I wouldn't have been surprised if you'd told me the Bears were going to win this game by 17 points. I'd have been pleasantly surprised, but not stunned if you told me they'd put up 40 points. The way these things played out, though, was interesting to say the least.
Anyone who has read this site for years knows I generally bemoan the crowd that constantly looks to point out how shitty the Bears played in games they won, or bitches about a defense that gives up "too many yards" while getting a ton of turnovers and not giving up that many points. I can't however, say that I feel good about everything, even at 3-0 and coming off a big win.
The defense is absolutely concerning to me. I am glad the turnovers have kept up, and their talent at converting those turnovers into scores is undeniable. The fact of the matter is, however, that these Bears are giving up too many yards and getting very little of a pass rush without blitzing. The lack of pressure from the front four has left the team far too vulnerable to big plays, something that was unheard of for years. It's one thing for the team to give up 350 yards with a big lead and keeping receivers in front of them. It's another thing when those yards are actually coming on 3rd and long, or in meaningful situations. For all of this to change the defense is going to have to figure out a way to get pressure with just their front four, and that's not going to be easy to do without Henry Melton, even if he was struggling.
However, I'm not going to be the buzzkill. There's a lot to be excited about here. This team clearly has yet to play their best game, and they are 3-0 and in first place in the division. The offense played far too conservative for too much of the game, even though I understand that they were trying to protect the lead and avoid mistakes. When it counted, however, and with horrifying flashbacks to John Shoop and others in my mind, they made big plays to clinch the win. Faith restored. Hopefully we'll continue to see them taking steps forward in weeks to come.
THE GOOD
Major Wright: He had his questionable moments in coverage like seemingly every member of the secondary tonight, but he made some nice plays in the run game with 7 tackles, a pass defensed, and a huge pick six.
DJ Williams: He had two huge sacks, included a strip, on excellent blitzes. We will admit we were wrong if you keep this up, DJ.
Earl Bennett: Holy shit, that touchdown catch. BBE!
Matt Forte: He had some struggles outside of his big 55 yard run, but still ended with 87 yards rushing and 24 yards receiving, along with a rushing TD.
Jay Cutler: The numbers are certainly unimpressive, with Trestman calling a very conservative (too conservative in my opinion) game once the Bears went up 24-3. The pass protection was certainly shakier than it's been yet this year, with 2 sacks allowed and a ton of pressure surrendered in the 3rd quarter. Despite all of this, Jay avoided mistakes throughout the night, fought his own instinct to force plays downfield, and then made three huge plays in a row once Trestman loosened the reins late. His scramble was brilliant, although I'm not going to celebrate him risking injury by lowering the boom (even if my meatball side wants to high five him). The throw to Marshall was amazing, and Brandon himself said it best: "he threw it 40, 50 yards back shoulder. I've never seen anyone do that." Then the TD pass to Bennett to ice the game was as brilliant a throw as I've ever seen him make. I hesitate to say he's completely "fixed", but he sure seems like a different guy.
THE BAD:
Pass Rush: it's still lacking. The blitzes helped early, but as tends to happen once the Steelers picked them up it was big play time for Ben. The DL was better tonight, with several pressures and 3 or 4 sacks Roethlisberger escaped, but they still were not consistently making life uncomfortable for him. This is now a major concern, and I'm not sure how they can avoid shootouts with the QBs coming up on the schedule unless they can get pressure rushing four.
Chris Conte: He bit badly on a pump fake that led to a huge gain for Brown, then failed to get over in time to help Jennings on the big TD toss. He also missed a couple of tackles.
Blitz pick-ups: They were bad, and it allowed the Steelers to shut down the offense for a long stretch.
THE UGLY:
Injuries: Tillman very clearly struggled with keeping up with Brown with his knee bothering him, and then went out with a groin injury. He's one guy they can't afford to lose. The Melton injury looked bad, and while it may not seem like a loss with the way he's struggled so far this year, it's pretty upsetting. I'd have liked to have seen him get the chance to round back into last year's form. Hopefully Nate Collins is ready for the big job.
That's all for now. This was not as easy as the scoreboard makes it look, nor as ugly as it felt in those tense moments there early in the fourth quarter. Winning on the road against a good defense (and make no mistake, the Steelers are not as good as they've been but are far from bad on defense) is never easy, and the Bears certainly have struggled in that respect in recent years. 3-0 is something to celebrate. Go Bears.
Showing posts with label Henry Melton. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Henry Melton. Show all posts
Sunday, September 22, 2013
Friday, September 6, 2013
Meet your 2013 Bears! Roster Breakdown and BOLD PREDICTION
When we last left our heroes, we were flinging our feces at them as they somehow managed to go 10-6 and miss a playoff spot when the Minnesota Vikings beat the Packers because f&%k me, that's why. Since then, as you know, they've replaced the head coach with a guy half the fanbase undoubtedly knows only as "CFL guy", drafted the son of the guy known most for the movie Broken Arrow in the first round, made a bunch of free agent moves to fix the offensive line and the tight end spot, and now enter a new season as the biggest mystery team in the NFL. So who are these guys, and what can we expect? Onto the roster!
Quarterbacks: #6 Jay Cutler, #12 Josh McCown
As they've done the last two years, the Bears entered the sensible world of the NFL and kept only two QBs, since they along with everyone else realize that whether your 3rd string QB is on the roster or on his couch, you're fucked if you're playing him either way. You all know the Jay Cutler story at this point. He's got "no excuses" even though he's now got two rookie linemen on the right side and only one wide receiver who has made it through an entire NFL season in the last three years. The fact of the matter is, no, Jay doesn't have any more excuses. He does have the most talented offense he's been a part of since at least his last year in Denver (but even they did not have Matt Forte and Michael Bush), and a head coach who sure gives the impression he understands offensive football. There are those predicting a breakout season for Jay, and understandably so. But can someone breakout this late in their career? It's happened before, but not that often.
The key for Jay this year isn't suddenly becoming a guy who can throw 50 passes a game accurately, it's being efficient on the 25-35 throws he's likely to get. I can't sit here and tell you he won't throw interceptions that will make your eyes try to crawl out of your skull in order to unsee them. He will. But he should also have the protection and help he needs to complete 60+ %, throw for 25-30 TDs, and hopefully keep his YPA relatively high. In the end I think the Jay Cutler we get will look a lot more like the guy we thought we were getting from Denver, even if he will never be the guy his talent makes you think he could be. Either way, that should be more than enough for this team to contend, and for Jay to get his money.
As for Josh McCown, well, the plan is the same: if he's coming into the game for anything more than garbage time, maybe find something better to do with your Sunday.
Quarterbacks: #6 Jay Cutler, #12 Josh McCown
As they've done the last two years, the Bears entered the sensible world of the NFL and kept only two QBs, since they along with everyone else realize that whether your 3rd string QB is on the roster or on his couch, you're fucked if you're playing him either way. You all know the Jay Cutler story at this point. He's got "no excuses" even though he's now got two rookie linemen on the right side and only one wide receiver who has made it through an entire NFL season in the last three years. The fact of the matter is, no, Jay doesn't have any more excuses. He does have the most talented offense he's been a part of since at least his last year in Denver (but even they did not have Matt Forte and Michael Bush), and a head coach who sure gives the impression he understands offensive football. There are those predicting a breakout season for Jay, and understandably so. But can someone breakout this late in their career? It's happened before, but not that often.
The key for Jay this year isn't suddenly becoming a guy who can throw 50 passes a game accurately, it's being efficient on the 25-35 throws he's likely to get. I can't sit here and tell you he won't throw interceptions that will make your eyes try to crawl out of your skull in order to unsee them. He will. But he should also have the protection and help he needs to complete 60+ %, throw for 25-30 TDs, and hopefully keep his YPA relatively high. In the end I think the Jay Cutler we get will look a lot more like the guy we thought we were getting from Denver, even if he will never be the guy his talent makes you think he could be. Either way, that should be more than enough for this team to contend, and for Jay to get his money.
As for Josh McCown, well, the plan is the same: if he's coming into the game for anything more than garbage time, maybe find something better to do with your Sunday.
Monday, April 1, 2013
2012 Bears Position Reviews: the Defensive Line
Ahh, good news. The Bears defensive line was undeniably the deepest and arguably the most productive unit (I say arguably because Charles Tillman is coming to punch my balls) on the team this year. The entire rotation contributed with seven different lineman getting to the quarterback. The Bears were consistently able to get good pressure on quarterbacks with just their front four, allowing the defense do run the zones they thrive in. In the end, the Bears finished 8th in the NFL with 41 sacks, with 38 coming from the defensive line. If there was a weakness, it was that the team finished just 14th in yards per carry allowed and struggled to contain the top-flight rushing attacks they faced in the second half of the season. A certain linebacker certainly contributed to the defense's struggles in that department, but it is still a place where there's room for improvement.
Defensive Ends:
#90 Julius Peppers: 16 games, 16 games started, 39 tackles, 11.5 sacks, 2 passes defensed, 1 FF, 1 fumble recovery.
On the surface, Julius had yet another stellar campaign as a Bear, finishing for the second straight year with at least 11 sacks. Behind the numbers he wasn't quite as dominant as he had been his previous two years in Chicago. Pro Football Focus had him at +9.9 for the season, a very good grade, but not the +21.7 he posted the year before. He wasn't quite able to take away an entire half of the field in the run game as he had done before, and he wasn't the relentless pass-rushing force he was before, with his sacks tending to come in bunches with some distance between.
That said, we knew this would happen. The Bears were never going to get THE Julius Peppers for the entire length of that contract. That's just the reality of free agency. The important thing is that, even as he struggled with injury this year, Julius was still a damn good defensive end. You'd take Julius Peppers in a "down" year over just about all but a handful of defensive ends in the NFL at their peak. He also managed to post similar line stats to his 2011 campaign despite taking nearly 100 fewer snaps at DE. You hope going forward that Shea McClellin can continue to develop behind him and that Corey Wootton can stay healthy, because the best bet for the Bears to continue to get production, if not the superhuman annihilation of opposing offenses he was known for before, from Julius for the remainder of his deal. Regardless, I love Julius Peppers.
#71 Israel Idonije: 16 games, 11 games started, 48 tackles, 7.5 sacks, 1 FF
You don't have to know much about me to know that I'm not exactly the kind of fan who thumps his chest and gets all teary-eyed over grit and hustle or to tout the merits of some kind of lunch pail player. The exception to this rule is Israel Idonije. Izzy's been with the Bears since 2004, and in that time he's played every spot on the line. Up until 2010 he was usually the third defensive tackle off the bench. Then he switched to a mostly full-time DE, and the result was an extremely productive season. He tailed off as a pass-rusher in the second-half of 2011, even though his run defense remained stout. You couldn't really blame the Bears for opting to get younger at the position with the addition of Shea McClellin, and the emergence of Corey Wootton was also a pleasant surprise. It appeared Izzy's days were numbered.
Izzy responded with a great season, however. He was tops among all Bears defensive lineman in tackles, had an even better year against the run, with a +7.4 grade in that category. He was benched midway through the season for Wootton, and took the demotion in stride, especially he spent plenty of time at DT after his demotion.
Right now Izzy is a free agent, and I understand that the Bears brought in Turk McBride and that Shea and Wootton will both play bigger roles next year. My heart still wants Izzy back on the team, however, because he's as easy a player to root for as there is, and because he's still a damn good football player.
#98 Corey Wootton: 16 games, 7 games started, 27 tackles, 7.0 sacks, 1 pass defensed, 2 FF
Up until this year it seemed the Corey Wootton would go down as a trivia answer for his only career sack being the death of Brett Favre, but then he managed to stay healthy for an entire season for the first time since his junior year of college. With his new-found health Wootton erupted with 7 sacks as a rotational DE, eventually moving into the starting role. His development was huge as it allowed the Bears to give much-needed rest to Julius Peppers and it kept the team from having to expand Shea McClellin's role too quickly. While Wootton struggled a bit against the run when he moved into the starting lineup, it seems only reasonable to suspect that he'll improve as he gets more experience.
#99 Shea McClellin: 14 games, 0 games started, 14 tackles, 2.5 sacks
I think Shea McClellin is a good football player, I really do. Although he finished with slightly below average rating from Pro Football Focus for the season, primarily due to being a complete non-entity against the run, he graded out positively as a pass-rushing specialist, with 22 hurries to go along with his 2.5 sacks. That was all the team really needed from him last year, and, as I said, the resurgence of Izzy and the emergence of Wootton meant Shea really didn't have to do much other than provide pressure on the quarterback on 3rd down. If Izzy's not coming back, and with Pepper being a year older, Shea will have to be a more complete player next year. Hopefully with a year of experience, some better health, and a full offseason, he'll be ready, but he's going to have to put up some big numbers to silence the critics.
#95 Cheta Ozougwu: 2 games, 0 games started, 3 tackles.
Awesome name. Otherwise nothing special. Probably won't make the roster next year.
Defensive Tackles:
#69 Henry Melton: 14 games, 14 games started, 44 tackles, 6.0 sacks, 2 FF
I really hope the Bears can work out a long-term deal with Melton, because he's truly something special. He finished the year as Pro Football Focus' 7th rated defensive tackle in the NFL, although he ranks even higher if you only count other 4-3 DTs. Considering that Henry was a runningback less than four years ago, and that he's only been a full-time DE for two, his rapid progress is nothing short of remarkable. Last year he burst onto the scene with two sacks in the opener against the Falcons but followed with a largely up-and-down season as a pass-rusher and he struggled often with being over-aggressive and exposed against traps, draws, and screens. This year he became a truly dominant pass-rusher week in and week out, and he developed into a fairly average run defender. The sky's the limit when you consider Henry's talent, however, so I'm willing to bet that the best is yet to come.
#92 Stephen Paea: 15 games, 14 games started, 24 tackles, 2.5 sacks
Stephen Paea started to show some flashes of being the dominant nose tackle that Lovie envisioned two years ago this year. Overall he graded out positively with a +1.7 grade on the season. He was, naturally, better against the run than the pass, but he still contributed in that department with 2.5 sacks, more than his predecessor, Spice Adams, managed in his four years as the Bear's primary nose tackle. Hopefully the Bears have found their main duo for years to come in Melton and Paea.
#93 Nate Collins: 9 games, 0 games started, 11 tackles, 1 pass defensed, 2 FF
Nate Collins was the line's second biggest surprise after Wootton, finishing the season with a stellar +4.9 rating from PFF in his time in the rotation. He has the flexibility to play either the nose or the three-technique, and he was one of the few Bears defensive linemen to grade out well against both the run and the pass. I'm glad the Bears managed to bring him back, as that leaves them with three young, talented, and still-developing players in their rotation.
#91 Amobi Okoye: 9 games, 0 games started, 12 tackles, 1.0 sack, 1 FF
Amobi served two stints with the Bears this year, as he was cut early in the season after Nate Collins beat him out, but returned to finish out the season after injuries to Melton and McClellin left the team in need of more depth. While he wasn't quite the impact player he was in 2011, he was still fairly solid for a third-string DT and I wouldn't be surprised if the Bears brought him back on board if he's still hanging around on waivers this summer.
#75 Matt Toeaiana: 3 games, 2 games started, 4 tackles
Toeiana was never really much more than a body. He was more effective than a post-injury Tommie Harris and the older, slower version of Spice Adams, but he was never really going to be the long-term solution at the nose. The team is currently waiting for him to get healthy enough that they can work out an injury settlement and then cut him.
That's all for now. Next time: Lance Briggs is still awesome, but Brian Urlacher is not.
Defensive Ends:
#90 Julius Peppers: 16 games, 16 games started, 39 tackles, 11.5 sacks, 2 passes defensed, 1 FF, 1 fumble recovery.
On the surface, Julius had yet another stellar campaign as a Bear, finishing for the second straight year with at least 11 sacks. Behind the numbers he wasn't quite as dominant as he had been his previous two years in Chicago. Pro Football Focus had him at +9.9 for the season, a very good grade, but not the +21.7 he posted the year before. He wasn't quite able to take away an entire half of the field in the run game as he had done before, and he wasn't the relentless pass-rushing force he was before, with his sacks tending to come in bunches with some distance between.
That said, we knew this would happen. The Bears were never going to get THE Julius Peppers for the entire length of that contract. That's just the reality of free agency. The important thing is that, even as he struggled with injury this year, Julius was still a damn good defensive end. You'd take Julius Peppers in a "down" year over just about all but a handful of defensive ends in the NFL at their peak. He also managed to post similar line stats to his 2011 campaign despite taking nearly 100 fewer snaps at DE. You hope going forward that Shea McClellin can continue to develop behind him and that Corey Wootton can stay healthy, because the best bet for the Bears to continue to get production, if not the superhuman annihilation of opposing offenses he was known for before, from Julius for the remainder of his deal. Regardless, I love Julius Peppers.
#71 Israel Idonije: 16 games, 11 games started, 48 tackles, 7.5 sacks, 1 FF
You don't have to know much about me to know that I'm not exactly the kind of fan who thumps his chest and gets all teary-eyed over grit and hustle or to tout the merits of some kind of lunch pail player. The exception to this rule is Israel Idonije. Izzy's been with the Bears since 2004, and in that time he's played every spot on the line. Up until 2010 he was usually the third defensive tackle off the bench. Then he switched to a mostly full-time DE, and the result was an extremely productive season. He tailed off as a pass-rusher in the second-half of 2011, even though his run defense remained stout. You couldn't really blame the Bears for opting to get younger at the position with the addition of Shea McClellin, and the emergence of Corey Wootton was also a pleasant surprise. It appeared Izzy's days were numbered.
Izzy responded with a great season, however. He was tops among all Bears defensive lineman in tackles, had an even better year against the run, with a +7.4 grade in that category. He was benched midway through the season for Wootton, and took the demotion in stride, especially he spent plenty of time at DT after his demotion.
Right now Izzy is a free agent, and I understand that the Bears brought in Turk McBride and that Shea and Wootton will both play bigger roles next year. My heart still wants Izzy back on the team, however, because he's as easy a player to root for as there is, and because he's still a damn good football player.
#98 Corey Wootton: 16 games, 7 games started, 27 tackles, 7.0 sacks, 1 pass defensed, 2 FF
Up until this year it seemed the Corey Wootton would go down as a trivia answer for his only career sack being the death of Brett Favre, but then he managed to stay healthy for an entire season for the first time since his junior year of college. With his new-found health Wootton erupted with 7 sacks as a rotational DE, eventually moving into the starting role. His development was huge as it allowed the Bears to give much-needed rest to Julius Peppers and it kept the team from having to expand Shea McClellin's role too quickly. While Wootton struggled a bit against the run when he moved into the starting lineup, it seems only reasonable to suspect that he'll improve as he gets more experience.
#99 Shea McClellin: 14 games, 0 games started, 14 tackles, 2.5 sacks
I think Shea McClellin is a good football player, I really do. Although he finished with slightly below average rating from Pro Football Focus for the season, primarily due to being a complete non-entity against the run, he graded out positively as a pass-rushing specialist, with 22 hurries to go along with his 2.5 sacks. That was all the team really needed from him last year, and, as I said, the resurgence of Izzy and the emergence of Wootton meant Shea really didn't have to do much other than provide pressure on the quarterback on 3rd down. If Izzy's not coming back, and with Pepper being a year older, Shea will have to be a more complete player next year. Hopefully with a year of experience, some better health, and a full offseason, he'll be ready, but he's going to have to put up some big numbers to silence the critics.
#95 Cheta Ozougwu: 2 games, 0 games started, 3 tackles.
Awesome name. Otherwise nothing special. Probably won't make the roster next year.
Defensive Tackles:
#69 Henry Melton: 14 games, 14 games started, 44 tackles, 6.0 sacks, 2 FF
I really hope the Bears can work out a long-term deal with Melton, because he's truly something special. He finished the year as Pro Football Focus' 7th rated defensive tackle in the NFL, although he ranks even higher if you only count other 4-3 DTs. Considering that Henry was a runningback less than four years ago, and that he's only been a full-time DE for two, his rapid progress is nothing short of remarkable. Last year he burst onto the scene with two sacks in the opener against the Falcons but followed with a largely up-and-down season as a pass-rusher and he struggled often with being over-aggressive and exposed against traps, draws, and screens. This year he became a truly dominant pass-rusher week in and week out, and he developed into a fairly average run defender. The sky's the limit when you consider Henry's talent, however, so I'm willing to bet that the best is yet to come.
#92 Stephen Paea: 15 games, 14 games started, 24 tackles, 2.5 sacks
Stephen Paea started to show some flashes of being the dominant nose tackle that Lovie envisioned two years ago this year. Overall he graded out positively with a +1.7 grade on the season. He was, naturally, better against the run than the pass, but he still contributed in that department with 2.5 sacks, more than his predecessor, Spice Adams, managed in his four years as the Bear's primary nose tackle. Hopefully the Bears have found their main duo for years to come in Melton and Paea.
#93 Nate Collins: 9 games, 0 games started, 11 tackles, 1 pass defensed, 2 FF
Nate Collins was the line's second biggest surprise after Wootton, finishing the season with a stellar +4.9 rating from PFF in his time in the rotation. He has the flexibility to play either the nose or the three-technique, and he was one of the few Bears defensive linemen to grade out well against both the run and the pass. I'm glad the Bears managed to bring him back, as that leaves them with three young, talented, and still-developing players in their rotation.
#91 Amobi Okoye: 9 games, 0 games started, 12 tackles, 1.0 sack, 1 FF
Amobi served two stints with the Bears this year, as he was cut early in the season after Nate Collins beat him out, but returned to finish out the season after injuries to Melton and McClellin left the team in need of more depth. While he wasn't quite the impact player he was in 2011, he was still fairly solid for a third-string DT and I wouldn't be surprised if the Bears brought him back on board if he's still hanging around on waivers this summer.
#75 Matt Toeaiana: 3 games, 2 games started, 4 tackles
Toeiana was never really much more than a body. He was more effective than a post-injury Tommie Harris and the older, slower version of Spice Adams, but he was never really going to be the long-term solution at the nose. The team is currently waiting for him to get healthy enough that they can work out an injury settlement and then cut him.
That's all for now. Next time: Lance Briggs is still awesome, but Brian Urlacher is not.
Thursday, November 8, 2012
Halftime in Chicago: The Defense
The midseason review rolls on with the defense. I could waste a ton of time throwing out superlatives to describe the play of the Bears defense this year. They're doing things right now that are just beyond what anyone could have imagined. 28 takeaways. 25 sacks. 7 interceptions for TDs. 2nd in scoring defense. A 7 TD: 17 INT ratio on defense, with an opposing QB rating of 62.9. They're allowing just 88 yards per game rushing, which drops to 78 ypg if you throw out Chris Johnson's 80 yard scamper against the second-stringers in last week's blowout.
The comparisons to the 1985 or even the 2006 team (even though the 2005 defense was actually better) will continue to come at a nauseating pace, but even those teams didn't take the ball away and score at this year's absurd pace. Naturally, the critics will say that they can't keep this up, and perhaps they can't, but the "turnovers are random" axiom often fails to apply to Lovie Smith's teams, since they've led the league in it for nearly a decade now. While the schedule is undoubtedly tougher in the second half, that's got more to do with the opposing defenses left on the docket, rather than the elite offenses, so I'd expect more of the same from these guys going forward. The only question is how many games they'll play.
DEFENSIVE ENDS:
#90 Julius Peppers: 14 tackles, 5 TFL, 5 sacks, 3 fumble recoveries.
Peppers this year hasn't actually been as dominant as he has been the last two years. It's funny to say that since he's tied for the lead in sacks, on pace for another double-digit sack year, and is still clearly one of the best pass rushers in the league, but he was such a menace the last two years that it's worth noting that he's dropped off just a slight bit this year. Part of the reason is his ailing foot, but the main reason is that he's simply got more help this year. He's playing fewer snaps than he has in each of the last three years and the team is still getting a better pass rush. Pepper's has still dominated in big games against Green Bay and Detroit, and he will be there when they really need him in the second half.
#71 Israel Idonije: 21 tackles, 5 TFL, 4 sacks
I'm not a big believer in grit, hustle, heart, or all of the other recycled crap that gets thrown at us as sports fans, but I'd have a hard time believing there are many people out there who don't like Izzy. He's just a relentless, solid football player who is never the fastest or strongest player out there and yet always seems to make an impact. He's given a lot of playing time away to McClellin and Wootton (although some of his loss of PT at end is mitigated by the snaps he gets at DT in sub-packages), but he's still one of their best run-stopping defensive lineman and his pass-rushing productivity is way up from last year. I'm glad we haven't seen the end of Izzy yet.
#98 Corey Wootton: 11 tackles, 2 TFL, 4 sacks, 2 forced fumbles, 1 PD, 1 TD
With all due respect to Shea McClellin, the biggest newcomer on defense for the Bears this year has been Wootton. After missing much of his first two seasons with injury, Wootton appears to have recovered all of the burst that made him a potential first rounder before his knee injury his last year at Northwestern, and he's been a holy terror despite his limited reps at DE.
#99 Shea McClellin: 9 tackles, 3 TFL, 2.5 sacks
Despite what Hub Arkush would have you believe, Shea's been a pretty good player this year. Fortunately for the Bears, Izzy's resurgence and Corey Wootton's development have allowed them to pick their spots and avoid having to put too much on McClellin's shoulders, but he's been very effective on 3rd down and on obvious passing downs, racking up over 10 hurries and pressures in addition to his 2.5 sacks and 3 tackles for loss, despite just barely over 40% of the snaps. I'm not sure how to deal with a first round pick actually making an impact in year one. Frankly, I didn't know that was allowed.
DEFENSIVE TACKLES:
#69 Henry Melton: 26 tackles, 5 TFL, 5 sacks, 2 forced fumbles.
Henry Melton is a monster of a man. Last year he was an inconsistent pass-rusher who racked up gaudy sack totals while struggling against the run and disappearing for long stretches. This year he's evolved into the most disruptive interior defensive lineman in the conference, with only Geno Atkins of the Bengals keeping him from claiming the top spot for the NFL. If you ever hear someone try to talk about Ndamukong Suh like he'd be anything other than Henry's backup, punch them. He's not even succeeding in Pepper's wake anymore, as he's done much of his damage with Julius rotating off the field. Hopefully he gets his extension soon and avoids a Tommie Harris-style injury, because we're seeing a guy develop into a pretty special player.
#92 Stephen Paea: 13 tackles, 3 TFL, 1.5 sacks
Stephen Paea is also a guy who is turning out to be quite the football player. While he'll never put up the gaudy pass-rushing statistics of Melton, he's a better pass-rusher than most of the nose guards that have played the position in Lovie's tenure and is just as effective against the rush. Paea's kept Matt Toeiana, a very solid player, on the inactive list most of the year and hopefully he can stay healthy and continue to progress, because the early returns are very promising.
#93 Nate Collins: 6 tackles, 1 PD
Collins gets the third spot in the recap since he's managed to play his way into that spot in the rotation. This is somewhat surprising, considering he was suspended for the first game of the season and Amobi Okoye has performed well as a Bear, but Collins has certainly made the most of his opportunity. It's good for Lovie to have a guy like Nate that he can point to as an example of someone who earned his spot in the lineup simply through his hard work in practice.
#91 Amobi Okoye: 6 tackles, 2 TFL, 1 sack
Again, it's not like Amobi Okoye was under-performing. Just like last year, he's been a very effective rotational DT, but Lovie felt Collins gave them more and was playing better, and he's proven Lovie correct so far. You have to love that this unit, which for so long was just the Julius Peppers Show, now has so much depth and talent that a guy like Okoye can't even dress on Sundays.
#75 Matt Toeiana: 3 tackles
Toeiana, like his predecessor Anthony Adams (and his predecessor Ian Scott) was a hard-working gap plugger, but he just lacked the upside that Paea offered and has lost out on the numbers game, being inactive for the last seven games.
LINEBACKERS:
#53 Nick Roach: 17 tackles, 2 TFL, 1 sack, 1 PD
Roach, like every other SAM backer in Lovie's system, will never get the credit he deserves, but he's been very effective this year, hasn't been caught out of position, and has made a few more big plays than he's used to, since he has been asked to do a bit more with Urlacher's range somewhat limited. I appreciate you, Nick. I swear.
#54 Brian Urlacher: 41 tackles, 5 TFL, 1 FF, 2 Fumble Recoveries, 6 PDs, 1 INT, 1 TD
It appears that the reports of Urlacher's demise were somewhat premature. Fortunately the Bears managed to restrain themselves from following Telander's sage advice that they cut Urlacher before the season, since he's rounded into form the last three weeks, culminating in his awesome effort against the Texans. While guys like Dan Bernstein may constantly moan that the Bears will be in trouble once teams "test" "#54's lateral motion, I'm guessing they'll fail if they try. He's on his way back, folks. He'll be there when it counts, like always.
#55 Lance Briggs: 48 tackles, 3 TFL, 2 FF, 1 Sack, 6 PD, 2 INTs, 2 TDs
That said, the torch on defense has clearly been passed to Lance Briggs, who is just playing out of his f*&king mind right now. I never grow tired of opposing runningbacks turning on that second gear as they zoom toward an opening, only for Briggs to swallow them alive in the backfield. Don't f*&k with Lance Briggs.
CORNERBACKS:
#33 Charles Tillman: 43 tackles, 1 TFL, 7 FF, 1 Fumble Recovery, 6 PD, 2 INTs, 2 TDs
I can't add anything new about Charles Tillman that you haven't already heard or seen in recent weeks. One of the most underrated players in Bears history thanks to a zone defense that's always led to meatballs blaming Tillman for every opposing completion ever, Tillman's finally getting national recognition for being a badass, turnover-producing machine. All that's left for him in the second half is to find out if he can make history. He's only 4 forced fumbles away. He just got four of them in one f*&king game. Sorry, this defense just brings out the expletives.
#26 Tim Jennings: 42 tackles, 1 TFL, 15 PDs, 6 INTs, 1 TD
You're always welcome to avoid Charles Tillman if you'd like, so long as you're comfortable throwing at the NFL's leading interceptor. Jennings, like Tillman, has always been an underrated cover corner, but he's finally capitalizing on turnover opportunities and the results have been mind-blowing. 6 INTs is amazing, but 15 pass deflections after just 8 games is probably more impressive. Goddammit, I'm not even wearing pants at this point. I love this defense.
#30 DJ Moore: 25 tackles, 1 TFL, 4 PDs, 2 INTs
So far DJ's done a pretty good job this year of being DJ Moore. He's said whacky shit about Jay Cutler and Matthew Stafford. He's gotten two more interceptions. He's gotten several pressures on his signature "oh f&*k, it's that little pest" nickel-blitz. He's given away some playing time lately to Kelvin Hayden since he's missed some tackles and got badly burned by Brandon LaFell against the Panthers, but I don't think DJ's going to be down for long.
#24 Kelvin Hayden: 10 tackles, 2 fumble recoveries, 1 PD
It's also possible that Lovie just wants to give Kelvin Hayden some more opportunities, because he's a very good player when he's healthy, which he appears to be this year. He was very effective in the opener when P'nut went out for a bit with an injury, but he's mostly split reps at nickel. This was a very good signing. Can I high five Phil Emery for padding the depth on this defense? I'll put my pants back on for it.
SAFETIES:
#47 Chris Conte: 40 tackles, 1 TFL, 1 fumble recovery, 6 PD, 1 INT
The Bears first started Major Wright and Chris Conte at safety together in week six last year. Since that time, in games where those two have paired up together, the Bears pass defense has a 10 TD: 25 INT ratio. They're always in position, they don't get beat deep, and they can come up quickly despite starting most plays at least 15 yards back from the line. You don't always hear their names called much, which is good, but they're both maturing into good players. Conte had a rough game against the Panthers, but has been very solid for a converted corner with just 17 career starts, and, as PFF noted, his closing speed is incredible as he's been one of the most efficient run-stopping free safeties in the NFL despite starting nearly every play deep.
#21 Major Wright: 32 tackles, 3 TFL, 1 FF, 4 PD, 3 INTs, 1 TD
No single player on the Bears roster has improved more than this year. Pro Football Focus has him on their NFC midseason all-star team, and noted that he's one of the best run-stopping safeties in the NFL this year. While he's not the world's greatest safety in coverage, he's made up for it with big plays, including the first of the seven pick-sixes the Bears have managed this year. Major was undoubtedly my biggest concern on defense going into the season, and he's responded by actually earning some of those comparisons to Mike Brown that people made on draft day.
That's it for now. It's rare to write one of these and not have to criticize someone. I'd feel like a rabid homer for all of the positivity, but there's really nothing about this defense you could criticize right now. Glorious.
Go Bears.
The comparisons to the 1985 or even the 2006 team (even though the 2005 defense was actually better) will continue to come at a nauseating pace, but even those teams didn't take the ball away and score at this year's absurd pace. Naturally, the critics will say that they can't keep this up, and perhaps they can't, but the "turnovers are random" axiom often fails to apply to Lovie Smith's teams, since they've led the league in it for nearly a decade now. While the schedule is undoubtedly tougher in the second half, that's got more to do with the opposing defenses left on the docket, rather than the elite offenses, so I'd expect more of the same from these guys going forward. The only question is how many games they'll play.
DEFENSIVE ENDS:
#90 Julius Peppers: 14 tackles, 5 TFL, 5 sacks, 3 fumble recoveries.
Peppers this year hasn't actually been as dominant as he has been the last two years. It's funny to say that since he's tied for the lead in sacks, on pace for another double-digit sack year, and is still clearly one of the best pass rushers in the league, but he was such a menace the last two years that it's worth noting that he's dropped off just a slight bit this year. Part of the reason is his ailing foot, but the main reason is that he's simply got more help this year. He's playing fewer snaps than he has in each of the last three years and the team is still getting a better pass rush. Pepper's has still dominated in big games against Green Bay and Detroit, and he will be there when they really need him in the second half.
#71 Israel Idonije: 21 tackles, 5 TFL, 4 sacks
I'm not a big believer in grit, hustle, heart, or all of the other recycled crap that gets thrown at us as sports fans, but I'd have a hard time believing there are many people out there who don't like Izzy. He's just a relentless, solid football player who is never the fastest or strongest player out there and yet always seems to make an impact. He's given a lot of playing time away to McClellin and Wootton (although some of his loss of PT at end is mitigated by the snaps he gets at DT in sub-packages), but he's still one of their best run-stopping defensive lineman and his pass-rushing productivity is way up from last year. I'm glad we haven't seen the end of Izzy yet.
#98 Corey Wootton: 11 tackles, 2 TFL, 4 sacks, 2 forced fumbles, 1 PD, 1 TD
With all due respect to Shea McClellin, the biggest newcomer on defense for the Bears this year has been Wootton. After missing much of his first two seasons with injury, Wootton appears to have recovered all of the burst that made him a potential first rounder before his knee injury his last year at Northwestern, and he's been a holy terror despite his limited reps at DE.
#99 Shea McClellin: 9 tackles, 3 TFL, 2.5 sacks
Despite what Hub Arkush would have you believe, Shea's been a pretty good player this year. Fortunately for the Bears, Izzy's resurgence and Corey Wootton's development have allowed them to pick their spots and avoid having to put too much on McClellin's shoulders, but he's been very effective on 3rd down and on obvious passing downs, racking up over 10 hurries and pressures in addition to his 2.5 sacks and 3 tackles for loss, despite just barely over 40% of the snaps. I'm not sure how to deal with a first round pick actually making an impact in year one. Frankly, I didn't know that was allowed.
DEFENSIVE TACKLES:
#69 Henry Melton: 26 tackles, 5 TFL, 5 sacks, 2 forced fumbles.
Henry Melton is a monster of a man. Last year he was an inconsistent pass-rusher who racked up gaudy sack totals while struggling against the run and disappearing for long stretches. This year he's evolved into the most disruptive interior defensive lineman in the conference, with only Geno Atkins of the Bengals keeping him from claiming the top spot for the NFL. If you ever hear someone try to talk about Ndamukong Suh like he'd be anything other than Henry's backup, punch them. He's not even succeeding in Pepper's wake anymore, as he's done much of his damage with Julius rotating off the field. Hopefully he gets his extension soon and avoids a Tommie Harris-style injury, because we're seeing a guy develop into a pretty special player.
#92 Stephen Paea: 13 tackles, 3 TFL, 1.5 sacks
Stephen Paea is also a guy who is turning out to be quite the football player. While he'll never put up the gaudy pass-rushing statistics of Melton, he's a better pass-rusher than most of the nose guards that have played the position in Lovie's tenure and is just as effective against the rush. Paea's kept Matt Toeiana, a very solid player, on the inactive list most of the year and hopefully he can stay healthy and continue to progress, because the early returns are very promising.
#93 Nate Collins: 6 tackles, 1 PD
Collins gets the third spot in the recap since he's managed to play his way into that spot in the rotation. This is somewhat surprising, considering he was suspended for the first game of the season and Amobi Okoye has performed well as a Bear, but Collins has certainly made the most of his opportunity. It's good for Lovie to have a guy like Nate that he can point to as an example of someone who earned his spot in the lineup simply through his hard work in practice.
#91 Amobi Okoye: 6 tackles, 2 TFL, 1 sack
Again, it's not like Amobi Okoye was under-performing. Just like last year, he's been a very effective rotational DT, but Lovie felt Collins gave them more and was playing better, and he's proven Lovie correct so far. You have to love that this unit, which for so long was just the Julius Peppers Show, now has so much depth and talent that a guy like Okoye can't even dress on Sundays.
#75 Matt Toeiana: 3 tackles
Toeiana, like his predecessor Anthony Adams (and his predecessor Ian Scott) was a hard-working gap plugger, but he just lacked the upside that Paea offered and has lost out on the numbers game, being inactive for the last seven games.
LINEBACKERS:
#53 Nick Roach: 17 tackles, 2 TFL, 1 sack, 1 PD
Roach, like every other SAM backer in Lovie's system, will never get the credit he deserves, but he's been very effective this year, hasn't been caught out of position, and has made a few more big plays than he's used to, since he has been asked to do a bit more with Urlacher's range somewhat limited. I appreciate you, Nick. I swear.
#54 Brian Urlacher: 41 tackles, 5 TFL, 1 FF, 2 Fumble Recoveries, 6 PDs, 1 INT, 1 TD
It appears that the reports of Urlacher's demise were somewhat premature. Fortunately the Bears managed to restrain themselves from following Telander's sage advice that they cut Urlacher before the season, since he's rounded into form the last three weeks, culminating in his awesome effort against the Texans. While guys like Dan Bernstein may constantly moan that the Bears will be in trouble once teams "test" "#54's lateral motion, I'm guessing they'll fail if they try. He's on his way back, folks. He'll be there when it counts, like always.
#55 Lance Briggs: 48 tackles, 3 TFL, 2 FF, 1 Sack, 6 PD, 2 INTs, 2 TDs
That said, the torch on defense has clearly been passed to Lance Briggs, who is just playing out of his f*&king mind right now. I never grow tired of opposing runningbacks turning on that second gear as they zoom toward an opening, only for Briggs to swallow them alive in the backfield. Don't f*&k with Lance Briggs.
CORNERBACKS:
#33 Charles Tillman: 43 tackles, 1 TFL, 7 FF, 1 Fumble Recovery, 6 PD, 2 INTs, 2 TDs
I can't add anything new about Charles Tillman that you haven't already heard or seen in recent weeks. One of the most underrated players in Bears history thanks to a zone defense that's always led to meatballs blaming Tillman for every opposing completion ever, Tillman's finally getting national recognition for being a badass, turnover-producing machine. All that's left for him in the second half is to find out if he can make history. He's only 4 forced fumbles away. He just got four of them in one f*&king game. Sorry, this defense just brings out the expletives.
#26 Tim Jennings: 42 tackles, 1 TFL, 15 PDs, 6 INTs, 1 TD
You're always welcome to avoid Charles Tillman if you'd like, so long as you're comfortable throwing at the NFL's leading interceptor. Jennings, like Tillman, has always been an underrated cover corner, but he's finally capitalizing on turnover opportunities and the results have been mind-blowing. 6 INTs is amazing, but 15 pass deflections after just 8 games is probably more impressive. Goddammit, I'm not even wearing pants at this point. I love this defense.
#30 DJ Moore: 25 tackles, 1 TFL, 4 PDs, 2 INTs
So far DJ's done a pretty good job this year of being DJ Moore. He's said whacky shit about Jay Cutler and Matthew Stafford. He's gotten two more interceptions. He's gotten several pressures on his signature "oh f&*k, it's that little pest" nickel-blitz. He's given away some playing time lately to Kelvin Hayden since he's missed some tackles and got badly burned by Brandon LaFell against the Panthers, but I don't think DJ's going to be down for long.
#24 Kelvin Hayden: 10 tackles, 2 fumble recoveries, 1 PD
It's also possible that Lovie just wants to give Kelvin Hayden some more opportunities, because he's a very good player when he's healthy, which he appears to be this year. He was very effective in the opener when P'nut went out for a bit with an injury, but he's mostly split reps at nickel. This was a very good signing. Can I high five Phil Emery for padding the depth on this defense? I'll put my pants back on for it.
SAFETIES:
#47 Chris Conte: 40 tackles, 1 TFL, 1 fumble recovery, 6 PD, 1 INT
The Bears first started Major Wright and Chris Conte at safety together in week six last year. Since that time, in games where those two have paired up together, the Bears pass defense has a 10 TD: 25 INT ratio. They're always in position, they don't get beat deep, and they can come up quickly despite starting most plays at least 15 yards back from the line. You don't always hear their names called much, which is good, but they're both maturing into good players. Conte had a rough game against the Panthers, but has been very solid for a converted corner with just 17 career starts, and, as PFF noted, his closing speed is incredible as he's been one of the most efficient run-stopping free safeties in the NFL despite starting nearly every play deep.
#21 Major Wright: 32 tackles, 3 TFL, 1 FF, 4 PD, 3 INTs, 1 TD
No single player on the Bears roster has improved more than this year. Pro Football Focus has him on their NFC midseason all-star team, and noted that he's one of the best run-stopping safeties in the NFL this year. While he's not the world's greatest safety in coverage, he's made up for it with big plays, including the first of the seven pick-sixes the Bears have managed this year. Major was undoubtedly my biggest concern on defense going into the season, and he's responded by actually earning some of those comparisons to Mike Brown that people made on draft day.
That's it for now. It's rare to write one of these and not have to criticize someone. I'd feel like a rabid homer for all of the positivity, but there's really nothing about this defense you could criticize right now. Glorious.
Go Bears.
Sunday, September 9, 2012
Bears 41, Colts 21
Admit it, you were worried. Jay was 1-10 for 13 yards and a pick six. The offensive line had a sack and penalty on the first drive. It was all going to go horribly awry. We've seen this movie before! Every time they tell us the shiny toy will change things it just blows up in our faces.
Except... maybe not. Maybe these Bears are different. Because after that Jay Cutler was 20 of 25 for 320 yards and two TDs. Two glorious TDs to his shiny new toys, Brandon Marshall and Alshon Jeffery. New acquisition Michael Bush threw in two more, and, hey, Matt Forte's still here, and he's still awesome.
Maybe these Bears can score some points. Maybe these Bears are pretty good.
The breakdown;
THE GOOD:
The Offensive Line: I want to single these guys out, because the Bears were hammered all offseason long for their faith in the guys they had. Things looked ugly early, with a sack and penalty on the first drive, but they spent the rest of the game providing Cutler with the kinds of clean pockets he has rarely seen in Chicago, and he responded. They gave up just 1 sack the rest of the way and paved the way for 114 yards rushing and 3 rushing TDs from Bush and Forte. All told, the offense finished with 425 yards of offense and 41 pts, largely due to the guys up front. Let's hope this keeps up.
Jay Cutler: I've never seen Jay Cutler look as awful as he did on those first ten throws. Nor have I seen him look quite as dominant as he did afterward. The result? A final line of 20/35 (60%) for 333 yds (9.5 YPA) 2 TDs, 1 INT, and a sparkly 98.9 rating. His old rapport with Brandon Marshall clearly hadn't missed a step, and I can't remember anything in my life more beautiful than that laser 42 yard toss to Alshon Jeffery. Jay is back, people, and he may be better than ever.
Two-Headed RB Monster: Forte and Bush combined for 28 carries for 122 yds (4.4) and 3 TDs, and the Bears actually converted multiple times on short yardage. So. Much. Talent.
Brandon Marshall: Is this...is this what a wide receiver does? 9 receptions for 119 yards and a TD? Cutler hit Marshall repeatedly on slants, posts, comebacks, and one gorgeous back shoulder toss. Marshall created space and got open in the red zone for the Bears second TD of the game, and it's obvious that Cutler trusts him implicitly. He pulled in catch after catch despite double and even triple teams, and it's obvious that the attention he generated opened things up for Jeffery and the others. It was nice to have Cutler and Marshall justify the hype right away. Now they can just go play football.
Alshon Jeffery: For a guy who is supposedly fat and slow, Alshon sure got down quick on his 3 catches. He had a couple of nice catch and runs and then, well, you saw it, and it. was. awesome. He finished with 3 catches for 80 yards and TD.
Earl Bennett: The BBE threw in 3 receptions for 50 yards, all of them for first downs, two of them on third down, because he's a stone cold mother fucker. For the whole, the Bears wide receivers combined for 17 of Cutler's 21 completions for 276 yards, making it the most productive day for the Bears perimeter players since...maybe ever?
Henry Melton: The entire defensive line was disruptive all day, from Shea McClellin announcing his presence with an excellent hurry on 3rd down early in the game, to Julius Peppers making yet another awesome fumble recovery, to limiting the Colts to just 63 yards rushing (even Corey Wootton had his second career sack!), but Henry Melton stood out all day. He had 2 sacks late in the game after he'd keyed the entire defensive line for much of the afternoon. If HenMel can take advantage of lining up right next to Peppers and be the young Tommie Harris that he has the potential to be, look out.
Tim Jennings: After Tillman went out (God I hope he's ready to go for Green Bay), Jennings stepped up in a big way with 2 interceptions and a tipped ball that Conte picked off in the end zone. He was solid in coverage all day and really answered Lovie's challenge to generate more turnovers. Nice job, Tim. For the record, Kelvin Hayden played very well and may not be DOOM if he has to play in GB.
Brian Urlacher: He wasn't a huge factor, but, in the best of both worlds scenario, he played And the Bears were up big enough to pull him out early. Hope he knocked the rust off for Thursday.
THE BAD:
1st Quarter Offense: It never happened. Never. Happened.
Andrew Luck: The kid will be fine, and he held up well despite constant pressure, but I know I'm going to hear people fellate him (and Bears meatballs panic) over the 300 yards he put up, mostly after the Bears were up 34-14 and pulled Urlacher, Peppers, and Briggs. He threw 3 picks and mostly gained garbage time yardage. He looked completely ineffective before the Bears called off the dogs. Let's not crown his ass yet. Now RGIII....
Charles Tillman Leaving the Game: That's never good. Please let it be minor.
THE UGLY:
Nothing. Football is back, the Bears won big, and that offense is unlike anything we've ever had the privilege to watch. Life is good, man.
Go Bears. Hate Week begins....NOW.
Except... maybe not. Maybe these Bears are different. Because after that Jay Cutler was 20 of 25 for 320 yards and two TDs. Two glorious TDs to his shiny new toys, Brandon Marshall and Alshon Jeffery. New acquisition Michael Bush threw in two more, and, hey, Matt Forte's still here, and he's still awesome.
Maybe these Bears can score some points. Maybe these Bears are pretty good.
The breakdown;
THE GOOD:
The Offensive Line: I want to single these guys out, because the Bears were hammered all offseason long for their faith in the guys they had. Things looked ugly early, with a sack and penalty on the first drive, but they spent the rest of the game providing Cutler with the kinds of clean pockets he has rarely seen in Chicago, and he responded. They gave up just 1 sack the rest of the way and paved the way for 114 yards rushing and 3 rushing TDs from Bush and Forte. All told, the offense finished with 425 yards of offense and 41 pts, largely due to the guys up front. Let's hope this keeps up.
Jay Cutler: I've never seen Jay Cutler look as awful as he did on those first ten throws. Nor have I seen him look quite as dominant as he did afterward. The result? A final line of 20/35 (60%) for 333 yds (9.5 YPA) 2 TDs, 1 INT, and a sparkly 98.9 rating. His old rapport with Brandon Marshall clearly hadn't missed a step, and I can't remember anything in my life more beautiful than that laser 42 yard toss to Alshon Jeffery. Jay is back, people, and he may be better than ever.
Two-Headed RB Monster: Forte and Bush combined for 28 carries for 122 yds (4.4) and 3 TDs, and the Bears actually converted multiple times on short yardage. So. Much. Talent.
Brandon Marshall: Is this...is this what a wide receiver does? 9 receptions for 119 yards and a TD? Cutler hit Marshall repeatedly on slants, posts, comebacks, and one gorgeous back shoulder toss. Marshall created space and got open in the red zone for the Bears second TD of the game, and it's obvious that Cutler trusts him implicitly. He pulled in catch after catch despite double and even triple teams, and it's obvious that the attention he generated opened things up for Jeffery and the others. It was nice to have Cutler and Marshall justify the hype right away. Now they can just go play football.
Alshon Jeffery: For a guy who is supposedly fat and slow, Alshon sure got down quick on his 3 catches. He had a couple of nice catch and runs and then, well, you saw it, and it. was. awesome. He finished with 3 catches for 80 yards and TD.
Earl Bennett: The BBE threw in 3 receptions for 50 yards, all of them for first downs, two of them on third down, because he's a stone cold mother fucker. For the whole, the Bears wide receivers combined for 17 of Cutler's 21 completions for 276 yards, making it the most productive day for the Bears perimeter players since...maybe ever?
Henry Melton: The entire defensive line was disruptive all day, from Shea McClellin announcing his presence with an excellent hurry on 3rd down early in the game, to Julius Peppers making yet another awesome fumble recovery, to limiting the Colts to just 63 yards rushing (even Corey Wootton had his second career sack!), but Henry Melton stood out all day. He had 2 sacks late in the game after he'd keyed the entire defensive line for much of the afternoon. If HenMel can take advantage of lining up right next to Peppers and be the young Tommie Harris that he has the potential to be, look out.
Tim Jennings: After Tillman went out (God I hope he's ready to go for Green Bay), Jennings stepped up in a big way with 2 interceptions and a tipped ball that Conte picked off in the end zone. He was solid in coverage all day and really answered Lovie's challenge to generate more turnovers. Nice job, Tim. For the record, Kelvin Hayden played very well and may not be DOOM if he has to play in GB.
Brian Urlacher: He wasn't a huge factor, but, in the best of both worlds scenario, he played And the Bears were up big enough to pull him out early. Hope he knocked the rust off for Thursday.
THE BAD:
1st Quarter Offense: It never happened. Never. Happened.
Andrew Luck: The kid will be fine, and he held up well despite constant pressure, but I know I'm going to hear people fellate him (and Bears meatballs panic) over the 300 yards he put up, mostly after the Bears were up 34-14 and pulled Urlacher, Peppers, and Briggs. He threw 3 picks and mostly gained garbage time yardage. He looked completely ineffective before the Bears called off the dogs. Let's not crown his ass yet. Now RGIII....
Charles Tillman Leaving the Game: That's never good. Please let it be minor.
THE UGLY:
Nothing. Football is back, the Bears won big, and that offense is unlike anything we've ever had the privilege to watch. Life is good, man.
Go Bears. Hate Week begins....NOW.
Tuesday, September 4, 2012
Your Bears 53 Man Roster: The Defense and ST
DE's: #90 Julius Peppers, #71 Israel Idonije, #99 Shea McClellin, #98 Corey Wootton, #95 Cheta Ozougwu
It's difficult to say which unit needs to improve more this year between the offensive line and defensive line. Julius Peppers, of course, needs only to stay healthy and match his usual production, but the others all have tons of potential and plenty of questions. Izzy is still solid against the run, but can he pass rush like he did in 2010? Can Shea McClellin be enough of a presence on third down and in passing situations to justify his draft slot? Can Corey Wootton stay healthy and be something other than the man who ended Brett Favre's career? Can Cheta Ozougwu be more than just an awesome name and keep himself on the roster all year?
I still like this unit's potential. The Idonije/McClellin combo will provide more than enough spark to improve on last year's production and for once provide the numbers you'd expect from the bookend to Julius Peppers. Wootton needs only to develop into a guy who can spell Peppers for 5-6 plays a game. Cheta has an awesome name.
DTs: #69 Henry Melton, #92 Stephen Paea, #75 Matt Toeiana, #91 Amobi Okoye,
The Bears usually keep 9 defensive linemen, and this year is no exception, although it's surprising to see them go with just four DTs. It helps that Idonije, Melton, and Okoye all have experience playing both inside and out.
Melton was spectacular last year at times, as he finished with seven sacks, which was just a half sack behind Geno Atkins and Tommy Kelly for most by a DT in the NFL. He also disappeared for several games, however, so the important thing for him this year is finding consistency in his second full year on the interior of the line. The Bears were extremely fortunate that Greg Schiano's tough guy routine apparently led to him cutting a player who missed all of the preseason even though he was on pace to play in week one, so now they get Amobi, an extremely valuable backup three technique who contributed four sacks in part time duty, for a bargain bin price once again.
Paea had a great camp and was named the starter before he suffered an ankle injury that's seemingly taking forever to heal. If he can ever put it all together and stay in the lineup his skillset makes him the rare 4-3 nose tackle who has quickness to go along with his ability to draw double teams. He'll vastly upgrade the line if he's healthy, but they may end up with another season of solid-but-boring Matt Toeiana.
SLBs: #53 Nick Roach, #58 Geno Hayes
Nick Roach has quietly been a pretty solid player at the most unappreciated position on the Bears defense. For a guy who mostly slams himself into fullbacks in order to give Urlacher and Briggs room to make plays, he does pretty well. He's not a liability in coverage and he can play some MLB.
Geno Hayes was a solid signing. He's got a great deal of starting experience at WLB in Tampa Bay, but he can back up either OLB spot and has looked solid at SLB in the preseason.
MLBs: #54 Brian Urlacher, #52 Blake Costanzo
Urlacher's obviously the biggest question mark right now (he practiced on Monday solely because Telander made sure Emery was on to his ruse), but even if his knee is an issue you can still expect him to be one of the better middle linebackers in the game. In many ways his ability to get other people in position is even more valuable than his physical ability at this point.
Costanzo is a special teams ace and actually looked half-decent at MLB in the preseason. If Urlacher can't go Roach will get first crack, but it may not be DOOM if Costanzo has to play a game or so.
WLBs: #55 Lance Briggs, #97 JT Thomas, #59 Patrick Trahan
Lance Briggs is awesome, and just got a contract extension that he'll wait at least three games to bitch about.
JT Thomas seemed destined for the waiver wire after a year off with an injury and an offseason arrest, but he made plays in camp and during the preseason and now gets a shot to make an impact on special teams. It would be nice if they've managed to find one decent developmental linebacker. Trahan's a special teamer and nothing more.
CB: #33 Charles Tillman, #26 Tim Jennings, #30 DJ Moore, #24 Kelvin Hayden, #27 Sherrick McManis
P'Nut had a bad preseason game and it naturally brought the idiots who still don't understand zone coverage and ignore the fact that he MADE THE GODDAMN PRO BOWL last year. He's the very definition of a prototypical Cover 2 corner and hopefully has several years of ball-punching awesomeness left.
Tim Jennings was actually better than Tillman in coverage (THAT'S A COMPLIMENT YOU TILLMAN-HATING MORONS) last year but hasn't forced as many turnovers as he should. He held onto his job but will be in trouble the next time he fails to hang onto another dropped interception.
DJ Moore is an awesome nickelback and his best feature is that he's irritating as shit. Try to watch the wide receivers that DJ covers sometime. They can't fucking stand him.
Kelvin Hayden seems to be healthy, and that's good, because he's got the most experience of all four main corners on the outside and at the slot. He's great depth and may just force his way into the lineup regardless of how well Jennings plays.
Sherrick McManus was a surprise addition to the roster after he was traded by the Texans for Tyler Clutts. There's little in the way of stats or film for him, so the only thing we know about him is that the Bears apparently liked his potential on special teams better than Josh Wilhite, Isaiah Frey, or Greg McCoy.
FSs: #47 Chris Conte, #37 Anthony Walters, #46 Jeremy Jones
Sure, the safety position has plagued the Bears for nearly a decade, but at least they addressed that in the draft by taking Brandon Hard--oh fuck. He's on injured reserve already?
Okay. The situation at safety scares the piss out of all of us, and with good reason. Last year the Bears five game winning streak coincided with the pairing of Major Wright and Chris Conte at safety. Unfortunately, both of those players are made of glass and are still largely unproven. So we will sweat it out if any one goes down.
For what it's worth, I think Conte's a pretty good player who should make more plays on the ball this year. Anthony Walters is a hard hitter who hasn't gotten many reps on defense, but doesn't inspire much confidence. Who the hell is Jeremy Jones?
SSs: #21 Major Wright, #20 Craig Steltz
Major Wright is, as far as I can tell, made entirely of wet newspaper and he tears everything at the slightest misstep. He's also a feast or famine player in coverage, as he had three huge interceptions during the winning streak last year but also got badly burned in the loss at New Orleans. At best, his hold on the job is tenuous since, God in heaven, Craig Steltz was actually the most effective safety on the team last year. Guh.
Let's just hope that Wright and Conte stay healthy and don't just let Calvin Johnson roam free behind them. That's all.
Special Teams:
K: #9 Robbie Gould
No discussion required. Moving on..
P: #8 Adam Podlesh, #1 Ryan Quigley
Podlesh is out for a little while with a hip injury, which sucks, because he had the best season by a punter in franchise history (presented without sarcasm. I swear). Quigley will hopefully be on the roster for no more than a week or two, at which point he'll be cut and I would assume someone like Brian Price or the suspended Nate Collins may make their way back on the roster. Or Josh McCown, which would make less sense.
LS: #65 Patrick Mannelly
Is it wrong to be this emotionally attached to a long snapper? Patrick Mannelly has been the Bears long snapper since I was in 3rd grade. I will be sad someday when he is gone.
That's it. Those are the 53 men who will charge onto the field on Sunday. Well, 45 of them will. Actually it'll be less than that since several that dress won't play. Then there's always the backup quarterback who you hope won't pla...what was I saying? There are roster moves to come in the future of course, since Podlesh is coming back at some point, Nate Collins is only suspended for one game, and Johnny Knox has six weeks to work his way back into playing shape before the Bears have to decide whether or not to shelve him all year.
In all, I'd say you can list QB, RB, TE, WR, LB, and CB as strengths. The OL and the DL will hopefully be much improved, and the safeties will hopefully just avoid doing really stupid shit (see Meriweather, Brandon). For the whole, this is appears to be the most talented team of the Lovie Era, and thus since the 1980s, at least. Hopefully that's enough. We'll find out starting Sunday.
Go Bears.
It's difficult to say which unit needs to improve more this year between the offensive line and defensive line. Julius Peppers, of course, needs only to stay healthy and match his usual production, but the others all have tons of potential and plenty of questions. Izzy is still solid against the run, but can he pass rush like he did in 2010? Can Shea McClellin be enough of a presence on third down and in passing situations to justify his draft slot? Can Corey Wootton stay healthy and be something other than the man who ended Brett Favre's career? Can Cheta Ozougwu be more than just an awesome name and keep himself on the roster all year?
I still like this unit's potential. The Idonije/McClellin combo will provide more than enough spark to improve on last year's production and for once provide the numbers you'd expect from the bookend to Julius Peppers. Wootton needs only to develop into a guy who can spell Peppers for 5-6 plays a game. Cheta has an awesome name.
DTs: #69 Henry Melton, #92 Stephen Paea, #75 Matt Toeiana, #91 Amobi Okoye,
The Bears usually keep 9 defensive linemen, and this year is no exception, although it's surprising to see them go with just four DTs. It helps that Idonije, Melton, and Okoye all have experience playing both inside and out.
Melton was spectacular last year at times, as he finished with seven sacks, which was just a half sack behind Geno Atkins and Tommy Kelly for most by a DT in the NFL. He also disappeared for several games, however, so the important thing for him this year is finding consistency in his second full year on the interior of the line. The Bears were extremely fortunate that Greg Schiano's tough guy routine apparently led to him cutting a player who missed all of the preseason even though he was on pace to play in week one, so now they get Amobi, an extremely valuable backup three technique who contributed four sacks in part time duty, for a bargain bin price once again.
Paea had a great camp and was named the starter before he suffered an ankle injury that's seemingly taking forever to heal. If he can ever put it all together and stay in the lineup his skillset makes him the rare 4-3 nose tackle who has quickness to go along with his ability to draw double teams. He'll vastly upgrade the line if he's healthy, but they may end up with another season of solid-but-boring Matt Toeiana.
SLBs: #53 Nick Roach, #58 Geno Hayes
Nick Roach has quietly been a pretty solid player at the most unappreciated position on the Bears defense. For a guy who mostly slams himself into fullbacks in order to give Urlacher and Briggs room to make plays, he does pretty well. He's not a liability in coverage and he can play some MLB.
Geno Hayes was a solid signing. He's got a great deal of starting experience at WLB in Tampa Bay, but he can back up either OLB spot and has looked solid at SLB in the preseason.
MLBs: #54 Brian Urlacher, #52 Blake Costanzo
Urlacher's obviously the biggest question mark right now (he practiced on Monday solely because Telander made sure Emery was on to his ruse), but even if his knee is an issue you can still expect him to be one of the better middle linebackers in the game. In many ways his ability to get other people in position is even more valuable than his physical ability at this point.
Costanzo is a special teams ace and actually looked half-decent at MLB in the preseason. If Urlacher can't go Roach will get first crack, but it may not be DOOM if Costanzo has to play a game or so.
WLBs: #55 Lance Briggs, #97 JT Thomas, #59 Patrick Trahan
Lance Briggs is awesome, and just got a contract extension that he'll wait at least three games to bitch about.
JT Thomas seemed destined for the waiver wire after a year off with an injury and an offseason arrest, but he made plays in camp and during the preseason and now gets a shot to make an impact on special teams. It would be nice if they've managed to find one decent developmental linebacker. Trahan's a special teamer and nothing more.
CB: #33 Charles Tillman, #26 Tim Jennings, #30 DJ Moore, #24 Kelvin Hayden, #27 Sherrick McManis
P'Nut had a bad preseason game and it naturally brought the idiots who still don't understand zone coverage and ignore the fact that he MADE THE GODDAMN PRO BOWL last year. He's the very definition of a prototypical Cover 2 corner and hopefully has several years of ball-punching awesomeness left.
Tim Jennings was actually better than Tillman in coverage (THAT'S A COMPLIMENT YOU TILLMAN-HATING MORONS) last year but hasn't forced as many turnovers as he should. He held onto his job but will be in trouble the next time he fails to hang onto another dropped interception.
DJ Moore is an awesome nickelback and his best feature is that he's irritating as shit. Try to watch the wide receivers that DJ covers sometime. They can't fucking stand him.
Kelvin Hayden seems to be healthy, and that's good, because he's got the most experience of all four main corners on the outside and at the slot. He's great depth and may just force his way into the lineup regardless of how well Jennings plays.
Sherrick McManus was a surprise addition to the roster after he was traded by the Texans for Tyler Clutts. There's little in the way of stats or film for him, so the only thing we know about him is that the Bears apparently liked his potential on special teams better than Josh Wilhite, Isaiah Frey, or Greg McCoy.
FSs: #47 Chris Conte, #37 Anthony Walters, #46 Jeremy Jones
Sure, the safety position has plagued the Bears for nearly a decade, but at least they addressed that in the draft by taking Brandon Hard--oh fuck. He's on injured reserve already?
Okay. The situation at safety scares the piss out of all of us, and with good reason. Last year the Bears five game winning streak coincided with the pairing of Major Wright and Chris Conte at safety. Unfortunately, both of those players are made of glass and are still largely unproven. So we will sweat it out if any one goes down.
For what it's worth, I think Conte's a pretty good player who should make more plays on the ball this year. Anthony Walters is a hard hitter who hasn't gotten many reps on defense, but doesn't inspire much confidence. Who the hell is Jeremy Jones?
SSs: #21 Major Wright, #20 Craig Steltz
Major Wright is, as far as I can tell, made entirely of wet newspaper and he tears everything at the slightest misstep. He's also a feast or famine player in coverage, as he had three huge interceptions during the winning streak last year but also got badly burned in the loss at New Orleans. At best, his hold on the job is tenuous since, God in heaven, Craig Steltz was actually the most effective safety on the team last year. Guh.
Let's just hope that Wright and Conte stay healthy and don't just let Calvin Johnson roam free behind them. That's all.
Special Teams:
K: #9 Robbie Gould
No discussion required. Moving on..
P: #8 Adam Podlesh, #1 Ryan Quigley
Podlesh is out for a little while with a hip injury, which sucks, because he had the best season by a punter in franchise history (presented without sarcasm. I swear). Quigley will hopefully be on the roster for no more than a week or two, at which point he'll be cut and I would assume someone like Brian Price or the suspended Nate Collins may make their way back on the roster. Or Josh McCown, which would make less sense.
LS: #65 Patrick Mannelly
Is it wrong to be this emotionally attached to a long snapper? Patrick Mannelly has been the Bears long snapper since I was in 3rd grade. I will be sad someday when he is gone.
That's it. Those are the 53 men who will charge onto the field on Sunday. Well, 45 of them will. Actually it'll be less than that since several that dress won't play. Then there's always the backup quarterback who you hope won't pla...what was I saying? There are roster moves to come in the future of course, since Podlesh is coming back at some point, Nate Collins is only suspended for one game, and Johnny Knox has six weeks to work his way back into playing shape before the Bears have to decide whether or not to shelve him all year.
In all, I'd say you can list QB, RB, TE, WR, LB, and CB as strengths. The OL and the DL will hopefully be much improved, and the safeties will hopefully just avoid doing really stupid shit (see Meriweather, Brandon). For the whole, this is appears to be the most talented team of the Lovie Era, and thus since the 1980s, at least. Hopefully that's enough. We'll find out starting Sunday.
Go Bears.
Monday, April 23, 2012
2011 Bears Position Reviews: The Defensive Line
#90 Julius Peppers, DE: 16 games, 16 games started, 37 Tackles, 11 sacks, 4 pass deflections, 3 forced fumbles, 2 fumble recoveries.
What can I honestly say about Julius Peppers? I mean, hell, look at that stat line. The man's incredible, considering he did all of that despite battling a knee injury for most of the season. Who can forget when he left the game against the Eagles and came back to sack Vick and end an Eagles drive on his first play? There's no way to overstate just how much he means to the entire Bears defense. For long stretches over the last two years he was the only effective pass rusher, he completely dominates one half of the field in the run game, and he's a turnover producing machine, considering he's created 8 of them during his time in Chicago. The only major concern with Julius going forward is that he just turned 32 in January, but he's in great shape and guys like Bruce Smith, Michael Strahan, and Reggie White had 10.5, 18.5, and 13.5 sacks respectively in their age 32 seasons. If you think I'm wrong to compare him to three Hall of Fame defensive ends, well, you need to watch Julius Peppers play football.
#69 Henry Melton, DT: 15 games, 15 games started, 24 tackles, 7 sacks.
Henry Melton was my pick for breakout player of the year before the season, and for once I managed to get one of those predictions right. The former runningback took over for Tommie Harris, but he personally reminds me of John Randle. Melton ended the season tied for third among all NFL defensive tackles in sacks, and he was Pro Football Focus' highest rated pass rushing DT. Unfortunately, he sometimes struggled against the run and he was also inconsistent, with some huge games and some games where he completely disappeared. Lovie called him out midway through the season and he seemed to respond with a strong finish. Next year I'd expect Melton to play even better with a year of experience. Hopefully he can develop into a guy that can create on his own without having to rely on the favorable matchups generated by the attention teams devote to Peppers. If Melton and the rest can carry pick up more of the slack the Bears can prolong Peppers' effectiveness.
#75 Matt Toeaina, DT: 12 games, 12 games started, 16 tackles, 0 sacks.
Like most of the nose tackles in Lovie's scheme, Toeiana doesn't have much in the way of statistics to show for his efforts. He's a nice player, although I'm not sure he can hold off Stephen Paea's challenge to his job. He plays the run well and he's a high motor guy. Regardless of whether or not Paea becomes the starter as I suspect, Toeaina will be a key part of the rotation.
#71 Israel Idonije, DE: 16 games, 16 games started, 53 tackles, 5 sacks, 1 forced fumble, 2 fumble recoveries, 1 TD
I love Izzy. Who doesn't? He's a classic over-achiever who has been a Bear for longer than most people even realize (2004). Unfortunately, his production tailed off considerably this year. His sacks and hurries both declined, and he just didn't profit as much from being the bookend to Julius Peppers as you would like him to do. Obviously the Bears understand this, which is why they brought him back on a much more cap-friendly deal and they're taking a good hard look at young defensive ends in the draft that they can bring in and rotate with him. We'll see if fewer snaps will lead to greater productivity for Idonije next year.
#95 Anthony Adams, DT: 11 games, 4 games started, 16 tackles.
Anthony seems like a nice guy, and he was a solid but unspectacular contributor from 2007-2010. Last year, however, he was one of the biggest weaknesses on the team during the horrid start on defense in the first five games. He was no longer the run stuffing presence he once was and it showed, considering the run defense improved from 124.5 yards allowed per game to 87 yards per game after Anthony was pulled from the starting lineup. The Bears smartly made the decision to let him walk in free agency. Thanks for everything, Anthony.
#91 Amobe Okoye, DT: 16 games, 1 game started, 27 tackles, 4 sacks, 1 pass defensed.
Let's give Jerry Angelo credit for one of the last good signings of his tenure as Bears GM. Okoye was a solid bargain pickup and he paired with Melton to give the Bears more production from the under tackle position than they've had since Tommie Harris fell apart in 2007. Unfortunately, he priced himself right out of the Bears' budget and Melton's next backup will have to come from the draft. Still, I wish Okoye the best because he's a very good pass rusher when he's used correctly in a 4-3 defense.
#92 Stephen Paea, DT: 10 games,14 tackles, 2 sacks.
Stephen Paea is an intriguing player. He's incredibly strong, as he set an NFL combine record with 49 bench press reps at 225 lbs last year. He's got a quick punch and he's a rare player who can be effective at both under tackle and nose in Lovie's defense. It took him a while to crack the rotation, but he was a very effective sub over the last 10 games and he graded out against both the run and pass according to Pro Football Focus. If the Bears can find a way to get one of the top edge rushers in this year's draft, a front four of Peppers, Melton, Paea, and Coples/Ingram/Mercilus would be very frightening for opposing passers on third down. Either way, I think the Bears future at DT is bright with Melton and Paea.
#98 Corey Wootton, DE: 7 games, 4 tackles.
So far in his NFL career Corey Wootton has been exactly what everyone was afraid of when the Bears drafted him: fragile. He's flashed some potential in training camp and the preseason, and he started to come on late in 2010:
Yes, I did just want an excuse to post that video. Unfortunately, injuries have derailed any opportunities Corey's had to develop. The team could really have used him last year as Izzy struggled. We'll see if he can be healthy and effective enough to hold on to a roster spot with the addition of 1st or 2nd round defensive end to compete with him.
#94 Chauncey Davis, DE: 6 games, 9 tackles, 1 sack
A decent rotational DE who was an okay waiver-wire pickup from the Falcons. He may make the roster again next year if Wootton under-performs again, but he's nothing special.
#94 Nick Reed, DE: 6 games, 6 tackles, 1 pass defensed
No, that's not a typo. Reed wore #94 first, then was waived to make room for Davis. He knocked down a pass against the Falcons. That's about it.
#78 Mario Addison, DE: 2 games
An undrafted rookie out of Troy, Mario did nothing remarkable in 2 games before he was waived in November and claimed by the Colts. Bright future, I'm sure.
#93 Thaddeus Gibson, DE: 2 games
A late season pick up from Pittsburgh. He played some special teams and his still on the roster, so he may get a look in camp this year. I don't expect much, though.
The Bears got 30 sacks from their defensive line, which is acceptable, but they're still too over-reliant on Peppers. As I said, I don't expect Peppers to tail off much this year, Melton will be more consistent in his second year as a starter, and Paea will also improve in year two. As it stands now, though, they only have Melton, Paea, and Toeina under contract at DT and only Peppers, and Idonije seem like locks to make next year's roster at DE, so I'd expect both a defensive end and a defensive tackle at some point in the draft.
What can I honestly say about Julius Peppers? I mean, hell, look at that stat line. The man's incredible, considering he did all of that despite battling a knee injury for most of the season. Who can forget when he left the game against the Eagles and came back to sack Vick and end an Eagles drive on his first play? There's no way to overstate just how much he means to the entire Bears defense. For long stretches over the last two years he was the only effective pass rusher, he completely dominates one half of the field in the run game, and he's a turnover producing machine, considering he's created 8 of them during his time in Chicago. The only major concern with Julius going forward is that he just turned 32 in January, but he's in great shape and guys like Bruce Smith, Michael Strahan, and Reggie White had 10.5, 18.5, and 13.5 sacks respectively in their age 32 seasons. If you think I'm wrong to compare him to three Hall of Fame defensive ends, well, you need to watch Julius Peppers play football.
#69 Henry Melton, DT: 15 games, 15 games started, 24 tackles, 7 sacks.
Henry Melton was my pick for breakout player of the year before the season, and for once I managed to get one of those predictions right. The former runningback took over for Tommie Harris, but he personally reminds me of John Randle. Melton ended the season tied for third among all NFL defensive tackles in sacks, and he was Pro Football Focus' highest rated pass rushing DT. Unfortunately, he sometimes struggled against the run and he was also inconsistent, with some huge games and some games where he completely disappeared. Lovie called him out midway through the season and he seemed to respond with a strong finish. Next year I'd expect Melton to play even better with a year of experience. Hopefully he can develop into a guy that can create on his own without having to rely on the favorable matchups generated by the attention teams devote to Peppers. If Melton and the rest can carry pick up more of the slack the Bears can prolong Peppers' effectiveness.
#75 Matt Toeaina, DT: 12 games, 12 games started, 16 tackles, 0 sacks.
Like most of the nose tackles in Lovie's scheme, Toeiana doesn't have much in the way of statistics to show for his efforts. He's a nice player, although I'm not sure he can hold off Stephen Paea's challenge to his job. He plays the run well and he's a high motor guy. Regardless of whether or not Paea becomes the starter as I suspect, Toeaina will be a key part of the rotation.
#71 Israel Idonije, DE: 16 games, 16 games started, 53 tackles, 5 sacks, 1 forced fumble, 2 fumble recoveries, 1 TD
I love Izzy. Who doesn't? He's a classic over-achiever who has been a Bear for longer than most people even realize (2004). Unfortunately, his production tailed off considerably this year. His sacks and hurries both declined, and he just didn't profit as much from being the bookend to Julius Peppers as you would like him to do. Obviously the Bears understand this, which is why they brought him back on a much more cap-friendly deal and they're taking a good hard look at young defensive ends in the draft that they can bring in and rotate with him. We'll see if fewer snaps will lead to greater productivity for Idonije next year.
#95 Anthony Adams, DT: 11 games, 4 games started, 16 tackles.
Anthony seems like a nice guy, and he was a solid but unspectacular contributor from 2007-2010. Last year, however, he was one of the biggest weaknesses on the team during the horrid start on defense in the first five games. He was no longer the run stuffing presence he once was and it showed, considering the run defense improved from 124.5 yards allowed per game to 87 yards per game after Anthony was pulled from the starting lineup. The Bears smartly made the decision to let him walk in free agency. Thanks for everything, Anthony.
#91 Amobe Okoye, DT: 16 games, 1 game started, 27 tackles, 4 sacks, 1 pass defensed.
Let's give Jerry Angelo credit for one of the last good signings of his tenure as Bears GM. Okoye was a solid bargain pickup and he paired with Melton to give the Bears more production from the under tackle position than they've had since Tommie Harris fell apart in 2007. Unfortunately, he priced himself right out of the Bears' budget and Melton's next backup will have to come from the draft. Still, I wish Okoye the best because he's a very good pass rusher when he's used correctly in a 4-3 defense.
#92 Stephen Paea, DT: 10 games,14 tackles, 2 sacks.
Stephen Paea is an intriguing player. He's incredibly strong, as he set an NFL combine record with 49 bench press reps at 225 lbs last year. He's got a quick punch and he's a rare player who can be effective at both under tackle and nose in Lovie's defense. It took him a while to crack the rotation, but he was a very effective sub over the last 10 games and he graded out against both the run and pass according to Pro Football Focus. If the Bears can find a way to get one of the top edge rushers in this year's draft, a front four of Peppers, Melton, Paea, and Coples/Ingram/Mercilus would be very frightening for opposing passers on third down. Either way, I think the Bears future at DT is bright with Melton and Paea.
#98 Corey Wootton, DE: 7 games, 4 tackles.
So far in his NFL career Corey Wootton has been exactly what everyone was afraid of when the Bears drafted him: fragile. He's flashed some potential in training camp and the preseason, and he started to come on late in 2010:
Yes, I did just want an excuse to post that video. Unfortunately, injuries have derailed any opportunities Corey's had to develop. The team could really have used him last year as Izzy struggled. We'll see if he can be healthy and effective enough to hold on to a roster spot with the addition of 1st or 2nd round defensive end to compete with him.
#94 Chauncey Davis, DE: 6 games, 9 tackles, 1 sack
A decent rotational DE who was an okay waiver-wire pickup from the Falcons. He may make the roster again next year if Wootton under-performs again, but he's nothing special.
#94 Nick Reed, DE: 6 games, 6 tackles, 1 pass defensed
No, that's not a typo. Reed wore #94 first, then was waived to make room for Davis. He knocked down a pass against the Falcons. That's about it.
#78 Mario Addison, DE: 2 games
An undrafted rookie out of Troy, Mario did nothing remarkable in 2 games before he was waived in November and claimed by the Colts. Bright future, I'm sure.
#93 Thaddeus Gibson, DE: 2 games
A late season pick up from Pittsburgh. He played some special teams and his still on the roster, so he may get a look in camp this year. I don't expect much, though.
The Bears got 30 sacks from their defensive line, which is acceptable, but they're still too over-reliant on Peppers. As I said, I don't expect Peppers to tail off much this year, Melton will be more consistent in his second year as a starter, and Paea will also improve in year two. As it stands now, though, they only have Melton, Paea, and Toeina under contract at DT and only Peppers, and Idonije seem like locks to make next year's roster at DE, so I'd expect both a defensive end and a defensive tackle at some point in the draft.
Friday, October 28, 2011
The Bears at the Bye, Part II- The Defense and Special Teams
Continuing from yesterday
The Defensive Line
-Henry Melton, DT: It's hard to get a good read on Henry Melton. On the one hand, he's been the pass-rushing threat I had hoped he'd be, since he's got 3 sacks in 7 games (consider that that's nearly as many as his predecessor Tommie Harris had in 09 and 10 combined). On the other hand, he hasn't made a huge impact against the run and he tends to run very hot and cold. Consistency would be nice, although the team may be less dependent on him now that Amobi Okoye has emerged
-Amobi Okoye, DT: I never understood why people thought this was a bad signing, besides the "LOL, THE BEARZ ER SIGNIN EVERYUNS BUSTS CUZ JERRY ANGELO IS A DERP LOL" crowd. Okoye had been moderately successful rushing the passer as a Texan and he had an incredibly low price tag. He's been a force on passing downs (3 sacks), and he's got 12 tackles as well. Henry's starting job may be in trouble, and Henry hasn't even played poorly. This is a good thing. Consider this: between Okoye (3), Melton (3), and Paea (1), the Bears have almost as many sacks from the DT position already this year (7) as they had all of last year (8). The consistency isn't quite there yet, but it's already better than last year.
-Matt Toeiana, DT: Matt had a nice year last year, but he's been hurt and outplayed so far by Melton and Okoye. That's not a bad thing. As a starter, Toeiana was alright, but as the third guy in the rotation? Those are nice, fresh legs to have. It'll be interesting to see if he gets activated after the bye, since Paea's come on strong.
-Stephen Paea, DT: My mancrush on this kid isn't quite commensurate with his actual production so far, but it's close. His numbers in college and his work at the combine speak for themselves. In his first game he blew up the Vikings interior in order to get to McNabb for a safety, and he's been a big part of the improvement against the run the last two games, even if it doesn't show up on the stat sheet. I think he's going to take more and more of Anthony Adams' playing time, which is good thing, since Anthony's never been anything more than "solid."
-Anthony Adams, DT: I mean no disrespect to Adams. He's been a solid run stuffer for most of his time in Chicago, but he doesn't add much in terms of pass-rushing ability (never had more than 2 sacks in a season) and at this point you know he's never going to be an extraordinary player. Again, I think it's likely that you'll see Paea start to phase him out as the year goes on.
-Israel Idonije, DE: Izzy got off to a slow start, but he's played well of late and is now at 3 sacks on the year, and it seems likely he'll match last year's numbers, at least. He's not a star, but he knows how to take advantage of being the bookend to Julius Peppers.
-Julius Peppers, DE: He's still the man. What else do you need to know? The bye should help him rest his banged-up knee, and I'm sure he'll tee off on a shaky Philly offensive line.
Linebackers:
-Brian Urlacher: He's still playing like the guy from last year who suddenly found the fountain of youth. He's already racked up 41 tackles, 3 run stuffs, a fumble recovery for a TD, 3 awesome interceptions, and 4 pass deflections. I have no idea how long he can keep playing like this, but for now it's sure as hell nice to have.
-Lance Briggs: He pissed us all off with his offseason shenanigans, but he's made up for it on the field lately. He leads the team in tackles, with 55, and got his first interception during a monster game against the Bucs. As usual, he's near the top of the league with 5 run stuffs. It'd be easy to question the linebackers given the success opposing teams had earlier this season in the game, but these two haven't been the problem.
-Nick Roach: He plays the most thankless position in the entire Cover 2 scheme, and hasn't registered much on the stat sheet. He also hasn't been caught of position much, either. In short, he's Nick Roach, and he's...alright. He's not Hunter Hillenmeyer, so, that's one in the win column for him.
Cornerbacks:
-Charles Tillman: He still gets a ton of shit for stuff that isn't his fault. Calvin Johnson's TD? Not Charles' assignment. Devery Henderson? Not Charles' guy. He got victimized again by Greg Jennings, but he wasn't the guy matched up on Steve Smith. As far as the things he's been responsible for? Charles has been pretty good. He played a surprising amount of man against Roddy White and was very successful at it. He's made far more tackles (35) than a corner should have to make, thanks to the shoddy safety play, and, of course, he's forced one fumble. Like Briggs and Urlacher, he hasn't been the problem.
-Tim Jennings and Zack Bowman: These two have been part of it, that's for sure. I lump them together because they're equally useless. The Bears smartly recognized that Tillman isn't fast enough to cover speedy guys like Jennings and Steve Smith anymore. The result? A combined 17 catches for 300 yards (17.6 YPC). Guh.
-DJ Moore: Who doesn't love DJ and his seven interceptions (and two TDs) in two years? Communists, that's who.
Safeties:
-Chris Harris: He sucked. I know he was injured, and I was as shocked as anybody by his incredible drop off from last year, but he absolutely sucked. I'd still rather they have kept him over Black Todd Johnson, but there's no way to hide how bad Chris was in limited action. He struggled in run support, he was completely out of position on both Jahvid Best and Calvin Johnson's TDs in Detroit, and he got punished on Freeman's second TD pass against Tampa. He also dropped an interception opportunity right before that TD. I'll always like Chris, but he didn't belong in the lineup anymore.
-Brandon Meriweather: I have no lingering fondness for Meriweather (Black Todd Johnson). He's as clueless as a young Danieal Manning and as undisciplined as LaVar Arrington. He has no sense of where the ball is, or where it's going, and he's a dirty player. I don't care what he says about the NFL trying to "change his game." Nobody teaches you to tackle with your head, because, as Brandon has shown us, it often fails to result in a fucking tackle at all. Jesus, I can't believe I was excited about him. Him and Harris were undoubtedly the biggest problem on this defense.
-Chris Conte: Well, he's played two games and has either had his name called for good plays (incredible interception to prevent a Tampa TD) or hasn't had it called at all. I'll take it.
-Major Wright: He scares the shit out of me. He's played very well against Atlanta and Minnesota. He broke the cardinal rule and let Devery Henderson get behind him in New Orleans. He gets hurt All of the damn time. At this point he's a bigger question mark than Conte, even, but he's also far better than Brandon Meriweather.
Special Teams:
-Robbie Gould: He still hasn't missed a field goal in America. He's awesome. That hasn't changed.
-Adam Podlesh: He's certainly gotten enough work, hasn't he? He's done a good job. Nice leg. He can boot balls that Brad Maynard just couldn't do anymore.
That's it for now. I'll get to the coaching staff/rants about Mike Martz on Monday. I think the defense will be much better in the second half. Hard to see them giving up the big play so consistently from here on out. Will it be enough? I don't know.
The Defensive Line
-Henry Melton, DT: It's hard to get a good read on Henry Melton. On the one hand, he's been the pass-rushing threat I had hoped he'd be, since he's got 3 sacks in 7 games (consider that that's nearly as many as his predecessor Tommie Harris had in 09 and 10 combined). On the other hand, he hasn't made a huge impact against the run and he tends to run very hot and cold. Consistency would be nice, although the team may be less dependent on him now that Amobi Okoye has emerged
-Amobi Okoye, DT: I never understood why people thought this was a bad signing, besides the "LOL, THE BEARZ ER SIGNIN EVERYUNS BUSTS CUZ JERRY ANGELO IS A DERP LOL" crowd. Okoye had been moderately successful rushing the passer as a Texan and he had an incredibly low price tag. He's been a force on passing downs (3 sacks), and he's got 12 tackles as well. Henry's starting job may be in trouble, and Henry hasn't even played poorly. This is a good thing. Consider this: between Okoye (3), Melton (3), and Paea (1), the Bears have almost as many sacks from the DT position already this year (7) as they had all of last year (8). The consistency isn't quite there yet, but it's already better than last year.
-Matt Toeiana, DT: Matt had a nice year last year, but he's been hurt and outplayed so far by Melton and Okoye. That's not a bad thing. As a starter, Toeiana was alright, but as the third guy in the rotation? Those are nice, fresh legs to have. It'll be interesting to see if he gets activated after the bye, since Paea's come on strong.
-Stephen Paea, DT: My mancrush on this kid isn't quite commensurate with his actual production so far, but it's close. His numbers in college and his work at the combine speak for themselves. In his first game he blew up the Vikings interior in order to get to McNabb for a safety, and he's been a big part of the improvement against the run the last two games, even if it doesn't show up on the stat sheet. I think he's going to take more and more of Anthony Adams' playing time, which is good thing, since Anthony's never been anything more than "solid."
-Anthony Adams, DT: I mean no disrespect to Adams. He's been a solid run stuffer for most of his time in Chicago, but he doesn't add much in terms of pass-rushing ability (never had more than 2 sacks in a season) and at this point you know he's never going to be an extraordinary player. Again, I think it's likely that you'll see Paea start to phase him out as the year goes on.
-Israel Idonije, DE: Izzy got off to a slow start, but he's played well of late and is now at 3 sacks on the year, and it seems likely he'll match last year's numbers, at least. He's not a star, but he knows how to take advantage of being the bookend to Julius Peppers.
-Julius Peppers, DE: He's still the man. What else do you need to know? The bye should help him rest his banged-up knee, and I'm sure he'll tee off on a shaky Philly offensive line.
Linebackers:
-Brian Urlacher: He's still playing like the guy from last year who suddenly found the fountain of youth. He's already racked up 41 tackles, 3 run stuffs, a fumble recovery for a TD, 3 awesome interceptions, and 4 pass deflections. I have no idea how long he can keep playing like this, but for now it's sure as hell nice to have.
-Lance Briggs: He pissed us all off with his offseason shenanigans, but he's made up for it on the field lately. He leads the team in tackles, with 55, and got his first interception during a monster game against the Bucs. As usual, he's near the top of the league with 5 run stuffs. It'd be easy to question the linebackers given the success opposing teams had earlier this season in the game, but these two haven't been the problem.
-Nick Roach: He plays the most thankless position in the entire Cover 2 scheme, and hasn't registered much on the stat sheet. He also hasn't been caught of position much, either. In short, he's Nick Roach, and he's...alright. He's not Hunter Hillenmeyer, so, that's one in the win column for him.
Cornerbacks:
-Charles Tillman: He still gets a ton of shit for stuff that isn't his fault. Calvin Johnson's TD? Not Charles' assignment. Devery Henderson? Not Charles' guy. He got victimized again by Greg Jennings, but he wasn't the guy matched up on Steve Smith. As far as the things he's been responsible for? Charles has been pretty good. He played a surprising amount of man against Roddy White and was very successful at it. He's made far more tackles (35) than a corner should have to make, thanks to the shoddy safety play, and, of course, he's forced one fumble. Like Briggs and Urlacher, he hasn't been the problem.
-Tim Jennings and Zack Bowman: These two have been part of it, that's for sure. I lump them together because they're equally useless. The Bears smartly recognized that Tillman isn't fast enough to cover speedy guys like Jennings and Steve Smith anymore. The result? A combined 17 catches for 300 yards (17.6 YPC). Guh.
-DJ Moore: Who doesn't love DJ and his seven interceptions (and two TDs) in two years? Communists, that's who.
Safeties:
-Chris Harris: He sucked. I know he was injured, and I was as shocked as anybody by his incredible drop off from last year, but he absolutely sucked. I'd still rather they have kept him over Black Todd Johnson, but there's no way to hide how bad Chris was in limited action. He struggled in run support, he was completely out of position on both Jahvid Best and Calvin Johnson's TDs in Detroit, and he got punished on Freeman's second TD pass against Tampa. He also dropped an interception opportunity right before that TD. I'll always like Chris, but he didn't belong in the lineup anymore.
-Brandon Meriweather: I have no lingering fondness for Meriweather (Black Todd Johnson). He's as clueless as a young Danieal Manning and as undisciplined as LaVar Arrington. He has no sense of where the ball is, or where it's going, and he's a dirty player. I don't care what he says about the NFL trying to "change his game." Nobody teaches you to tackle with your head, because, as Brandon has shown us, it often fails to result in a fucking tackle at all. Jesus, I can't believe I was excited about him. Him and Harris were undoubtedly the biggest problem on this defense.
-Chris Conte: Well, he's played two games and has either had his name called for good plays (incredible interception to prevent a Tampa TD) or hasn't had it called at all. I'll take it.
-Major Wright: He scares the shit out of me. He's played very well against Atlanta and Minnesota. He broke the cardinal rule and let Devery Henderson get behind him in New Orleans. He gets hurt All of the damn time. At this point he's a bigger question mark than Conte, even, but he's also far better than Brandon Meriweather.
Special Teams:
-Robbie Gould: He still hasn't missed a field goal in America. He's awesome. That hasn't changed.
-Adam Podlesh: He's certainly gotten enough work, hasn't he? He's done a good job. Nice leg. He can boot balls that Brad Maynard just couldn't do anymore.
That's it for now. I'll get to the coaching staff/rants about Mike Martz on Monday. I think the defense will be much better in the second half. Hard to see them giving up the big play so consistently from here on out. Will it be enough? I don't know.
Sunday, September 11, 2011
Bears 30, Falcons 12-Mother. F*&king. Football.
That was the best opening day win the Bears have had in my lifetime. The Bears dominated in all three phases in one of their most impressive wins, period, in years, but one that looks especially good for an opener. There were some sloppy penalties, and the five sacks, while misleading, weren't great, but other than that this is going to be one happy breakdown:
The Good:
-Jay Cutler: Given the painful memories we all had of the last time Jay Cutler played a meaningful game at Soldier Field, it seems fitting to put him first since had a spectacular game. There were some tipped passes, including the one that Bierrmann made an incredible play on for the INT TD, and he should have thrown the ball away on three of the five sacks he took, but outside of that he played one of his best games as a Bear, if not ever. For the day he finished 22/32 (68.8%) for 312 yds (9.8 YPA) 2 TDs, 1 INT, and a 107.8 rating. Those are stellar and they really showed just how comfortable he's getting in this offense and just how dangerous he can be downfield when he's got time to scan the field.
-Matt Forte: He had a tough going on the ground early on, but finished with a respectable 4.3 avg (16 rushes for 68 yds) but, much like last year's opener, made his big damage through the air with 5 receptions for 90 yds and a TD. I like this team's chances if he's going to put up 158 yards from scrimmage weekly.
-Roy Williams: Roy made the first catch of the game and finished with 4 catches for 55 yds. Not a dominating performance, but impressive in that all four catches were for big first downs. He doesn't have to get 1,000 yds to justify his status on this team, he just needs to be a target Cutler can find to move the chains consistently. He was today.
-Devin Hester: 3 catches for 60 yards, with one very long reception leading to a touchdown.
-Johnny Knox: Knox, like Hester, had 3 catches for 60 yds. Four different receivers had over 50 yards today, a good sign of the depth this team has and the weapons Jay can utilize if he has time.
-Brian Urlacher: Oh man, this is the kind of game that reminds us all just why I get so angry when people say Urlacher is overrated. 10 tackles, 1 INT, and a fumble returned for a TD that absolutely broke the Falcon's back. Stay healthy, Brian.
-Henry Melton: My pick for the most improved player on this defense has been Henry all offseason. He's a bit undersized for a DT, but he has a quickness and violence to him that reminds me of John Randle. He had 2 sacks today and was a total menace.
-Julius Peppers: You know all about this guy, of course. He only had 2 sacks, a pass deflection, and a fumble recovery. No big deal.
-The rest of the defensive line: 5 sacks on Matt Ryan. They had consistent gap penetration all game long. The Falcons run game was mostly held in check outside of the 53 yard run and Matt Ryan had one hell of a time once he was forced to drop back on every down. Some idiot will find a way to criticize all of the yards the defense gave up, but Lovie-ball worked to perfection and the only numbers I know the Bears or anyone should care about are the 5 sacks, the 3 turnovers, and the 6 points allowed by the defense.
-Charles Tillman: He takes a lot of shit from the fans for playing how he's supposed to play in this defense, but today they had him playing tight on Roddy White very early on and he fucking owned him holding him to 61 yds on the day (just 7.6 yards per catch) and he had yet another of his glorious punches to force a fumble. Someday, when P'nut is retired, they need to build a statue of him just punching a football through the air.
The Bad:
Penalties: Too damn many (eight), along with some missed tackles. Perfectly acceptable opening day mistakes, but they'd best tighten things up soon. Winning the turnover battle 3-1 really helps.
Webb/Carimi: They actually held their own pretty well against two very good edge rushers in John Abraham and Ray Edwards (21 combined sacks last yr), but there were enough breakdowns and two holding penalties that really hurt. As I said, Cutler should have thrown the ball away on two of his sacks as he had plenty of time, and on the last sack of the game Cutler simply slid on what wasn't really a sack so much as a run for no gain, so they really only allowed 2 bad sacks, but you have to hope for some improvement primarily in the penalty department.
Matt Ryan: That was the weakest 319 yard game I've ever seen. The Falcons got destroyed by the Packers passing game in the playoffs and apparently decided they needed to get Julio Jones to compensate. Ryan made that look even dumber but not even attempting to go downfield until the game was well out of hand. He finished with an average of 6.8 YPA and a rating of 76.5 on 47 attempts, but was sacked five times and had a fumble that led to a huge Bears score. I've been saying for awhile I didn't think he'd ever be much more than an overrated game manager. Today he sure didn't prove me wrong.
That's all for now. I haven't been this jazzed after an opener since 2006. Hopefully this season has even more fun in store for us than that one. You all have a good night. Go Bears.
Also, I'm not not one for moralizing here, so I'll just say on the 10th anniversary of that horrible day....God Bless America.
The Good:
-Jay Cutler: Given the painful memories we all had of the last time Jay Cutler played a meaningful game at Soldier Field, it seems fitting to put him first since had a spectacular game. There were some tipped passes, including the one that Bierrmann made an incredible play on for the INT TD, and he should have thrown the ball away on three of the five sacks he took, but outside of that he played one of his best games as a Bear, if not ever. For the day he finished 22/32 (68.8%) for 312 yds (9.8 YPA) 2 TDs, 1 INT, and a 107.8 rating. Those are stellar and they really showed just how comfortable he's getting in this offense and just how dangerous he can be downfield when he's got time to scan the field.
-Matt Forte: He had a tough going on the ground early on, but finished with a respectable 4.3 avg (16 rushes for 68 yds) but, much like last year's opener, made his big damage through the air with 5 receptions for 90 yds and a TD. I like this team's chances if he's going to put up 158 yards from scrimmage weekly.
-Roy Williams: Roy made the first catch of the game and finished with 4 catches for 55 yds. Not a dominating performance, but impressive in that all four catches were for big first downs. He doesn't have to get 1,000 yds to justify his status on this team, he just needs to be a target Cutler can find to move the chains consistently. He was today.
-Devin Hester: 3 catches for 60 yards, with one very long reception leading to a touchdown.
-Johnny Knox: Knox, like Hester, had 3 catches for 60 yds. Four different receivers had over 50 yards today, a good sign of the depth this team has and the weapons Jay can utilize if he has time.
-Brian Urlacher: Oh man, this is the kind of game that reminds us all just why I get so angry when people say Urlacher is overrated. 10 tackles, 1 INT, and a fumble returned for a TD that absolutely broke the Falcon's back. Stay healthy, Brian.
-Henry Melton: My pick for the most improved player on this defense has been Henry all offseason. He's a bit undersized for a DT, but he has a quickness and violence to him that reminds me of John Randle. He had 2 sacks today and was a total menace.
-Julius Peppers: You know all about this guy, of course. He only had 2 sacks, a pass deflection, and a fumble recovery. No big deal.
-The rest of the defensive line: 5 sacks on Matt Ryan. They had consistent gap penetration all game long. The Falcons run game was mostly held in check outside of the 53 yard run and Matt Ryan had one hell of a time once he was forced to drop back on every down. Some idiot will find a way to criticize all of the yards the defense gave up, but Lovie-ball worked to perfection and the only numbers I know the Bears or anyone should care about are the 5 sacks, the 3 turnovers, and the 6 points allowed by the defense.
-Charles Tillman: He takes a lot of shit from the fans for playing how he's supposed to play in this defense, but today they had him playing tight on Roddy White very early on and he fucking owned him holding him to 61 yds on the day (just 7.6 yards per catch) and he had yet another of his glorious punches to force a fumble. Someday, when P'nut is retired, they need to build a statue of him just punching a football through the air.
The Bad:
Penalties: Too damn many (eight), along with some missed tackles. Perfectly acceptable opening day mistakes, but they'd best tighten things up soon. Winning the turnover battle 3-1 really helps.
Webb/Carimi: They actually held their own pretty well against two very good edge rushers in John Abraham and Ray Edwards (21 combined sacks last yr), but there were enough breakdowns and two holding penalties that really hurt. As I said, Cutler should have thrown the ball away on two of his sacks as he had plenty of time, and on the last sack of the game Cutler simply slid on what wasn't really a sack so much as a run for no gain, so they really only allowed 2 bad sacks, but you have to hope for some improvement primarily in the penalty department.
Matt Ryan: That was the weakest 319 yard game I've ever seen. The Falcons got destroyed by the Packers passing game in the playoffs and apparently decided they needed to get Julio Jones to compensate. Ryan made that look even dumber but not even attempting to go downfield until the game was well out of hand. He finished with an average of 6.8 YPA and a rating of 76.5 on 47 attempts, but was sacked five times and had a fumble that led to a huge Bears score. I've been saying for awhile I didn't think he'd ever be much more than an overrated game manager. Today he sure didn't prove me wrong.
That's all for now. I haven't been this jazzed after an opener since 2006. Hopefully this season has even more fun in store for us than that one. You all have a good night. Go Bears.
Also, I'm not not one for moralizing here, so I'll just say on the 10th anniversary of that horrible day....God Bless America.
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
In Review- The Defensive Line
The journey continues. My offseason review of each unit on the 2010 Bears now arrives at Rod Marinelli's beloved "Rush Men." Without further ado, we start with:
#71 Israel Idonije, Defensive End/Tackle
There are always players who excel in bit roles that become fan favorites, resulting in fans calling for them to receive more playing time. Most of the time the players tend to disappear when they earn more playing time, since (loathe as we are to admit it) coaches tend to know the players on their own roster best and they knew better than to make the guy a starter. Izzy's one of those guys, however, that was finally given a chance to start (after he solidly whipped Mark Anderson's ass in the offseason) and played extremely well, with 8 sacks, 3 forced fumbles, 1 pass defensed, and a ton of pressures, mostly from the left defensive end spot.
Now, I'm aware that Izzy also benefitted greatly from the attention given to Julius Peppers, but that's not an excuse to entirely dismiss his production. Not everybody that plays on the opposite end of a star can take advantage like Izzy did. If you want proof, look at Mark Anderson himself, both in his brief appearances as a Bear this year and his longer stint as the bookend to Mario Williams in Houston. Anderson had just 4 sacks in 15 games. Idonije's also valuable in that his size still gives him the versatility to move inside in pure passing situations, allowing the team to bring in another pure pass rusher like Corey Wootton in those spots. I'd expect nothing but the same next year from Israel, although he may have to split more time with Wootton, but not through any fault of his own.
#98 Corey Wootton, Defensive End
When Corey was drafted in the fourth round last year, we were told he was a first round talent that had fallen to the fourth due to injury. That smelled like bullshit when he didn't dress for the first ten games of the season, but he was activated late once he was 100% and he made an impact throughout the last part of the season. He has only 5 tackles and 1 sack to show for the limited work he got in the last 6 games, but he was coming on strong and even had a tackle for a loss in the playoff game against Seattle. No one's asking much of Corey other than to give a breather to Peppers and Idonije, so the upside he has is a major plus for the job he's asked to do. I'd expect him to earn more playing time next year and maybe even be the pass-rush specialist that Mark Anderson was in 2006, with Idonije doing most of the grunt work like Alex Brown.
Oh yeah, that one sack of Corey's ended Brett Favre's career. He's a f*&king God.
Is it bad that 'erotic' is the word I use to describe that video? It's bad, isn't it?
#69 Henry Melton, Defensive End/Tackle
I was pretty skeptical when the Bears spent a fourth round pick on a fat runningback from Texas to be a defensive lineman, especially when the need seemed too pressing to waste a draft pick on a project, but this year Henry really proved his worth. Henry played in all 16 games and produced 16 tackles, 3 sacks, a forced fumble, and a pass breakup. Not bad for a guy who was new to the position and spent most of the year in a six man rotation with Idonije, Tommie Harris, Matt Toeaina, Marcus Harrison, and Anthony Adams. Henry, like Izzy, can play both end and tackle and my guess next year is that Melton and Toeaina will begin the year as the starters, but I would assume that Paea will work his way in soon and the three will end the year with a similar number of snaps.
#75 Matt Toeaina, Defensive Tackle
Matt was another great practice squad find by Lovie and Jerry (I actually mean that. If there's one position where they've found some value on the waiver wire, it's defensive tackle) similar to Anthony Adams, which is interesting, since he'll probably be the reason why Anthony won't be back this year. Toeaina's not a star, but he's a badass Polynesian (soon NFL rules will require that all offensive and defensive lines shall be at least 40% Polynesian)and he's a workhorse that will give quality reps as part of the rotation Lovie likes to use at that position. For the year he made it into all 16 games, with 24 tackles, 2 sacks, and 2 pass breakups. Again, I look forward to seeing Matt, Melton, and Paea next year as their youth and energy should keep teams from neutralizing Julius Peppers. The Bears appear to have regained the depth in the middle that they had back in the 05-06 heyday, when Tommie Harris, Ian Scott, Tank Johnson, and Idonije would just overwhelm opponents and stifle the run game. This is good news, since...
#91 Tommie Harris, Defensive Tackle
Is gone, and he ain't comin' back. I mean that both in the literal sense, since he's a free agent and won't be re-signed, and figuratively, since the Tommie Harris that we'd all been hoping to see return is gone forever and has been since the end of 2007. I appreciate Tommie for the beast that he once was, and, while I hope Paea can replace some of that production, I'm well aware we're not likely to see a tackle of the caliber that Tommie used to be any time soon. That's the past, though, and I applaud Lovie and Jerry for actually managing to let go of sentiment when they benched and deactivated Tommie this year not out of any disciplinary reason, but simply because it made the Bears a better football team. I wish Tommie well, but I'm quite confident the Bears won't regret letting him go.
#95 Anthony Adams, Defensive Tackle
I said above that I don't think Anthony will be re-signed, even though Urlacher stated recently that they need him. I think the Bears will probably let him test the market and will only bring him back at their price, not his. Anthony's 31, but he is a workhorse and, while his numbers won't wow you for a veteran starter (4 sacks and 2forced fumbles in the last two years) he'd be an upgrade for someone. I'd be happy if the Bears did manage to bring him back (especially since the alternative is giving Marcus Harrison another shot at trying to avoid eating his way out of the NFL), but I think it's unlikely.
#99 Marcus Harrison, Defensive Tackle
The thing most people know about Marcus (if they know anything about him at all) is that he was practically handed a starting job before training camp in 2009 and he showed up completely overweight. Hell, I'd be shocked if he's even at the 312 lbs he's listed at right now (and that's already the heaviest listed weight of any Bears d-lineman). He's a waste of talent and an even bigger waste of space, but I'm not sure if Lovie's entirely soured on him yet, even though he was active for just five games last year and completely flopped when given increased reps in Tommie's place. Hopefully, if the Bears Do let Adams walk, Harrison will finally motivated to put down the fork. I doubt it, though.
#90 Julius Peppers, Defensive End
It's hard to overstate just how awesome Julius Peppers is. I have a tendency to roll my eyes whenever I hear someone say something like "____ just does so many things for a team that don't show up on a stat sheet..." but Julius gives me pause. Every offense the Bears faced this year had to account for Julius Peppers on every single play. I can't remember the last time the Bears had a pass rusher that you could say that about. Ogunleye was alright when he had Tommie making it easy for him, but he disappeared about the same time Tommie did without any injury as an excuse. Peppers is just an absolute wrecking machine.
I'm not going to give him complete credit for turning around the Bears defense, as about half of that credit goes to a healthy trio of Urlacher/Briggs/Tinoisamoa giving the Bears their best linebacking corps since Urlacher/Holdman/Colvin in 2001 and improved safety play from Manning and Chris Harris, but the other half is Peppers by himself. You can't run around him, you have to devote at least two blockers to him on every play, you can't even throw it Over him most of the time, and you sure as hell can't escape him once he breaks free. He deserved his place on the All Pro team, even with just 8 sacks to his name (along with 43 tackles, 2 interceptions, 9 pass breakups, and 3 forced fumbles, of course). He gets my vote for Team MVP. I'd expect an even better season out of him next year, even at age 31, thanks to the relief I hope he'll get from the presence of Stephen Paea. I'd settle for more of the same, though.
Julius Peppers is the balls.
#71 Israel Idonije, Defensive End/Tackle
There are always players who excel in bit roles that become fan favorites, resulting in fans calling for them to receive more playing time. Most of the time the players tend to disappear when they earn more playing time, since (loathe as we are to admit it) coaches tend to know the players on their own roster best and they knew better than to make the guy a starter. Izzy's one of those guys, however, that was finally given a chance to start (after he solidly whipped Mark Anderson's ass in the offseason) and played extremely well, with 8 sacks, 3 forced fumbles, 1 pass defensed, and a ton of pressures, mostly from the left defensive end spot.
Now, I'm aware that Izzy also benefitted greatly from the attention given to Julius Peppers, but that's not an excuse to entirely dismiss his production. Not everybody that plays on the opposite end of a star can take advantage like Izzy did. If you want proof, look at Mark Anderson himself, both in his brief appearances as a Bear this year and his longer stint as the bookend to Mario Williams in Houston. Anderson had just 4 sacks in 15 games. Idonije's also valuable in that his size still gives him the versatility to move inside in pure passing situations, allowing the team to bring in another pure pass rusher like Corey Wootton in those spots. I'd expect nothing but the same next year from Israel, although he may have to split more time with Wootton, but not through any fault of his own.
#98 Corey Wootton, Defensive End
When Corey was drafted in the fourth round last year, we were told he was a first round talent that had fallen to the fourth due to injury. That smelled like bullshit when he didn't dress for the first ten games of the season, but he was activated late once he was 100% and he made an impact throughout the last part of the season. He has only 5 tackles and 1 sack to show for the limited work he got in the last 6 games, but he was coming on strong and even had a tackle for a loss in the playoff game against Seattle. No one's asking much of Corey other than to give a breather to Peppers and Idonije, so the upside he has is a major plus for the job he's asked to do. I'd expect him to earn more playing time next year and maybe even be the pass-rush specialist that Mark Anderson was in 2006, with Idonije doing most of the grunt work like Alex Brown.
Oh yeah, that one sack of Corey's ended Brett Favre's career. He's a f*&king God.
Is it bad that 'erotic' is the word I use to describe that video? It's bad, isn't it?
#69 Henry Melton, Defensive End/Tackle
I was pretty skeptical when the Bears spent a fourth round pick on a fat runningback from Texas to be a defensive lineman, especially when the need seemed too pressing to waste a draft pick on a project, but this year Henry really proved his worth. Henry played in all 16 games and produced 16 tackles, 3 sacks, a forced fumble, and a pass breakup. Not bad for a guy who was new to the position and spent most of the year in a six man rotation with Idonije, Tommie Harris, Matt Toeaina, Marcus Harrison, and Anthony Adams. Henry, like Izzy, can play both end and tackle and my guess next year is that Melton and Toeaina will begin the year as the starters, but I would assume that Paea will work his way in soon and the three will end the year with a similar number of snaps.
#75 Matt Toeaina, Defensive Tackle
Matt was another great practice squad find by Lovie and Jerry (I actually mean that. If there's one position where they've found some value on the waiver wire, it's defensive tackle) similar to Anthony Adams, which is interesting, since he'll probably be the reason why Anthony won't be back this year. Toeaina's not a star, but he's a badass Polynesian (soon NFL rules will require that all offensive and defensive lines shall be at least 40% Polynesian)and he's a workhorse that will give quality reps as part of the rotation Lovie likes to use at that position. For the year he made it into all 16 games, with 24 tackles, 2 sacks, and 2 pass breakups. Again, I look forward to seeing Matt, Melton, and Paea next year as their youth and energy should keep teams from neutralizing Julius Peppers. The Bears appear to have regained the depth in the middle that they had back in the 05-06 heyday, when Tommie Harris, Ian Scott, Tank Johnson, and Idonije would just overwhelm opponents and stifle the run game. This is good news, since...
#91 Tommie Harris, Defensive Tackle
Is gone, and he ain't comin' back. I mean that both in the literal sense, since he's a free agent and won't be re-signed, and figuratively, since the Tommie Harris that we'd all been hoping to see return is gone forever and has been since the end of 2007. I appreciate Tommie for the beast that he once was, and, while I hope Paea can replace some of that production, I'm well aware we're not likely to see a tackle of the caliber that Tommie used to be any time soon. That's the past, though, and I applaud Lovie and Jerry for actually managing to let go of sentiment when they benched and deactivated Tommie this year not out of any disciplinary reason, but simply because it made the Bears a better football team. I wish Tommie well, but I'm quite confident the Bears won't regret letting him go.
#95 Anthony Adams, Defensive Tackle
I said above that I don't think Anthony will be re-signed, even though Urlacher stated recently that they need him. I think the Bears will probably let him test the market and will only bring him back at their price, not his. Anthony's 31, but he is a workhorse and, while his numbers won't wow you for a veteran starter (4 sacks and 2forced fumbles in the last two years) he'd be an upgrade for someone. I'd be happy if the Bears did manage to bring him back (especially since the alternative is giving Marcus Harrison another shot at trying to avoid eating his way out of the NFL), but I think it's unlikely.
#99 Marcus Harrison, Defensive Tackle
The thing most people know about Marcus (if they know anything about him at all) is that he was practically handed a starting job before training camp in 2009 and he showed up completely overweight. Hell, I'd be shocked if he's even at the 312 lbs he's listed at right now (and that's already the heaviest listed weight of any Bears d-lineman). He's a waste of talent and an even bigger waste of space, but I'm not sure if Lovie's entirely soured on him yet, even though he was active for just five games last year and completely flopped when given increased reps in Tommie's place. Hopefully, if the Bears Do let Adams walk, Harrison will finally motivated to put down the fork. I doubt it, though.
#90 Julius Peppers, Defensive End
It's hard to overstate just how awesome Julius Peppers is. I have a tendency to roll my eyes whenever I hear someone say something like "____ just does so many things for a team that don't show up on a stat sheet..." but Julius gives me pause. Every offense the Bears faced this year had to account for Julius Peppers on every single play. I can't remember the last time the Bears had a pass rusher that you could say that about. Ogunleye was alright when he had Tommie making it easy for him, but he disappeared about the same time Tommie did without any injury as an excuse. Peppers is just an absolute wrecking machine.
I'm not going to give him complete credit for turning around the Bears defense, as about half of that credit goes to a healthy trio of Urlacher/Briggs/Tinoisamoa giving the Bears their best linebacking corps since Urlacher/Holdman/Colvin in 2001 and improved safety play from Manning and Chris Harris, but the other half is Peppers by himself. You can't run around him, you have to devote at least two blockers to him on every play, you can't even throw it Over him most of the time, and you sure as hell can't escape him once he breaks free. He deserved his place on the All Pro team, even with just 8 sacks to his name (along with 43 tackles, 2 interceptions, 9 pass breakups, and 3 forced fumbles, of course). He gets my vote for Team MVP. I'd expect an even better season out of him next year, even at age 31, thanks to the relief I hope he'll get from the presence of Stephen Paea. I'd settle for more of the same, though.
Julius Peppers is the balls.
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