Notes, Scribbles, and Things Jotted Down: Week 5, Lions Edition

the Bears failed to take advantage of an inaccurate Matthew Stafford, and then a few of the exact type of play their defense is supposed to eliminate kill them.

Did Lovie think 11 point TDs exist? Why didn’t he kick a FG and then trust Toub and the special teams to do their thing in getting an onside kick? Though, I guess Lovie figured there wouldn’t be enough time for Jay to have his receivers run 60 yards in the end zone before getting sacked.

If any “expert” or “critic” dares to question Jay’s toughness, he (or she) should be forced to play behind that Bears O-line…that’ll shut ‘em up (I don’t mean for eternity, but that’s not a far-fetched possibility here)

(Dane) has yet to fully click with him (Cutler).

I say this because at some point (I believe in the 2nd half, not totally sure) it appeared that Jay checked to a hot read and the play went something like this:

-Snap
-2 step drop
-Fire ball in quick slant/seam route area
-Have ball ricochet off the side of Dane’s helmet

This might not seem big but consider that the receiver that Jay (seemingly right now anyways) trusts the most still isn’t on the same page 100% of the time. We all know the woes of the Bears WR corps but I think that play truly illustrated it.

Note: Not blaming Dane, he’s played as well as anyone could hope for out of an UDFA with next to zero reps heading into the season.

I’m confused. Why was the Second Coming of Rash Davis getting primo receiver snaps in place of anybody else

This roster is toast. We need to rebuild. Now.

Probably the Colts will indeed win the derby (the incredibly jammy gets). But what if it did happen? Andrew Luck falls to us, or another team that doesn’t want Luck but would trade for Jay. Trade Jay. Draft Luck. Get a first round center, a first round guard, our first rounder for a tackle. Our second round or third round to get a decent WR. D-lineman or LB with the other one. Obviously this is all predicated on Angelo being tarred, feathered and set on fire out on Lake Shore drive, and somebody who understands football making the picks. Jimmy Mac has my vote.

Surely we can make a tackle out of Carimi. Louis looks to be the real deal given time. Garza and CW to be okay backups. A solid QB, solid line for the future, and spend the next couple of years building the D back up to strength. Can I have six million a year please? The future could be bright again, the future could be navy blue and burnt orange.

so they can sprint to the 7 step drop area? Imagine 2 people running a 10 yard race, one of them is very large and over 300 lbs., the other also large but a better physical specimen with better footspeed. Now you also ask the bigger, heavier, less athletic guy to run those ten yards backwards from a standing position and the let the faster, more athletic guy run full speed from a sprinter’s stance. Who do you think is going to win that race?

That’s exactly what the Lions did last night and why Jay was running for his life. Again, this line is not very talented to begin with but to also be stubborn enough to stay with “your offense” instead of using 3 step drops more often is just plain stupid. The Martz offense, at least the way he calls it, is never going to work effectively in the NFL again, in my opinion, because O-lines rarely stay together for more than a couple of years with free agency. They need that cohesiveness to handle the pressure that today’s more athletic defenses can put on a QB.

Just as an aside, Lovie Smith is the worst gameday coach I have ever seen. He proves it every year.

Like, embarrassingly bad. Except for the one sack, Stafford was barely touched the whole game. Briggs was missing tackles, Meriweather’s still trying to tackle with his helmet, Chris Harris probably had the worst game of his life (though he was hurt). The CSN post-game guys had it right – this defense looks old. Maybe they’ve finally hit the age wall that they were supposed to hit last season. All downhill from here.

Tillman did about as good as job defending Megatron as one can do, but Johnson is just too good.

O-line took a big step back. Webb had a bad day. Omiyale should probably get his resume ready for his McDonald’s interview. All of Kellen Davis’ yards this season have been offset by the penalties (this game) and sacks (previous games) he’s given up.

WHY does Mike Martz continue to leave his tackles on an island when they continue to get beat? The Lions double-teamed the Bears’ DEs for a good part of the game and Stafford had all day to throw. Cutler rarely had any chance to throw. And people call Martz a “genius”?

End rant.

plus the penalties that got the Bears across midfield, and they still couldn’t score. They looked bad across the board yesterday. You’ve gotta take some shots down the field sometimes.

I don’t see it with this guy. He’s bad. He’s slow. Everyone says he has “potential” but I’ve yet to see him make any plays at all. He’s simply not starting NFL Left Tackle material. We have no one to replace him this year, but priority #1 for the O-line is getting a new LT. Webb can go to backup, that’s his ceiling, I’m convinced of that.

I have not been a fan of Cutler. However, I haven’t seen him play with an effective O line.
He impressed me with his talented mobility, and his arm when he broke out of the trap that Martz likes to set for him. Forte should have been collecting some balls in the flat, let him run! Where was Knox? I don’t remember any down field shots, could be wrong.
I was surprised by the Bears D against our run. All of a sudden, we were making holes to run through. Perhaps there’s a reason Rod M. couldn’t help us either!
Build the O line, dump Martz for a sensible O coordinator, things will improve.
We need to improve O line as well, surprised you couldn’t get to Staff more.
At least there were no major injuries on either side. See ya down the road, where
your home field will be hoppin’.

Calvin Johnson’s big play was all on the safeties. The only other long catch against Tillman was that stutter, go, stop, and out play on the sidelines. Stafford had all day to throw, so no fault goes to Tillman for letting a long developing route go to CJ. Peanut managed to punch the ball loose too on the tackle, but CJ kept a hold of it.

Lance Louis was moved out to RT for an awful Omiyale for the 2nd time. He did OK, much better than Frank. As a 2nd year linemen, I have way more confidence and hope for Louis’ future than the awful, putrid J-Webb.

can someone name all the o-line and their backups with a grade next to them and lets have a vote on who we think should be the starting line-up, if active and not injured, against the vikings this sunday.

Who misses Daniel Manning this year?

I’m wondering where our D-Line has disappeared to…..

how is peppers knee. will he be up for playing against the vikes

While the Lions were indeed beatable, they were more than up to the task of dominating our squad.

The Lions defense was just plain BEASTLY. Their rushers spent more time in the backfield than Forte. The calamity of penalties, poor play calling, inability to execute is as much a credit to the Lions D, as it is to the shortcomings of our personnel – coaches included. Yes we were awful – and we played like we expected to lose – we did.

Mental lapses on defense were really the deciding factor in the game. Take away both big plays and we have a different score at the end. Our offense did enough to win this thing, the defense failed – again – to hold up their end. Chris Harris looked disoriented. I don’t know if he was on medication or what, but I’ve never seen him make the kinds of mistakes we saw last night, never.

Another week of woulda, coulda shoulda. No were aren’t very good as a team. We aren’t that bad either. There is ample room for improvement, and accountability. Omiyale may have seen his last game as a Bear – certainly as a starter. I wish we could fine any easy solutions for the myriad of problems that face our squad – but there just aren’t any easy or quick fixes. As fans we’ll have to watch and cringe.

Lions are a good team but really this game was about their biggest strengths matched up with our biggest weaknesses on both sides of the ball. Their D-line is one of the best vs the worst O-line in the league. Our secondary has been giving up big plays vs Megatron.

I totally and completely agree about Hester. I get the idea of getting him the ball in open space, but enough already with the WR screens to him, its painfully obvious he does not recognize when he has a block and when he does not.

I thought the play-calling could’ve been better, though it was hard to tell from all the false-starts and lions in the backfield. I liked the off-tackle runs that took advantage of the way-outside DE’s. But not enough of those and way too many draws, you cant protect Jay in the center of the pocket, how are you gonna do that for Forte and give him a running lane? Thought the gameplan should’ve been similar to last week’s vs CAR, esp after we proved we could run on them.

Briggs isn’t having a good season. I’m sure he was responsible for the cutback on 1st of Best’s big run, and he’s given up a few TD’s in coverage. Specking of, it doesn’t seem to matter who we have at Safety. Someone remind me why everyone (me included) couldn’t wait for the Hit-man to come back. He looked out of place one every DET big play. I’m ready for Conte back there.

The past few games I privately said to myself the sacks, hits and pressure have gotten to Jay. But something happened in this game and he just went off. When Mad Martz gets fired or leaves, Jay needs an OC that will move the pocket and let him roll out. I read last night some thought Jay rolled out, I didn’t see that. I saw Jaw buy time and hit WR’s down the field. Jay was fantastic considering what he had to work with, and one of the gutsiest performances I’ve seen since … I don’t know. But I do know Jay’s tough.

trust me, I know. I was at the game… sitting right next to a Chicago fan… he was a good sport and I enjoyed his company. We all have our turn…. It’s just that right now…. it’s Detroit’s turn. Good Luck Bears!

Never trust the broadcasters. Kellen was flagged only once before Gate 68.

Here are the FS flags in order of appearance:
1st series:
Kellen Davis,
Chris Williams (falsely attributed by the broadcasters to Davis, but movement was CW and the refs called 74, not 87)
J’Marcus Webb

2nd series:
Davis

4th series
Webb
Frank Omiyale

9th series
Webb
Chris Conte on the punt.

10th series
Forte

Webb had three.
Davis had two
Conte, Forte, Williams and Omiyale each had 1.

Six players false started. Sickening.