The Bears Den: August 23, 2010

If Lovie is concerned being down 10-0 and that is a “big hole to climb out of”, against one of the lesser teams in the league, we are really f-ed this year.

Linebacker nastiness

“The coaches got to a job to do, too, and that’s why we have the preseason,’’ Manning said.

I don’t trip on that.

“That just me keeping my eyes on my man,’’

The “cons” on Williams coming out of the draft was that he played “too high” out of th snap. That seems to be the same problem with him this year as well. Wimbley COMPLETEY embarassed him in 2 Qtrs of play and that really through the line into a disarray as they had to help/double/chip on a lot of occassions. You can’t have your LT receiving THAT much help on a player like Wimbley. Maybe a Jared Allen…

… But, not a Wimbley!?

The line needed Williams to be able to “hold his own” and he couldn’t. That’s the disappointing part of Saturday’s display and I think the kink"in the chain for the OL’s performance.

I was looking for his performance SPECIFICALLY on Saturday and he failed HORRIBLY!

He looked out of sync and got beat twice going deep. In a C2, the QB reads the FS and makes his plays accordingly. Manning just looks lost at times.

It’s gotta be Harris and Wright going into week 1.

Tommie and Pep were both getting double teamed like crazy, and they still made plays. On that big screen play on third down in the first quarter Tommy actually almost made the tackle and his hustle almost snuffed out the whole play. Thats what i want to see from him. Toeina and Izzy played well also, i think the defensive line played well as a whole.

I know people were giving the secondary a lot of crap but where were the linebackers? Yeah Briggs and Pisa had some tackles sure, but i just didn’t see any domination from them all game long…almost like they wern’t even on the field.

Cdub, I am still chalking that up to an anomaly, his footwork just looked like he was dragging in sand, I can’t recall the last time i saw his footwork so slow.

I really liked the blocking from everyone in general on the O-line. They seemed to really come together on some of those run plays.

Maybe it’s just the optimism in me, but i think we will iron out the kinks before week 1.

Outside of Peppers, nobody made a consistent impact. The Raiders’ No. 1 offense converted 5 of 10 third downs behind quarterback Jason Campbell. What will Aaron Rodgers and Tony Romo do?

I’m fully aware that this is just preseason and I’m glad that these problems are coming out now rather than a couple weeks from now against Detroit.

But, man… The way the Raiders were able to take the aggression of the Bears front 4 and use it against them on screens and draw-runs speaks volumes to the stubbornness of the Bears coaching/gameplanning.

I don’t think it would have been much of a problem if the secondary was “proven” to be better…

… But, it’s not.

And hasn’t been for a LONG time.

I really hope that the Bears coaching staff is doing this because they are assessing players ability rather than the “system” itself. Because that game showed that there are some huge flaws and inefficiencies throughout.

Player-wise? There was certainly some pluses (Peppers, Harris, Chris Harris, Harrison, Urlacher) and I think that’s encouraging. But, that other defensive end has to be addressed. Manning is not there and I think he has to be dangled as trade bait by week 6

Mark Anderson is a ghost — in that he is virtually invisible when you watch the game. How the hell does he start over Idonije!?!?

I’ve been down on Tommie Harris for a couple of years now, but I’ve gotta say he is looking considerably faster than in the past. Plus, he seems to be giving good effort.

Chris Williams – shuts down Jared Allen, and then gets dominated by somebody I’ve never heard of. What an inigma! Hopefully that was a 1-time freak occurance (against the Raiders – not against Allen).

1 year deal to be a stable backup. Collins has proven to be capable of handling the reins as more than just a “mop-up” QB in the last 10 min of a blowout. I was hoping Garcia had designs on playing in Chicago, but Collins is a solid move.

I really wished the Bears didn’t sign Manu, and instead used those funds for OJ. Ugh…another year of below average safety play will drive me to heavier drinking!