s only true highlight in 2008.
And finally, a brief Cubs post-script:
Throw us a bone Jim Hendry. Tell us you really will go out and find a legit lead-off hitter this time around in the off-season. And then you’ll grab a left-handed run producer. I’d have no problem going into next season with exactly the same Cubs pitching staff as this year but you’ll have to consider trading a few guys to shake up the offense. The biggest problems in the playoffs were Soriano’s (Alfonso that is) brutal performance at the top of the order and the lack of a lefthanded bat with pop in the middle. That was the larger impact of the demise of Kosuke Fukudome. The fact was that although he didn’t have much home run power, the right fielder still drove in runs by finding gaps with reasonable consistency in the first half. Once the league figured out how to pitch to him and he reacted so poorly (rarely have we seen a major league non-pitcher consistently take the kind of terrible swings he offered up in the last month and a half), the Cubs were in a bind.
The manager thought about benching him for good but he realized if the Cubs were to have any hope of decent lefty-right balance, he needed Fukudome to bounce back. Why he didn’t go ahead and give Mike Fontenot a true opportunity to seize that spot in the order we’ll never know, but the worst-case scenario was realized when Dodger right-handed pitching shut down righty swinger after righty swinger after righty swinger last week. I wonder how the rest of the post-season will torture Cubs fans this time around. Maybe we can watch the White Sox win again or the Red Sox. Or maybe it will be another undeserving fan base (like Marlins fans in 2003 and 1997), the one that did such a terrible job supporting the miracle Tampa Bay Rays this summer, who will be rewarded with a championship. That’s my guess.
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Jim Coffman brings you the city’s best weekend sports roundup every Monday. It’s always a pleasure, isn’t it? You can write to him personally! Please include a real name if you would like your comments to be considered for publication.
Posted on October 6, 2008