I am sure that there is no doubt about the Bears biggest need on the offensive side of the ball is anymore. Sure we could use an offensive lineman or two but what we have is good enough, they are mostly young and mostly improving, but it is all too clear the Bears need an upgrade at receiver. I believe Halas Hall it self is finally coming around and admitting that a bit. The position was way too neglected under former general manager Jerry Angelo. Despite spending two picks on WR in '09, he never seemed comfortable drafting the position in the early rounds (read: first round) or very good at finding talent (David Terrell [actually a Jauron pick, according to sources], Mark Bradley, Juquain Igleasias). Anyway, now with a new man in charge as far as evaluating the college talent, it seems there is renewed hope that the Bears go out this offseason and either draft someone or sign one in free agency. Everyone agrees the Bears need a "true number one" target for Jay Cutler, but what exactly does that mean?

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Are you kidding me? Seven sacks? Including 3.5 to Jared Allen. Did Mike Martz not get the memo that Allen was all amped up to go for the single season sack record? It took Martz far to long to give his left tackle J'Marcus Webb any help on the relentless Allen. Had Chicago QB Josh McCown been more established in his Chicago Bears tenure, and more secure with his Chicago Bears future, I think an F-Bomb directed at the Mad offensive coordinator would have been appropriate.

After the jump we'll take a look at the final Sackwatch numbers.

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The Chicago Bears traveled to Green Bay on Sunday with a new starting quarterback, their third of the season, and a patchwork offensive line that had been struggling the last four weeks. The pass protection issues during that span was definitely a team effort of crapdom, and I feared the Packers pass rush would add to the Sackwatch total in a big way. Then when I saw Gate 68 inserted into the lineup for the Bears I braced myself for a long film session breaking down multiple sacks. Surprise. Although the Bears were stomped 35-21, Packer sack specialist Clay Matthews and his defensive brethren didn't get to Josh McCown once. So where are we at in the Sackwatch you ask...

Sackwatch after 15 games
2010 - 50
2011 -42

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These last four weeks the Chicago pass protection has been exposed. I'm not ready to lump all the blame on the offensive linemen, but I do hope the Bears look into picking up an NFL quality left tackle if one is available via free agency. I'd also be fine if a highly rated lineman was taken in the 1st or 2nd round of the draft. The Bears just need to amass more talent on the o-line and let the best men win in training camp. A talent upgrade is needed at a few other positions as well, but this is the Sackwatch, so we'll save those other positions for another day.

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1) Hold On To The Football

And I mean this in more than the "turnovers" sense. The Seahawks are 7th in takeaways with 24, just behind the Bears with 27, and in just three games (actually 2...) Caleb Hanie has almost doubled the team's interceptions given up, so it could apply there as well. But this applies in more ways. First off, the Bears failed to convert too many third down chances - one of the best ways to kill an offense is to not convert third downs. What would also help is being able to get more done on first and second downs. How many times do we see the Bears get one or two yards on first down, nothing on second down and have to convert 3rd and 8 or 3rd and 10? If you're punting more than ten times in a game, you're doing something wrong on offense beyond failure to execute.

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1) Marshawn Lynch is Pretty Damn Good.

Marshawn Lynch is not a big play back. What he is is a power back who just hates being tackled to the point of throwing defenders long distances who dare to get between him and the end zone. That often results in big plays. This year he's posting a career high in YPC (well, 4.3...) and is averaging about 80 yards per game, himself, to go with his nine touchdowns on the year. In his last three games, he's run for 111, 148 and 115 yards and 3 TD, and caught an additional touchdown - actually, he's scored a touchdown in each of his last 9 games.

However, in his one regular season game against the Bears, he was held to 44 yards and a touchdown on 17 carries, and he only had four carries against the Bears in the playoffs. Clamp down on Lynch and force Tarvaris Jackson to make throws.

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Four more sacks added to the Sackwatch for 2011, and after three consecutive Chicago Bears loses I'm just not in the mood for any opening paragraph chit chat. I'm cutting right to the chase this week. In last year's week 14 tilt the Bears were embarrassed by the Patriots 36-7 in the Soldier Field snow (I tried to displace that memory), but they only allowed 2 N.E. sacks which bring the totals up to...

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Well that was a step back for the Bears pass protection. The only thing that saved my blood from boiling on Sunday was I didn't see the second half live. For the first time in a long time I had things I had to do that prevented me from watching the entire game. And avoiding the score would have been next to impossible, so watching the game on DVR later wouldn't have been an option. So I knew all about the horrific seven sacks and the eventual 10-3 loss while watching the game. That's like watching The Usual Suspects and knowing who Keyser Soze is. But enough chatter, I have 7 sacks to breakdown... On to the Sackwatch!

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