Bears Start Not Half Bad
After seven weeks of the 2011 campaign, our Chicago Bears compiled a record of 4-3 heading into the bye week. This week we will be taking a closer look at the Bears through the midpoint of the season and looking ahead to see what lies ahead.
Upon closer examination the Bears 4-3 record through the first seven games has placed them in the thick of the playoff hunt.
Of their 3 losses the team has lost to 2 of the 4 current NFC Divisional Leaders in the Saints (5-2, 3-0 at home) on the road in the Superdome; and the Packers (7-0) at Soldier Field. Those two teams have been dominant throughout the first seven weeks ranking 1st and 2nd in points-per-game (PPG) respectively. The Bears third loss came in a Divisional road game against current Wild Card leading Detroit Lions (5-2) who held a 4 game win streak to open the season at the time and needing to come back from a halftime deficit to get a win that virtually went down to the wire.
The Bears surprised many prognosticators with an Opening Day win at home against the Atlanta Falcons, demonstrating a dynamic offense that would struggle with consistency throughout the first seven weeks. They would go on to lose the next two games (at Saints, vs Packers) before eking out a high scoring match up at home versus Rookie of the Year Candidate, Quarterback Cam Newton and the Carolina Panthers. Lovie Smith's team closed out the first half of the season taking out Minnesota and Tampa Bay with offensively dominating first half performances. During the bye, the Bears sit at 6th in the NFC holding tie-breakers over the Tampa Bay Bucs and Atlanta Falcons.
Mike Martz System Is Working Despite Appearances
If you have watched the Offense through the first seven games, they may not have passed your eye test. The play of the Roberto Garza led Offensive Line has left much to be desired. According to NFL.com the line is Ranked 28th giving up the 4th most sacks (21) and quarterback hits (40). The offense has also struggled on third down converting a paltry 29.9 % again good for 28th in the league. The team has seen significant improvement from last year however, last year's NFC Championship team ranked 30th in Total Offense with 289.4 yards per game (YPG). With a year in Martz's SYSTEM the offense has improved their ranking to 17th by averaging almost 50 more YPG at 337.4. The team also improved from 20.9 PPG (21st in 2010) to 24.3 PPG (12th) this season. So despite having one of the toughest schedules to open the season the Bears 'O' has actually been more than adequate scoring at a better rate than more than half of the entire NFL. Only slight adjustments are needed to make the offense more effective: positioning itself with more manageable third downs and limiting offensive penalties that has killed that third down field position.
Aging Defense?
Maybe the most surprising aspect of the team's inconsistency has been a stalwart in the past: the Defense. Early in the season the
secondary was continually burn by blown coverages leading to big plays and touchdowns against their base defense. A part of the reason behind those blown coverages in the first half was injury, causing Lovie Smith to start 4 different Safety combinations before the bye. The secondary was not given help by the offensive line either, which failed to get consistent pressure after registering 4 Sacks in the opening game against Falcons, the team had only 11 sacks in their last six games. Perhaps the most egregious numbers could be squarely on the backs of the teams defensive leaders: Linebackers Brian Urlacher and Lance Briggs. The defense has been gashed near 109 rush yards a game, a should be a no-no for the Cover-Two scheme. Allowing big plays in both the passing and running game the team is also giving up an uncharacteristic 21.4 PPG, good for 13th in scoring defense on the season. There have been breakdowns at just about every position this season, but in recent games they have been generating more takeaways and scoring more defensive touchdowns staples of Rod Marinelli's 'D'. At the this current trajectory the defense looks like it is getting back to the top tier defense that it has been since Lovie Smith took over in 2004.
Playoff Bound
Much has been made of the similarities to last years team considering the identical records. There are a few major differences however, this season the offense has an improved Jay Cutler, Matt Forte, and even Devin Hester is starting to show some signs of life. Another major difference has been the scheduling, although the team had one of the highest strength of schedules to begin the year, the Bears toughest games are behind them. Later this week we will look ahead to life after the bye week.
