To think, the Bears made the NFC Championship game last year.
If the Bears have any hope of getting back to the playoffs they’ll need to sharpen their act up pronto. Their display on Monday Night Football was the kind of performance that had so many convinced Lovie Smith was a goner before the kick off to the 2010 season, as they played an all around sloppy game, summed up by a combination of false starts, missed tackles and bad angles taken by defenders. Naturally, committing those kinds of errors against a team as talented as the Lions was never going to see Chicago leave Detroit winners.
Instead they can only admire the excellence of what has become the Detroit Lions. No longer the laughing stock of the NFL, they used Monday Night Football to show the world they have some of the leagues’ premier playmakers, and a dominant (and deep) defensive line that will cause anyone troubles.
The only shame about the Lions right now is that we have to wait until week 12 to see them face the Packers. How can any football fan not be excited about that match after watching the Lions on MNF?
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Chicago – Three Performances of Note
1) A One Man Show
It was never going to be an easy night for Jay Cutler (+4.7), but even he probably thought he’d have more time than his offensive line gave him. Okay maybe he didn’t, but the point remains Cutler faced an awful lot of pressure on this one. Our nifty signature stat, ‘Under Pressure’ reveals that of the games graded so far (10 of them) that only Matt Schaub faced more pressure than the 47.6% of passing plays the Bears QB was pressured on. To his credit, Cutler didn’t let this faze him as even in these situations he still completed 68.8% of his passes, and remarkably had a higher yards per attempt average (8.3) when he was pressured. He won’t be happy with the defeat, but he can be proud that he hung on in there and kept making plays, while (somewhat unusually for him) limiting his negative plays.
2) Reap What You Sow – Part One
If you watched Brandon Meriweather (-2.9) last year then you’d wonder not just how he managed to get himself into the Pro Bowl, but also why the Bears would bother taking a chance on him after New England dumped him. His performance against the Lions was another glaring example of why he may go down in the ‘athlete’ as opposed to football player category. He missed two big tackles that led to plenty of yards after contact and a touchdown, took a horrible angle in pursuit for Jahvid Best’s touchdown and committed the kind of penalty that nobody likes to see as he launched himself at Nate Burleson after the play was whistled dead and with the Lion receiver unable to protect himself. The only shocking thing about his performance was he wasn’t the worst Bears safety on the field. Chris Harris (-5.4) got beaten for one touchdown and then gave us a couple of examples in how not to come up and support in run defense from the safety spot. If you’re looking for examples of how to take yourself out of the play while causing minimal fuss to the offense, go to 5:32 in the third and 3:46 in the fourth. Shocking.
3) Reap What You Sow – Part Two
They like their guys. That’s what the Bears told fans about their offensive line as they clamored for much needed upgrades in the off season. Sure they brought in a tackle, but one player was never going to be enough to turn this unit around. Instead they’re happy for players like J’Marcus Webb (-6.5) and Frank Omiyale (-8.5) to continue to give up penalties and pressures while losing more battles than they win in the run game. Omiyale was the biggest culprit in this game, and earned his benching after giving up two sacks and four pressures. He can thank some penalties for keeping these figures down, as on nullified plays he gave up another sack and hit. Even in run defense his impact was extremely negative, with Ndamukong Suh exploding past him to stuff the Bears on fourth down in a key moment in the first quarter. Just not good enough.
Detroit – Three Performances of Note
1) Megatron
What else do you really need to say? The Bears figured they could line up Charles Tillman on him, but as good as Tillman has been this year, there really aren’t that many guys who can get close to slowing down Calvin Johnson (+2.6). The Lions wideout picked up four routine first downs on the Bears star defensive back, two on comebacks and two on slants, but his biggest play (stating the obvious) came before that when Tillman passed him onto his secondary. Do I need to tell you the rest? A reception, broken tackle and leap into the crowd later all that was left to wonder was just how many touchdowns could he pick up this year?
2) Defensive Line Dominance
Some teams rotate to keep people fresh, while some do it to motivate underachieving players. The Lions? The Lions do it because it would simply be wrong not to give all their talent an opportunity to make the kind of plays that are commonplace when you watch this defense. Take new addition Nick Fairley (+2.4). Only on the field for 18 snaps, he spent 13 of those rushing and picked up three pressures and made his presence felt in the run game. Look at what he did to Roberto Garza with 11:21 to go in the first half, where, with a single push he almost knocked the Bears center off his feet to help close a running lane. As is always the case, the plaudits need to be shared amongst the linemen, Cliff Avril (+4.0) got plenty of pressure while Lawrence Jackson (+3.4) showed why he’s eating into the playing time of Kyle Vanden Bosch. You’d like to see less penalties from this unit (a number negated positive defensive plays) but you look at what the coach has been able to do in terms of building a formidable defense line and have to wonder why others aren’t following suit.
3) Reason for Concern?
If there’s one thing that should perhaps worry Lions fans right now it’s their franchise quarterback, Matthew Stafford (+1.1). Five times he overthrew receivers, missing out on some big opportunities when he attempted to go downfield. This may not be an issue when your defense is dominating on the other side of the ball, and he’ll get away with some lesser throws because talent like Johnson's increases his margin for error. But there will be a time when the Lions can’t afford overthrows or forcing the ball into coverage as he did for his interception. That’s how high expectations are now for Detroit, and if they want to make a serious run at knocking the Packers off the top of the NFC North, it’s going to need more consistency from the first pick in the 2009 draft.
Game Notes
● The Bears had eight false start penalties on offense. Eight. How does that happen?
● If you get rid of all the plays nullified by penalties, the Lions would had 31 combined sacks, hits and hurries on the day. The Bears managed two.
● Charles Tillman lined up on Calvin Johnson for all bar two plays.
PFF Game Ball
DeAndre Levy, LB, Detroit Lions
Out of left field, DeAndre Levy (+5.3). The Lions linebacker didn’t have the sacks or interceptions to make a highlight reel, but he did do a lot of good work in run defense. Winning the battle with the full back to stand him up at the point of attack, beating linemen at the second level and registering tackles around the line of scrimmage. Very impressive.
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