Thayer’s Play of the Week: Forte’s Run

If I ran a local Chicago TV station I would give Tom Thayer a half hour program every week to truly break down the particulars of each Bears game.  During this weekly segment on the site I continually find myself smarter about football at the end of the three or four minutes.  This week’s is brilliant:

On Terrell Owens, Bernard Berrian…

No.

I love Brad Biggs but he does not need to write full-length pieces for the Trib in response to Twitter followers asking him about washed up wide receivers.  Any time any player is mentioned as being available, I get a dozen Tweets from Bears fans asking me if the Bears will sign them.  Fans believe since the Bears have cap space they should throw it at a million different players, specifically the types of players they’ve become familiar with through their fantasy obsessions.  What the Bears lack in their receiving corps is simple: a true #1 talent to draw double-teams from opposing defenses.  Those types of players are not available in late October.

Some In-House Things To Discuss

1. I heard some of you loud and clear on your desire to have one of those on-site chats for game day.  I just don’t like them, to be honest.  If the Comments experience is not what it needs to be let’s use this bye week to try and get better.  Use the section below or email me (jeff@dabearsblog.com) with specific complaints regarding the commenting experience.
2. I am going to be in Chicago from December 1-6.  I mentioned the possibility of doing a little blog get together/party on Saturday night Dec. 3 at a bar of my choosing.  If any of you guys are interested in something like that, let me know.  If not, I won’t waste time on it.
3. The Picks Contest will conclude on the final day of the regular season.  If no one is the outright winner, we’ll continue through the postseason with a tournament-style contest to win the array of prizes from out sponsors.  It will definitely be fun.

Mea Culpa on Matt Forte’s Contract

No one can mention the on-field performance of Matt Forte without discussing his off-field contract “negotiations”.  There are two reasons.  (1) Forte is delivering an MVP-caliber performance for the Bears, leading the world in yards from scrimmage and providing almost 50% of the Bears offensive output.  (2) Forte is playing.  How many running backs in the NFL would even suit up on Sundays without the long term security of guaranteed money?  It speaks to the caliber and professionalism of the man and it’s caused writers, analysts from across the media landscape to root for this deal to get done in short order.

And I wrong on Forte.  Dead wrong.  With successful run blocking (and he’s getting that in spades) Forte is right there with the best backs in the sports.  There is no negotiation for Jerry Angelo anymore.  The Carolina Panthers gave DeAngelo Williams 5 years, 43 million and guaranteed 21 million of that.  Forte is better than Williams.  5 years.  50 million.  25 guaranteed.  Done.

On the Prospect of Gabe Carimi’s Return…

They are not be a collection of the world’s finest pass protectors. But since the changes made in the lead up to Minnesota – exiling Frank Omiyale, sliding Lance Louis outside, starting Chris Spencer – the current crop of Bears offensive linemen are inarguably one of the best run blocking units in the sport.  They have delivered their finest back-to-back performances in two seasons.

Now Gabe Carimi, the major first round talent, is set to return to the Bears in Philadelphia following the bye.  Is it fair to question whether the Bears should immediately insert him into the starting lineup?  Shouldn’t the Bears give this current group a few more weeks together before dislodging any piece from the successful unit?  Can’t Carimi’s health be used to not only push Louis at RT but also J’Marcus Webb on the blindside?  There’s no question the Bears envision Carimi at a ten-year starting tackle.  It is fair to question whether inserting him back into the starting lineup makes the current unit better.

Don’t Count Brad Biggs Among the Chicago Media Zombies

Biggs is no David Haugh and certainly no Steve Rosenbloom.  I spend a lot of my Monday mornings reading beat writers from around the country and Biggs might the finest the NFL’s got.  His analysis/reporting of the Bears late-game offensive strategy requires no additional comment:

1. At a crucial point in the game when the Bears could have polished off the Buccaneers with ease, the run/pass ratio got out of whack again.

Plenty of explanations were offered up in the locker room by the players and all pointed to the same thing: The Bucs finally had adjusted and were taking away the wide lanes they had to run on the edges through much of the game.

The Bears pounded the Bucs for 177 yards rushing asMatt Forte ran for 145 yards on 25 carries. He had 108 of the team’s 138 at halftime, and the Bears pushed their lead to 21-5 less than five minutes into the third quarter when Marion Barber took a hand-off on a lead play and broke it through a huge hole on the back side to score on a 12-yard run.

With a 16-point lead, the Bears proceeded to have 17 pass plays called by Martz and 11 runs the rest of the way, a statistic that does not include the kneel down by quarterback Jay Cutler on the final play after nickel cornerback D.J. Moore’s interception sealed the game.

“The way they were pressuring us, we weren’t going to be able to run the ball outside and get out on the edges,” Cutler said. “Because they were shooting gaps … that’s one of the things that we started feeling, started taking pressure.”

Cutler had a pass intercepted by fill-in Bucs safetyCorey Lynch in the fourth quarter, helping the Bucs make a game of it down the stretch as they scored two touchdowns in the quarter and then had the ball at the end with a chance to win.

“Not really,” Forte said when asked if he was surprised Martz went away from the running game. “They kind of stopped a few of our runs. We had to make adjustments so we (lost) our flow. We had a couple of three-and-outs and that kind of stopped us in our game plan.”

Here’s where it didn’t add up, though. The Bears were up 21-18 and had first-and-goal at the Bucs’ 4-yard line with 3:52 remaining. Three run plays there and they have a shot at punching it in the end zone or forcing Tampa to start burning through its timeouts.

On first down, Cutler threw incomplete to Devin Hester on a quick slant. On second down, Lynch nearly picked him off again at the goal line. Blitzing cornerback Ronde Barber sacked Cutler on third down and only a facemask penalty against cornerbackAqib Talib after the play gave the Bears new life, pushed back at the 6-yard line. From there, they did try three consecutive runs, but they were stopped and ultimately settled for aRobbie Gould field goal as insurance.

Yes, the Bucs went to eight-man fronts in the second half to prevent the run. Everyone plays an eight-man front near the goal line where it’s difficult to have success throwing because the field is compacted. Safeties line up three yards in the end zone and sit on routes. You want to throw it over their heads? Go ahead and try. Defensive backs don’t have to backpedal in this part of the field. When you’ve run like the Bears had, there’s got to be a way to be a better four-minute offense – which is the mode teams go in when they’re working to grind out a victory.

So, I asked Ronde Barber — who has been around 15 seasons, well before Martz directed the Greatest Show on Turf — if he was surprised the Bears threw the ball like they did with the lead late in the game.

“No, that’s Mike Martz,” Barber said. “They’ve got a talented quarterback, they’ve got a talented runner. I think they choose to use them equally. They’re a team that wants to throw the ball so no, I am not surprised.

“We made a play when we had to, made them pay for it, I guess. That’s what they’ve shown themselves to be so you don’t expect them to be any different because they have a lead.”

OK. The Bears certainly need to be more efficient in four-minute mode, though.

Great stuff, Biggs.

The Bears are now a winning football team.  And they’re about to get healthy.

• I don’t want to start negative but I’m pretty sure Chris Harris was the worst defender on the field yesterday.  LoveRod need to seriously consider Brandon Meriweather at SS against the Eagle if Major Wright is still incapable of playing.  Also I’m pretty sure I don’t need to hear Harris’ contract demands this week.
• Lance Briggs.  Were you saving it?
• The offensive approach in the fourth quarter was wretched by both the offensive coordinator and the quarterback.  If the Bears only ran the ball on their last five possessions, the game never would have been in question.  And Cutler made three or four throws he simply can’t make when nursing a late lead.  When you are trying to put away a football game, either in the end zone or by moving the chains, how do you rationalize not giving the ball to your best player?
• As it was, Cutler played his worst game of the 2011 season and the Bears still won.  Good sign.
• Anybody else notice how often we blitzed in this game?  It seemed like every down.  I could get used to this.
• I like Chris Conte.  A lot.  Nice draft pick, boys.  Good to have a true free safety on the roster.
• And I know it’s fun to kill Jerry Angelo but credit the man for stealing Amobi Okoye off the waiver wire.
• Seems to me that Nick Roach is starting to emerge in this defense.  He’s terrific as a blitzer.
• The Bears are getting more confident with their offensive line.  I saw less mass protect schemes, less tight ends beside J’Marcus Webb and Chris Spencer was pulling on every fourth play.  As Matt Forte accumulates run yardage week after week, it is unfair not to give this unit credit.
• And I’d like to ask fans stop telling me our defense is old.  They don’t struggle due to age.  They struggle due to discipline.  When Brian Urlacher is rigid with his assignments, he can play like he’s in his prime.  He did in London.  The only player I might buy the “getting old” logic with is, you guessed it, Chris Harris.
• If the Bears are relying on Roy Williams to catch the ball, they should stop.  He gets open but it’s the catching bit.
• I am very interested to see how the Bears receiving corps will evolve with the inclusion of Earl Bennett into the rotation.  The quick toss over the middle has seemingly left the repertoire with his nursing a suffocated chest.

It was a strange game.  The Bears should have put it away three or four times throughout but could not punctuate the sentence.  Still it now puts the Bears in the thick of the wild card playoff race (if season ended today, they’d be in).  The Bears have two more games against wild card competition: at Philly after the bye and home to Detroit.  If they win them both, there’s no reason to believe this team won’t be in the playoffs.

The above photo is from Marty Booker’s three touchdown performance against the Tampa Bay Bucs on November 18th 2001.  It was the finest single game performance by a Bears wide receiver in my lifetime.  (It was also a terrific performance by Jim Miller.)  The game is more notoriously known around here as the afternoon where Dick Jauron decided to take four knees on the Bears final possession, giving Marty Gramatica a chance to tie the game for the Bucs on a long field goal.  But he’s a Gramatica and he missed.  A Bears classic.

I did not spend any time this week addressing the organization/contractual issues as they face the Chicago Bears currently.  I make up for that lack of column space with some yelling to open the Weekend Show.

Line This Week

Bears -1.5 Bucs (London) / PANTHERS -2.5 Redskins / Chargers -2 JETS / BROWNS -3 Seahawks / TITANS -3 Texans / DOLPHINS -1.5 Broncos / LIONS -3 Falcons / RAIDERS -4.5 Chiefs / Steelers -3.5 CARDINALS / Packers -9 VIKINGS /COWBOYS -13 Rams / SAINTS -14 Colts / Ravens -8 JAGUARS

The Brothers:  Jon (12-5-1), Jeff (11-6-1), Chris (11-6-1)

The Commenter Perfect Weeks: FQD1911 (2), New Bear in Town (2), SC Dave (2), BigDaddy (1), DYLbears23 (1), BossBear90 (1), Michael L (1), greenbayman (1), tobijohn (1), Sacramento’s #1 Bears Fan (1), ben in norcal (1), CanadaBear (1), #76 Mongo Murph (1), Shady (1)

Oh when the Yanks come marching in…

WHY DO I LIKE THE CHICAGO BEARS THIS WEEK?

• I always like the Chicago Bears.
• First off, I have no idea what the tone of the building is going to be but I assume there will be more Bears fans at Wembley than Bucs fans.  (Unless the Manchester United faithful will venture across the nation to cheer on their ownership group.)  Needless to say this should be the least road-like road game the Bears play all season long.  If the Bucs had a fan base, they’d be angry.
• Jay Cutler is hot right now, having played arguably his finest back-to-back ballgames as Bears quarterback without gaudy numbers.  He barked about playcalling last week and the coaching staff obliged.  He responded by showing them how good he can be with a few seconds in the pocket.  I think it continues.
• The Bucs should be without LeGarrett Blount this week and I don’t see the Bears allowing Ernest Graham to rush for 100 yards.  (Side note: Anybody else notice the Saints have totally mailed it in defensively other than the week they faced us?  No exotic blitz schemes.  Nothing.  Just crap defense against everybody else.)  If the Bears can bottle up Adrian Peterson, they best bottle up Graham.
• Devin Hester has never returned a kick for a touchdown on British soil.  You think he’ll pass up that chance?
• Josh Freeman is an accurate quarterback and a solid leader.  He is more than capable of finding open receivers in the Bears zones and can take off and run when the play breaks down.  He’s an easy player to like and if this is your first time watching him, enjoy.
• Freeman’s top target is Kellen Winslow.  Kellen Winslow is a tight end.  The Bears don’t cover tight ends.  I believe this is the transitive property of the Lovie Deuce.
• The Bucs also have a couple receivers capable of having ten-catch afternoons, though I don’t see either beating the Bears deep.  Both Mike Williams and Arrelious Benn have good size and good hands.  They are definitive threats on third down.
• This is a game where the Bears need to be disciplined on defense.  They can’t allow big cutback runs and they can’t allow Freeman to extend drives with his legs.  If they do those two things, Tampa will be kicking a lot of field goals.
• The Bears are not complicated on offense.  They’re going to get the ball to Matt Forte 20-25 times and let Cutler pick the opponent apart on third-and-manageable.  But it seems Cutler is finding comfort throwing the ball to Roy Williams, Kellen Davis and the Great Dane.  I think he’ll have one more bullet in his gun than Freeman this week.

Chicago Bears 23, Tampa Bay Bucs 16    

There is a sport called football.  It is played, almost literally, in every single recognized country on the whole of the Earth.  So, you know, it’s popular.  It is called football because one only needs two elements to play it: a foot and a ball.  We call it soccer here; an English shortening of the phrase association football.  (American football is, by comparison, the most ludicrously named sport on the planet.  Seriously, where would you rank on the scale of importance in our game?)  Soccer lives on the dirt roads of Cameroon, in the slums of Peru and on the grandest of scales, in the most spectacular of stadiums, in front of the most remarkably entertaining supporters, across the continent of Europe.

Europe.  The seductive beauty the NFL has been trying to penetrate for more than a decade.

Remember NFL Europe?  Of course you don’t.  Asking an NFL fan about the details of NFL Europe is the equivalent of asking an English Premier League supporter about the result of the Seattle Sounders v. Portland Timbers MLS match.  They’ve got Eric Ripert wrapping their scallops in prosciutto and you want them to help pick your 2-for-$20 at Applebee’s.  NFL Europe was not second rate football.  That would be played in the SEC on Saturday.  It was not third rate football.  That would be one of those games where Georgia Tech racks up 3 or 400 yards rushing and 18 yards passing.  It was not even fourth rate football.  That usually involves Rutgers.  NFL Europe ranked somewhere between the UFL and the Friday night action at that high school from Go Tigers! but contained neither the minor star power of the former nor the atmosphere of the latter.

NFL commissioner Roger Goodell has a sort of manifest destiny approach to league expansion.  He believes this is not only a sport the world wants, but also a sport they need.  Sound familiar?  Needless to say it’s been tried before with political doctrines, religions…etc.  Goodell wants football to be a global game but does not understand, like most Americans, the game’s lack of global appeal.  The experience of sitting through a football game and soccer match, either live or in front of a television set, could not be less similar.  Soccer is a flowing, uninterrupted game of subtlety.  It is called “the beautiful game” because it requires patience and precision of thoughts both from its participants and its viewers.  It is not a better game, by any means, but simply an antithetical one.  Europeans do not want to sit through three plus hours of sport with one hour of commercial breaks.  We don’t seem to mind.  Hell, we give the commercial breaks co-star billing on football’s biggest night!

For the most part, it is not Londoners who embrace this game.  It is either (a) American tourists eager for the experience of watching their beloved team/game on foreign soil or (b) American ex-pats working in the Gerkin who adopted Arsenal upon arrival at Heathrow but have never been able to subjugate their love for the Cleveland Browns.  (I watched the 2003 NFL Draft at a large sports bar near Trafalgar Square with a man who fit this exact description.)  If the British show up to watch the Chicago Bears and Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Sunday at Wembley it’ll be for the same reason they’d take in the circus there: it’s an interesting thing to look at when it comes around every year.

The NFL’s game in London is an irrelevant nuisance.  It is the act of desperate league (see: that outdoor NHL thing) and not the most profitable sports league in the western hemisphere.  Roger Goodell’s tenure at the top began with a portrait of himself as Football U’s Dean of Discipline, doling out fines like stuffed monkeys on the boardwalk and preaching the sanctity of being allowed entry in the NFL fraternity with the fervor of a Baptist minister.  It has since been marred by April’s draft day boofest and the death of his coveted 18-game season in labor negotiations.  Goodell isn’t losing his power because he doesn’t have all that much power to lose.  He’s the front man for the owner’s band, nothing more.  But if he wants his time as commissioner to be meaningful, Mr. Goodell should spend more time informing referees that all tackles are not illegal and concerning himself with genuine issues of player safety.  He should worry less about giving the Glazers this London game every year and focus on ending the eight blackouts a year in Tampa.  He should find a way to get his television network on the air in the world’s largest media market.

Still the London game continues, extending for the next five years.  And there are event hints that Goodell wants a franchise in England.  Will it happen?  I wouldn’t be surprised.  Will it work?  Did the the Barcelona Dragons outgain the Berlin Thunder in the 2004 World Bowl?

The 2011 Chicago Bears are not one of the league’s elite teams, even though it’s quickly looking like there is only one elite team in the whole of the NFL.  They are also not one of the league’s bottom tier clubs.  They are in the middle ground, the nether region, the land of the unknowns.  They have been the very portrait of a .500 club.  At times terrific, at times dreadful, at times just plain mediocre, these Chicago Bears can go either way.

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are in a similar boat.  Two weeks ago the Bucs lost 48-3 to a San Francisco 49ers team that, while improved, still start Alex Smith at quarterback.  And there is one rule I hold for an NFL franchises: you cannot lose by 45 points to a team quarterbacked by Alex Smith.  They took their lumps from the vicious Tampa-area media (one old fella outside a barbershop who continually yells “they need Brad Johnson back”) and took care of business against the New Orleans Saints at home.  They now lead the NFC South with a 4-2 record.

Now they meet in foggy London town.  The Bucs are already there, having flown out first thing Monday.  The Bears won’t arrive till Friday – a wise decision by Lovie Smith, if you ask me.  The last thing I’d want is my football team spending the week leading up to a pivotal conference game atop a double decker bus, cameras pointed at the Big Ben that doesn’t rape women in tavern toilets.  The Bears will arrive Friday, take a day to get the bearings, and go to work Sunday.  Business trip.  Not vacation.

Everybody wants to assign value to each week’s ballgame.  It’s what comes from having six days between Sundays.  Must win is the most incorrectly thrown around phrase in the NFL lexicon.  Sunday is not a game the Bears must win in any logical sense.  They can survive a 3-4 start.  But it is a game the Bears need to win if they want to establish themselves as a top half the league-type team.  It is a game they need to win if they wish to escape the winter doldrums of the .500 hover.  The Bears have an opportunity to wipe away the negatives of the early season and go into the bye at a we all-would-have-signed-for-it-in-August record of 4-3.  The have an opportunity to go into the bye as a winning football team.  It is not a must win.  It is merely winnable.

And good teams win the ones there to be won.

I am not that impressed.  I expected the Chicago Bears to dominate the Minnesota Vikings the way they did last night.  They are, without question, the superior football team and it was refreshing to see them perform like it.  Here are my quick hit thoughts on the ballgame.

• I want to see it with more consistency but the changes along the offensive line and at safety seemed to be quite effective.  Why the Bears would ever keep Chris Spencer on the bench and let Frank Omiyale play is beyond me.  Conte/Wright is an actual free/strong safety combination and a pretty good one.  Wright was terrific cutting down the run and Conte kept the game in front of him.  Coach Smith, you are applauded.
• I can’t root against Les Frazier.  Can’t do it.  But why, Les, why are you kicking the football to Devin Hester?
• The unheralded star of this ballgame was Chris Williams.  I have been as critical of the former first-round pick as anyone out there but he owned the middle of the Vikes defensive line and seemed to have sprinter’s speed when he jumped outside.
• I don’t know how comfortable I am with Jay Cutler’s confidence in Dane Sanzenbacher but I can’t remember a Bears receiver making a catch like his touchdown grab in the last decade.
• Ask yourself if a verifiable number one receiver catches the jump ball Jay threw to Johnny Knox in the end zone.  (The answer is yes.)
• Here are a few more first-time salutes: Nick Roach, Stephen Paea, Roy Williams.  I thought all three had solid evenings.
• Devin Hester played his finest all-around football game as a Bear.  Getting out of bounds after a reception as the first half clock was ticking down actually shocked me.
• If this is how Matt Forte is going to run the ball when he’s hungry for a new contract, why would you ever pay him? (That being said, Jerry should just cut the check at this point.)
• Tyler Clutts was a terrific find by Mr. Angelo.
• Don’t think special teams are pivotal?  Ask the Vikings.  They couldn’t punt the ball more than twenty yards, shanked a short field goal and allowed a kick return touchdown.  Adam Podlesh punted the ball better than he has all year.
• I love having Jay Cutler as the Bears quarterback.  There, I said it.  You are seeing what he’s capable of with a few seconds in the pocket.
• Anybody else notice a play in the second half wherein Peanut Tillman was rushing off the edge and Julius Peppers was covering a receiver down the field?  I thought I was seeing things.  Overall, I thought LoveRod’s defensive game plan for this game was terrific.  They brought extra defenders at the quarterback all night long.
• Don’t want to complain but D.J. Moore…c’mon!  Coaches put you in the perfect position for a pick six and you drop the ball?  Can’t have that.
• You guys believe me now about Donovan McNabb, right?  Urlacher and Paea both made a great play on the safety but all McNabb had to do was reach the ball out beyond the goalline
• In this offense, specifically this offense, the Bears made the right decision by choosing Kellen Davis over Greg Olsen.  Every week Davis is surprising me with his ability to get open and make plays.

A thorough, dominating effort that should inspire some confidence around Halas Hall.

Lovie Smith has benched Frank Omiyale.  He has benched Chris Harris and Brandon Meriweather.  The head coach is attempting to seize control of the organization, perhaps recognizing his fragile job security, and putting himself on the line by starting Major Wright and Chris Conte.  Will they last?  Who knows.

Sunday night’s game is now the second must-win of the 2011 campaign.  The responded the first time around, at home against Carolina.  Will they respond this evening?