What can you say about the performance of the Bears offensive line last Saturday? It had to be one of the worst performances I have ever seen from an offensive line. It also was one of the worst beatings I have seen a quarterback take in quite a long time. Almost reminded me of the old film I saw of the Bears vs. Raiders in '84 where quarterbacks were taking some of the most vicious hits I have ever seen.
Watching that game, I wasn't as mad at the offensive line as I was to the sole guy who has put this line together in Jerry Angelo (More on Angelo's incompetence to building O-line in this link). When your line consists of one 1st round pick, a cast off from Atlanta's practice squad, 7th round Tight End converted over to Right Guard, and a back-up Tackle from Carolina, you are pretty much asking to fail.
It's never good to see your QB take such a beating to where he gets a concussion, but maybe this will finally slap some sense into Jerry Angelo. You can't continue to neglect maybe the 2nd most important position in football, and expect success. At some point you have to start using high draft picks on offensive lineman, and not wait all the way into the 7th round to select one. Time to start putting that same premium you have on defensive lineman onto offensive lineman.
Fans can stop throwing bouquets towards Omiyale's way now. I haven't seen a comparably bad offensive lineman since Qusim Mitchell. Osi was a shadow of his former self before that Sunday night game, leave it to Frankie O to resurrect his career and most likely send him to the pro bowl at the end of the year. This offense needs Williams back to get some adequate play at that left tackle position because OMG is not the answer.
Garza looks just about done out there, Chris Canty is a pretty good DT, but I didn't expect Garza to get overwhelmed out there. Garza was routinely getting overpowered out there and at one point was subbed out for Edwin Williams. Tice is in a tough spot because he has no one behind Garza that can play adequately at the LG spot.
I don't believe Kreutz is all done like Garza for the fact that if he had better guards beside him he could still be a pretty good Center. It was comical to see Cofield swim through both him and Louis like a curvy road.
Through four games I have come to the conclusion that Louis is a bad pass blocker and is not a very good fit for this scheme. He has gotten badly outplayed each week, half-ass blocking and letting his guy just go pass him to get to the QB. Makes you wonder if he is way over his head, as in maybe RG is not the best position for him.
For all the fans that were up in arms about Frank Omiyale starting at RT over Kevin Shaffer, well it was on full display why he's not a good fit to play in this scheme. The guy lacks the lateral quickness to keep speed rushers at bay, and that's what you need to out your RT because of the 7 step drops. Shaffer was getting abused over and over again by Justin Tuck, and even when he had help from the TE, he and the TE were getting manhandled. Shaffer has had a solid career, but just like Garza he is a back-up lineman at this point in his career and both those guys proved that last Saturday.
Matt Forte and Chester Taylor: Grade D-
Forte and Taylor were overall bad at pass protection. They weren't as bad as the offensive line, but that's not saying a lot. I feel the D- I'm giving them is a generous grade considering I wanted to give everyone across the board a F. Since you are really asking a lot for 210+ pound RB to take on 260 to 280 pound DE's I will lay off them a bit.
Brandon Manumaleuna and Greg Olsen: Grade F
I like the new Lovie were he is holding players accountable, and he might want to use that for Brandon Manumaluna. I found it quite funny that they made Clark inactive when he is a world of a better blocker than Bran-Man and Olsen. I could actually understand Olsen being active because he's the better receiver of the 3, but Clark should be the starting H-Back from here on out. Olsen also had a very bad game in pass protection, as his whiff block on Osi that allowed him to demolish Cutler might have been the hit that gave Cutler the concussion. Olsen called the team pass protection "Inept", and I feel that's the best word to describe the performance this past Sunday night.