By Jim Coffman
He almost pulled it off.
Jay Cutler almost overcame a second 10-yard penalty and a false start thrown in for good measure on the Bears’ final drive Sunday night. But yet another penalty (a false start by Orlando Pace off all people – come on Mr. Future Hall-of-Famer!) turned out to be a hurdle too high. The Bears couldn’t quite tie it back up in the end, losing to the Falcons to fall to 3-2 on the season.
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Up until the final 10 minutes, it was an uneven day for the franchise QB. There was some good stuff early but then a couple interceptions that were completely his fault. Even though Cutler made a few good throws while back-pedaling during the first quarter of the season (including the fourth-quarter, game-tying touchdown to Johnny Knox against Pittsburgh), you still hate to see him do it. And sure enough, during the Bears’ first foray into the red zone, Cutler was headed back, back, back until he tried to zip a pass in front of Devin Hester. But Cutler failed to account for the safety who came up and grabbed the pick.
(Hester had a half-dozen Hester moments, good and bad, later on. On the plus side, he looked like he might break a couple punt returns and hauled in several big catches. As for the minus, he failed to power through a defensive back’s chuck and gave up on a route when Cutler was busy throwing him a chance to go up and make a top receiver play. And he failed to even see another pass headed his direction deep down the sideline.)
When Cutler threw that second interception shortly thereafter, I must admit I had my first-ever twinge of doubt about the whole thing. I don’t know what it was about that badly overthrown pass to Greg Olsen but it touched off a bit of apocalyptic thinking (this guy Cutler isn’t nearly as good as everyone thought he was . . . that sort of thing). It was such a bad play and even though Olsen made a clutch tackle to prevent a potentially big return, it was still such a turning point. Sure enough, the Falcons immediately drove down and scored. And after kicking the extra point, the home team would never trail again. The other primary play that turned the game the Falcons’ direction in the first half was Lance Briggs’ failure to recover that Michael Turner fumble. And that brings us to:
Notes On The Telecast
As usual, play-by-play man Al Michaels and analyst Chris Collinsworth were on target with a great deal of clever insight all game long. But on the play in question, they were too busy gushing about the perfect Pisa Tinoisamoa tackle that forced the fumble. And it was a beautiful hit, similar to one Tinoisamoa delivered early on during the Bears’ opener in Green Bay. Unfortunately, both hits were followed quickly by the strong side linebacker exiting the games with leg injuries. Tinoisamoa may be one of those guys, like former Bear safety Mike Brown, who aren’t quite big enough or fast enough to avoid getting hurt too frequently to be there consistently for their team in the ultra-physical NFL.
Anyway, Turner fumbled and there was Briggs with the ball at his feet. A potential killer turnover was there for the taking for a squad that had already jumped on top of the home team and could have been on the verge of going up by two scores. The Bears apparently teach their players to try to pick up balls in these sorts of situations in the hopes of kicking off a big return. But doing that, rather than just falling on the ball, made a lot more sense when the Bears didn’t have Cutler. Sure enough, Briggs ended up sweeping the ball into the Falcon backfield, where quarterback Matt Ryan fell on it. At this point there is no pressure for the Bear defense to score . . . in these sorts of situations, guys should just fall on the ball.
Back To The Quarterback
In the end, Cutler came back and played beautifully during the Bears’ last two drives. Here were the downfield throws we knew he had in him. The long pass to Hester, the long pass to Olsen, the toss to Bennett down the seam that turned a seemingly impossible third-and-26 into an ever-so-makeable fourth-and-one (before Pace’s penalty). Cutler also appeared to intentionally underthrow a few other passes that led to big interference calls against the defense. And he even scrambled for 30 yards. We’ll still be hoping for more as we go forward, but considering the fact that the Bears had no running game whatsoever, it was a decent day for the signal-caller.
Game Notes
* Eric Weems’ 60-plus yard kickoff return in the fourth quarter was a killer. Atlanta won the special teams battle with that play alone, but the Falcons were better in a variety of ways. From better punts to a couple other solid returns to good coverage capped off by the fourth-quarter tackling of Johnny Knox on his 11 after an ill-advised decision to bring a high and deep kick-off out of several yards deep in the end zone, Atlanta was the better special team.
* I thought Cubs catcher Geo Soto would go down as the Chicago athlete who suffered through the most severe sophomore slump in 2009, but if Matt Forte doesn’t get his act together, he’ll give Soto a run for his money. Forte’s sluggish running is bad enough but two fumbles on two carries inside the five? Yikes.
* What is up with Bear defensive backs failing to put the ball away after making picks? Twice they fumbled after interceptions, but fortunately both times the Bears recovered. In particular, Danieal Manning’s recovery of Zack Bowman’s fumble, a recovery in which a huge Atlanta offensive lineman was poised to fall on the ball before Manning zipped his hand in under him and stole it, was impressive.
* There wasn’t much of a Bear pass rush, but I think that was almost by design, or at least, the Bears didn’t make hitting Matt Ryan their primary priority. Instead they made sure they almost always had plenty of people back in coverage. And it was effective. Ryan never completely settled into a groove and made numerous ill-advised throws. If the Bears hold Weems to just a routine return on Atlanta’s last possession, I’ll bet the defense forces one last punt and a field goal would have done the trick, just like against the Steelers.
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Jim Coffman rounds up the sports weekend in this space every Monday. He welcomes your comments.
Posted on October 19, 2009