Brad Biggs of the Sun-Times has a nice piece today about the problems with the Bears offense, more particularly the Red Zone offense. He starts off by talking about Ron Turner wanting to scale back the Bears offense. Seriously.
Offensive coordinator Ron Turner said he's ready to start paring back the playbook with the Bears clearly struggling seven games into the Jay Cutler era. At this point, following Sunday's 30-6 victory over the Cleveland Browns at Soldier Field, it's fair to say the Bears aren't doing much of anything very well with the possible exception that Cutler is doing a decent job of getting the ball to Devin Hester on a regular basis.
Speaking of Devin Hester, he is starting to put up some solid numbers as a WR, the following is from some Bears blog on Sporting News. :)
* Devin Hesterlooked good in the return game, and his 7 catches for 81 yards has him with 35 receptions on the year (tied with Anquan Boldin and T.J. Houshmandzadeh) for 10th in the NFC, and 454 yards, good for 9th best in the NFC. Still not #1 WR numbers, but it's a heck of a start.
Anyway back to the article from Biggs.
He sort of compliments Matt Forte, but points out a missed blitz pick up he had.
Matt Forte, who rushed for the two offensive touchdowns, showed some signs yesterday and looked good on a 28-yard reception to pick up the game's first first down. He got in some open space and took advantage of the room to run. But on the very next play Forte's assignment was to pick up blitzing linebacker Eric Barton and he completely whiffed.
Forte has been real good in his blitz pickups in his young career. Can anyone recall him missing like that in the past?
Turner talked about players executing afterward and he's right. Surely, his call accounted for Browns linebacker Kamerion Wimbleyon third-and-goal from the Cleveland three-yard line early in the second quarter. With an empty backfield after Forte motioned out wide to the left, Wimbley came free off the left side. Tight end Greg Olsen released into the flat and left tackle Orlando Pace blocked down on right end Robaire Smith. I'm not going to venture a guess as to whose responsibility Wimbley was, but when you leave him unblocked what happens is an 11-yard sack and no shot at the end zone.
I'll venture a guess. If Pace blocked down and the guy he blocked down on wasn't double teamed, that tells me Pace did his job. If Olsen released into the flat I'm guessing he should have at least chipped Wimbley allowing Cutler just enough time to read the rush from Wimbley and throw to a releasing Olsen.
Biggs goes on to add 10 more thoughts on the Bears, always a good read.