2008 Regular Season Week 2 - Bears @ Panthers

One word to describe yesterday's game - frustrating. I think that word describes how a lot of bears fans feel right now...and I cant blame them.

I was having deja vu with the offense. It appears as though we are where we started...where the defense is again doing what they have to, to allow us a chance to win....but our offense is not doing its duty....instead of a qb being to blame, which according to our extraordinarily intelligent fans was the issue in the offense back then....now we can blame all our problems on a NEW SCAPEGOAT!! YAY! Olsen...YOU SUCK!.

I'm being sarcastic.

Ok, obviously, certain players on the offense (I wont name names - fuck it - yes i will - Olsen, McKie) had terrible games...but this was a team loss...no doubt about it.

There were several points during the game in which, I THINK, we could have put them away...and we failed to do so. It wasnt JUST Olsen's fumbleaaaaaayyyass...those were bad...but there was an overall lack of effort to me...and some play calling that I found to be somewhat suspect. Considering last weeks obvious gameplan....there seemed to be a very inconsistent one in week 2.

Looking beyond all that...I cant be terribly upset....and here is my reasoning.

Reason 1:

Shit happens....its not so often that Bears football is on the shitty side of this well known proverb. Usually shit happens to our advantage...or really, "shit happens" is what we are able to say to the other team.

This time....WE have to accept the fact that we lost a game that was seemingly in hand and most certainly should have been won.

Shit happens....people fumble....people call plays that have us trying to throw on 2nd and 3rd down with 2 yards to go for a 1st down...GET THE FUCKING 1st DOWN....idiots...

Reason 2:

Following the same logic as the reason above, I cannot be permanently discouraged. This was a bad game for our offense. If we can pull together a good offensive performance...and keep everything else status quo....we will win games again.

I guess, I'm just not concerned yet that this will happen every game....we ate a couple of bad beats...which as mistakes, could have been minimized a bit more. I'm not suggesting that mistakes cant be made for me to expect us to win...but they certainly cant be mistakes that have the worst possible effect every time they happen.

Mistakes will be made...we cant expect a perfect offense...in fact far from it. What we need to hope happens is that WHEN the mistakes are made, it isnt ALSO the WORST POSSIBLE TIME with the WORST POSSIBLE EFFECTS - which occurred for every mistake that we made.

Assuming that a compilation of bad beats can only happen rarely...I think the offense will come back and perform decently at home giving us the next two wins....assuming everything else remains the same...which is hardly a safe assumption. In any event, I think we are still primed to win...we just lost at our own game on this occasion. I dont think that is a likely event to repeat itself is all...

Reason 3:

There are some good things to take away from this game. Forte will be relatively consistent, it appears...thats good. The O-line did not suffer injuries that I am aware of...which would be devastating early in the season. Orton, although he had some iffy decisions and some TERRIBLE long throws....overall, I'm still impressed with how he handled the game....I think we would have all liked to see more accuracy on the long ball.

But hey, we (and I mean stupid bears fans) asked for it. When you value consistency more than talent in your QB position...this is where you end up. We were missing Rex's vertical accuracy...no doubt about it...and yes, BOUCH, I think we would have won that game with Rex in instead. Hindsight is 20/20. Were Rex starting that game, and he fumbled twice on a snap, I would be saying the opposite.

Unfortunately, we cannot combine each of their good qualities...so we have to live with one or the other...Orton IS the safer choice...but safe does not win games like that.

At a certain point, we needed to throw caution to the wind...and that was the problem - Orton cant throw long...and thus was unsuccessful in the coaches attempts to throw caution to the wind. ...and they DID try....over 9 times if I remember correctly.

Orton will progress with his long ball accuracy as the season continues. It should definitely be a point of focus this week for Orton tho, but I'm not sure what else can be expected. We should all be well aware that
a.) a long pass game, the bears do NOT have....and by design, shouldnt have. When we get behind...odds are we are staying there... unless special teams or defense comes to our rescue with a turnover.

b.) Orton does not have much in-game experience throwing in situations like this. His physical limitations in talent are being worked on and his progression in that area, as far as I know, has been good of late. The accuracy of these types of longer yardage throws should improve over time. However, to expect the accuracy level of Rex at some point from Orton on long throws, is not realistic. It wont happen. And Rex isnt even a shining example of accuracy... Orton has great accuracy on the short throws....but increase the yardage, and its almost an exponential decrease in his chances for completion. He just needs to minimize that discrepancy between the two, or opponents will be able to scheme a defensive strategy against us easily (which I thought was exampled by the Panthers)

...One way to look at Rex's inconsistencies as a positive thing...at least the opposing defense could never get a clear idea of which Rex to expect and plan for...

c.) we should rarely NEED Orton to complete passes for large yardage chunks - all in a single quarter or two. If everything else goes to plan, we will never be in the position we found ourselves in. If there are no fumbles...if there is no 2nd half comebacks because our offense cant MINIMALLY put field goals up on the board...this shouldnt be an issue very often. Orton is more likely to be successful with long yardage pass plays if done THROUGHOUT the whole game - thrown in between some run plays and short yardage passes. WHICH we actually did quite a bit more than I initially thought would be done...early in the game. We opened up the vertical game and threw long passes every now and again...so that was good. Orton didnt complete them because they were TERRIBLY thrown with wide open receivers....but we tried them when we should have and thats a good thing...considering the normal coaching SOP which we have all come to know and love....AKA - stupidity.

If Orton cant make those long throws when they arent suspecting it...what in gods name made the coaches think he would suddenly be able to complete them when he ABSOLUTELY HAD to...with twice the pressure....i cant say. The game was over as soon as we NEEDED Orton to complete long passes, as far as I was concerned.
We will never win a game that we NEED our QB during...its a fact. The bears have to be able to win with little, or no, production from the pass game. If we go INTO every game knowing this...and preparing in this way...I think we can only be pleasantly surprised by our pass game. If you go into a game thinking the Bears are going to have a pass game like Philly - your an idiot.

It is just not going to happen. The fact is is that we should have never NEEDED to have a pass game that comes anywhere near to Philly's. We should have been in a situation where it was the Panther offense with the burden of chasing our methodical point increase. But we had nothing being methodically added...THATS what the problem was. We should have been walking away from each drive with minimally 3 points, as I saw it. Even with a 17 point spree by the Panthers, if we had been scoring just the minimum of what I thought should have been scored if it werent for costly mistakes...we would have won the game....granted - in usual Bear close-game technique.

So all in all - I guess what I'm saying is that if all of these HORRIBLE HORRIBLE mistakes made us lose to the Panthers in a close game by 3 points...if we limit, at the very least, the type of impact that our mistakes have, or if luck just treats us better in future occurances relative to the timing and nature of the mistakes...I think we win these types of games.

especially when you consider that Orton is still progressing...and perhaps someday will find himself better equipped to bail us out when we DO, ultimately, make mistakes....which are bound to happen....

I would argue however, that they are not often likely to happen again in the same unfortunate way they did in Week 2. Not impossible...but I would argue - unlikely.

Another obvious comment on the game was that it was sloppy. Penalties will dwindle - especially under Lovie...

I dont know what was going on...but of this I am almost certain - you will not see nearly as many penalties in a single game for the rest of the season. My guess is that Lovie considers the penalty situation during that game a blasphemy to his coaching values...and thus will not allow it to continue for long.


lets hope we have a good homecoming next weekend...thats all

DLP