WCG Match-Up Post: Grades and Reviews
by Dominique Blanton on Sep 14, 2010 8:11 PM CDT
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PrintBefore I get into the grades and reviews, I want Bears fans to realize that we maybe have new rivalry brewing between Our Bears and the Lions. The Lions definitely look like a much improved ball club this season, and I feel they will be a pain in the Bears' side for years to come. The Bears offensive line had an ok day pass blocking this past Sunday, but run blocking was another story. Of course the highlight of that game, besides the obvious controversial call on Calvin Johnson, was the Bears O-line being man handled on all four downs on the goal line late in the fourth quarter. That's really unacceptable, and it caused me to give no Bears O-lineman a grade any higher than a C.
Run Blocking: Grade C
Williams was average at best against Detroit run defense which is all you can ask for in a pure pass blocking Left Tackle. He had his moments in the game where both Forte and Taylor ran behind him and Garza and got 4 yards. I think all of us Bears fans want Williams to be a complete Left Tackle, but if he can be an above average pass protector while being just a competent run blocker we can accept that.
Pass Blocking: Grade C+
Going up against a high motor DE like Vanden Bosch, he did a decent job. You know a veteran guy like Vanden Bosch is going to give it his all on almost every play. So if you can at best contain him, I think you had a pretty good day. Of course Williams got a lot of help from the TE's and RB's (good job by Tice and Martz to game plan against him), but there were times where he handled Vanden Bosch on 1 on 1 situations and got the best of him.
Run Blocking: Grade C+
The blocking was the least spectacular in Sunday's game so no one is getting higher than a C+ in this week Grades and Review post. I can say for Garza that you rarely heard Cory Williams' name last Sunday, which is encouraging going into this Sunday's game at Dallas.
Pass Blocking: Grade B+
Cory Williams barely got any pressure on Cutler and you can thank Garza for doing a good job on him. Garza will have to be consistent next week, as he will see his fare share of Igor Olshansky, Keith Brooking, and DeMarcus Ware.
Run Blocking: Grade C
"We got our [butt] kicked," Kreutz said. "They beat us down there. ... Your coach can't help you down there. ... It's not rocket science on the goal line. They call a play, and you've got to win down there, period."
"Is that acceptable? Do we have to get better at that? Yes. Can you win in the NFL every week if you're getting beat on the 1-yard line? No. These are all obvious statements."
Kreutz said it best, it was just unacceptable and going into this Sunday's game the Bears have to take advantage of opportunities like that.
Pass Blocking: Grade B
Kreutz did a good job protecting Cutler by helping out Louis on Suh at times and also containing any inside blitzes. The spotlight will be on Kreutz this Sunday as he will be facing one of the best 3-4 NT in the league in Jay Ratliff.
Run Blocking: Grade C
It was an intense battle between him and Suh and they both got the best of each other, but Suh slightly won the war. I will be looking forward to their next battle December 5th at Detroit. Until then, Louis will have an even tougher test going up against DE Marcus Spears and helping Kreutz out on Jay Ratliff this up-coming Sunday.
Pass Blocking: Grade B
For the monster that Suh is, I honestly thought that Louis did a heck of a job against him in the pass blocking department. Of course Kreutz helped Louis out a fair amount, but Louis at times during the game held his own against Suh, and that should give the kid confidence heading into Dallas this Sunday against an even tougher defensive line in the Cowboys.
Run Blocking: Grade D
Suh absolutely killed Omiyale in the first goal line stand, and that single play alone was the sole reason why Forte didn't get into the end zone on that play. It was just a bad afternoon for Omiyale, when looking back at the game he got pushed around a lot in the run game. That was disappointing because I'm sure Tice is counting on that right side of the line to be the strength in the rushing attack.
Pass Blocking: Grade C-
From last Thursday's Match-Up Post
"This Sunday he will be going up against Cliff Avril who, while is a good pass rusher, can at the same time disappear in games. I expect Omiyale to win this battle against a one dimensional defensive end. This is a match-up that Bears fans can feel fully confident about."
Um yeah, this really wasn't the case this past Sunday as Avril at time was having his way against Omiyale in passing situations. To add to that he also gave up a sack to Turk McBride when Avril went out due to an injury. I'm not giving up on my belief that Omiyale can be an effective pass protector, as I still believe he has the size, long arms, and skills to develop into a more consistent one. He will have to play a lot better this Sunday against a pretty good pass rusher in Anthony Spencer.
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Fourth down goaline play
Did you see a gaping wide hole outside of the tackle box? I thought Forte could’ve easily bounced it outside instead of again running into the backs of his linemen. It sure seemed like he would’ve walked into the endzone untouched.
"In order to have a winner, the team must have a feeling of unity; every player must put the team first- ahead of personal glory" - motivational sign at Halas Hall.
Ridiculously bad
the decision to go for it on that play was just unexcusably stupid! Can we put a F- grade up there for Lovie?
Forte often seems too hesitant to bounce-it to the outside. He repeatedly runs into the back of his blocker when the hole is not there. On the rare occassion that he does bounce it outside, it usually works-out well.
by MakeHalasProud on Sep 14, 2010 8:45 PM CDT up reply actions
With Taylor on the roster
Forte should not be in goal-line packages with Taylor ready to carry the rock in traffic. Taylor is tougher to bring down, and has plenty of experience running in tight situations. Wonder if Bell could be another option?
I want my MoM - Monsters of the Midway!
Yep
For a guy that has a reputation for great vision, I just don’t see it in short-yardage situations.
"In order to have a winner, the team must have a feeling of unity; every player must put the team first- ahead of personal glory" - motivational sign at Halas Hall.
Harvey Unga could have been a good short yardage back for us, if they didn't prematurely
put him on IR.
by Dominique Blanton on Sep 15, 2010 1:03 AM CDT up reply actions
Stashed is a better term i think
From what I heard it that “hamsting injury” was was less substantial than it was sold as. I’m thinking this one is straight from the same page as the Melton scheme from last year.
by Gnice1 on Sep 15, 2010 1:34 AM CDT via mobile up reply actions
Kellen Davis
I thought this is why he is on the team. He is like 6’7". Ron Turner used him at the beginning of last year twice and it looked so easy. Snap, throw, Davis doesn’t even have to jump, and touchdown.
This is what is unnerving.
This was the Lions we player. Yes, on paper they look to be improved but improved by how much? Last year they were pretty pathetic. Did they really improve that much or are we just not that good? I think this game left me with as many questions as I had before it was played. Still no idea what caliber of team we have….
If you can't laugh at yourself you must not be very funny.
I remain a pessimistically hopeful Bears fan.
That defensive line was pretty good.
Five foot three seems to thrive on his misery...
by awfullyquiet on Sep 14, 2010 8:49 PM CDT up reply actions
But against what quality of competition?
We still know very little….
If you can't laugh at yourself you must not be very funny.
I remain a pessimistically hopeful Bears fan.
I disagree
We saw well executed football concepts
by Sonicbob on Sep 14, 2010 10:00 PM CDT via mobile up reply actions
But Detroit has played ONE regular season game and that was against US.
No body of work to compare it to. They looked good against us. We looked good against them. OK. How will they look against the rest of the league? You don’t know and neither do I. More importantly, how will we look?
If you can't laugh at yourself you must not be very funny.
I remain a pessimistically hopeful Bears fan.
On the defensive line and offensively they improved a lot. They still need another draft
to build that secondary up to contend for a playoff spot.
by Dominique Blanton on Sep 15, 2010 1:07 AM CDT up reply actions
Suh
was the biggest worry going into the game, as he was an unknown going against someone making his first start. Suh will be more of a headache to the Bears’ O as he learns more “pro” tricks, but for now Louis gets a thumbs-up for keeping Suh relatively quiet.
The Cowgirl game will give us a better idea if there are enough horses up front to make a run to the playoffs.
I want my MoM - Monsters of the Midway!
great synopsis, Niquebears
You are right the battle between Louis and Suh was really entertaining.
There is no arguing with Kreutz – he summed things up nicely.
"Stay thirsty, my friend."
Yeah their showing in those goal line situations really irked and concern me.
You have to man up and win in those situations because they can give the opposing D-Line a physiological edge over you the rest of the game.
by Dominique Blanton on Sep 15, 2010 1:13 AM CDT up reply actions
But we had the same, exact problem last year
We are no longer a running team. And our goal-line personnel just isn’t able to punch it in from short range when needed, like that.
As well as a psychological one?
"44 years of football history and nothing to show for it. I wish I wasn’t banned at the Norseman.." - tfrabotta
"Fellas, what are they, unblockable? Is that the '85 Bears over there?" - overheard at Giants' '06 training camp
~~~ Check my profile for links for SB20 and America's Game: '85 Bears ~~~
So, this is totally irrelevant to this post, but something that has made
me wonder for a while. Plus it’s been a long day so I need to rant. Lol.
Why do Bears fan get so upset with the media and people criticizing Jay Cutler’s facial expressions, but then turn around and bash Lovie for looking “emotionless”? It’s SO hypocritical. They get mad because Jay shows emotion, but then get upset when Lovie doesn’t. I don’t get it.
I’m not trying to start a argument, but I seriously want an answer. I obviously don’t mind that Lovie doesn’t go nutty on the sideline, but I know others want him to. I could go on and on with this, but think that this gets my point across. Fill me in. Please.
/rant
"A lot of fans were drawn to me because they knew that whatever the score was, I was going to run as hard as I could on every play. You don't have that now, you have guys waiting for next week or even next year." - Walter Payton
Editor/Writer for WindyCityGridiron.com
I think it is because when Jay shows facial expressions
he tends to look “pouty” or “moody” not “fired up” or ready to “chew someone’s buttocks”. He doesn’t demonstrate the body language of a man trying to fire up his team but those of a man who is ready to give up on their incompetence. He looks frustrated and without any fire that’s counterproductive. Not saying I believe that IS how he IS but that’s what it can look like (emphasize “can”). Lovie just looks bored and indifferent. Even when we make a great play he barely smiles. Showing emotion during a game should be to get everyone “fired up” or to “light a fire” under the team. Neither man appears to know how to do either (emphasis on “appears”) I’m going to take grief for this kind of analysis but this is my take on it. And you wanted a serious answer. That’s as serious as I get.
If you can't laugh at yourself you must not be very funny.
I remain a pessimistically hopeful Bears fan.
I see what you're saying...
… it just confuses me sometimes I guess. I suppose I just feel that both are faces of the team and VIPs, so they should be criticized for similar things, not total opposites… if that even makes sense. Haha.
I do agree with you though, it seems that neither know how to move their emotions to the middle of the spectrum – it’s just that Lovie gets SOOOO much more grief for it…
"A lot of fans were drawn to me because they knew that whatever the score was, I was going to run as hard as I could on every play. You don't have that now, you have guys waiting for next week or even next year." - Walter Payton
Editor/Writer for WindyCityGridiron.com
by Ashley Czuba on Sep 14, 2010 10:09 PM CDT up reply actions
Neither man expresses his emotions (ok, only one expresses any emotion) in a manner that will "charge up" his team.
If you can't laugh at yourself you must not be very funny.
I remain a pessimistically hopeful Bears fan.
So HoneyBear, while you're off the subject...
I wanted to let you know, I just got around to reading your Kevin Butler Article and left a comment for you. Thanks again!
Haha
I saw that. And appreciate it. :]
"A lot of fans were drawn to me because they knew that whatever the score was, I was going to run as hard as I could on every play. You don't have that now, you have guys waiting for next week or even next year." - Walter Payton
Editor/Writer for WindyCityGridiron.com
by Ashley Czuba on Sep 15, 2010 5:34 PM CDT up reply actions
I think it has more to do with their position than anything...
Cutler showing little emotion can be ice water in his veins, or whatever and it has it’s place to a point. No emotion equals unphased so to speak. The same kind of thing doesn’t really hold true for a head coach as if he gets fired up what’s he going to do? Call a more risky play? He just doesn’t show a sense of urgency, whereas Cutty Ice can basically put his money where his mouth is on every play.
Actions speak louder than words and with Lovie, his actions show incompetence and his words and body language and facial expressions show disinterest.
Associate Writer - WindyCityGridiron.com - Artist formerly known as Sklz711
by Jacob Hayes on Sep 15, 2010 10:24 AM CDT up reply actions
The reason we get pissed at Lovie.......
Is because football is a game of intensity you look at all the great coaches and all of them showed a face of football anger, or football focus, the only one that never showed it and was pretty damn classy was Tom Landry but Halas, Ditka, Madden, heck even Knoll and Shula all of these greats showed emotion, Lovie needs to get the team intense or it seems as he doesnt care. As for Cutlers faces I could care less what the knuckleheads say as long as he produces wins!
I see what you're saying,
but I’m just asking why you want Lovie to look intense for the game, but when Jay shows emotion (even if it is negatively intensive) it’s not important, even though he’s out there making the plays and is kind of in a leadership position too. So I guess what I’m asking is, why do you care about Lovie’s expressions and not Cutler’s – even though they’re both important aspects of the game?
I’m not arguing, just prying to learn. :]
"A lot of fans were drawn to me because they knew that whatever the score was, I was going to run as hard as I could on every play. You don't have that now, you have guys waiting for next week or even next year." - Walter Payton
Editor/Writer for WindyCityGridiron.com
by Ashley Czuba on Sep 14, 2010 10:06 PM CDT up reply actions
Going from 14 years of rugby, personally, I’d want both to show emotion. Show me you care about what’s going on out there, even if you’re pissed off about it. If you look at footage of Ditka flipping out on the sideline and waving a threatening finger at the officials, there was no doubt to any of the players that he had the desire to win and would be in your corner if you were with him. If my on-field leader is angry and fired up to make something happen by putting his body on the line, what else is there to do as one of the troops but to follow his example?
"44 years of football history and nothing to show for it. I wish I wasn’t banned at the Norseman.." - tfrabotta
"Fellas, what are they, unblockable? Is that the '85 Bears over there?" - overheard at Giants' '06 training camp
~~~ Check my profile for links for SB20 and America's Game: '85 Bears ~~~
lets stay with the post
o-line should do well against the dallas d linemen.i watched the wahington game and based on what i saw they are not consistent. they step up on plays then they seem to fall apart on others. we on the offense are imho starting to jell mike tice should be game planning for the front at dallas
win-loss
what is the win-loss against dallas does anyone know, and with this being the first game against them at their new stadium and them wanting to play there in february does this put more pressure on them.i would like to think so.
Talk about grade inflation
There is no way there should be so many Cs on the grade sheet. You lead into the grade by saying
. . . it caused me to give no Bears O-lineman a grade any higher than a C.However, the line averages a 2.265 GPA and there is only one lineman with grades lower than a C. Do you really think that this was a performance by 15 performances worse than our lineman this week in the NFL? If so, please name 5 worse performances for me.
The fact that Cutler was able to be as successful as he was in a timing offense whilst being consistently flushed from the pocket is a testament to his athletic ability. This poor of a performance by our offensive line didn’t come against an allstar defensive line. This is a defensive line that has one established NFL end and one promising rookie. Based on week 1, I have a hard time saying that we have an offensive line that is any better than 27th best in the league.
C's get degrees.
Looks like this line got a Bachelor’s in Building a wall and creating a hole, and just don’t know when to do which one.
C's get degrees.
Looks like this line got a Bachelor’s in Building a wall and creating a hole, and just don’t know when to do which one.
I tell you who was throwing some good blocks on Sunday
Greg Olsen
Run blocking and some down field blocking (after the catch), Olsen really has improved his blocking quite a bit.
Now he needs to work on ball carrying ;)
And I tell you who didn’t impress me. Manumaleuna seemed sluggish and unaggressive. I’m gonna watch the game again and maybe I’ll see more out of him… Like I said, my first impression wasn’t a good one.
The tackle play...
in general has been just awful. I cannot tell if it is because they are trying too much to help inside because of poor guard play or are they just playing badly. I tend to agree with those here that say to put Shafer in at RT. Omiyale is just not very good unless he’s blocking out in space. For whatever reason, Frankie O can move and block on the run, but not in his initial stance. C Willimas just seems lost. I am very concerned about this o-line. Did Tice have to go back to square one and is now rebuilding these guys from scratch with his techniques? Or are these guys just average to bad and that’s the best the Bears can hope for? To a man, it seems like the Bears are simply getting out-muscled at the line? I do not see that as a technique thing, but then again I am not a line coach.
IT'S NOT TOO LATE TO FIRE LOVIE!
Chris Williams
$13 million for a top draft choice earning a grade of C is an overpaid fat and lazy lineman. This shows Angelo and his staff’s lack of ability in judging talent. This guy has demonstrated he has nothing.
How does Chris Williams get anything above a D?
Vanden Bosch is currently tied for 6th in the NFL in tackles and he’s a freaking defensive end. He absolutely dominated Chris Williams and when he has to face Jared Allen he is gonna be on his back more than a washed up old porn star.
by lopey986 on Sep 15, 2010 9:12 AM CDT via mobile reply actions
Except the last time he faced Jared Allen...
Allen didn’t do a damn thing one. Just sayin’.
Associate Writer - WindyCityGridiron.com - Artist formerly known as Sklz711
by Jacob Hayes on Sep 15, 2010 10:18 AM CDT up reply actions
Your Grades are all one grade too high.
Forte and Taylor combined for 79 yards on 26 carries for and avg. of 3.0 yds/per. thats subpar 4 yards per carry would be acceptable. Cutler was sacked 4 times giving up one or two sacks per game is acceptable 4 is just terrible.
by 62bearsthe best on Sep 15, 2010 9:20 AM CDT reply actions
Anybody else notice this on the 4th down goalline play?
Three Bears interior linemen were all on the ground without being touched within about a quarter of a second of the ball being snapped. It was like they were all in a Synchronized Falling contest and were going for first place. It was pathetic.
9:00 in this video, which is excellent from beginning to end. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2wNmr_0GSO0
Roy is a bit annoying but he is Smudgers boy.
David Taylor's personal hype man. Check out his website unless you're a loser. http://www.cheekymonkeyart.com/
by Ditkavsworld on Sep 15, 2010 3:28 PM CDT up reply actions
Roy is definitely NOT my boy.
-------
www.cheekymonkeyart.com | facebook.com/cheekymonkeyart | twitter.com/cheekymonkeyart
by David Taylor on Sep 27, 2010 8:59 AM CDT up reply actions
Omiyale should get a F- for pass blocking...
On multiple occasions he’d block his man outside and then release him like the play was over before Cutler had even thrown the ball, causing Cutler to then get pressured by the guy he released, and if I remember correctly causing at least one of the sacks. That kind of thing is inexcusable. If you get beat, you get beat, it is what it is. However, if you win the battle and then just surrender that’s damn near inexcusable.
Associate Writer - WindyCityGridiron.com - Artist formerly known as Sklz711
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