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Bears in Five: week 6 @ Atlanta Falcons
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It's hard to imagine a loss being more painful than the one the Bears experienced last year in Atlanta. What could be worse than a last second field goal set up on a fluke-ish series of plays that nullifies an outstanding and unexpected potential game-winning drive?
Leave it to the Bears to top themselves, because that's what they did Sunday night when they followed up getting robbed a season ago with flat out giving one away.
So for this week’s Bears in Five we will break down exactly how this year’s Bears topped last season's disaster:
1) 4th and 1; False Start - It's painful to pick on an eventual Hall of Famer but Orlando Pace's false start in the closing seconds was unacceptable. With only a yard to go to Bears had options from a QB sneak - which was likely the call - to a play-action pass to Jason McKie in the flat - a Ron Turner favorite.
But once the distance is pushed to six the offense’s backed into a corner and the options are significantly limited. Falcons’ defenders were able to stack a 5 yard area, between three and eight yards from the line of scrimmage, and force Cutler the thread the needle which he nearly did.
At the time of his signing Pace looked like another Jerry Angelo special: an aging offensive linemen who still had a few productive years the Bears could squeeze out of him. But to this point he's been exactly what the Rams let go, a former great on his last legs.
2) Eric Weems 62 yard kickoff return - In the 2008 Georgia Dome Disaster it was the decision to squib quick following the go-ahead score that doomed the Bears. This time it was the time to kick it deep.
Damned if you do, damned if you don't.
For the normally outstanding Bears coverage units this was the worst possible breakdown at the worst possible time. To hand the Falcons a short field immediately after tying the game completely killed any and all momentum.
Most disturbing off all is that special teams mistakes have played prominent roles in both Bears defeats.
3) 3rd and Goal; Forte Fumbles...again - Of all the problems that have cropped up over the Bears first five games the most unexpected has to be Matt Forte's ball security issues.
One fumble in 379 touches last year followed by three in just 104 this year. And that doesn't even include the near fumble he had at the goal line against the Seahawks.
How do you even explain that?
To top it off all of Forte's fumbles have come at crucial times, near the goal line and on the final drive against the Steelers. Hopefully it's an anomaly, but it's on the verge of being a disturbing trend.
4a) Tony Gonzalez TD to end the first half, and 4b) Uncovered Roddy White TD - This week’s entries in the "Urlacher would've made that play" album. While the play of Nick Roach has been more than admirable these two plays are examples of just how badly the Bears miss #54.
On the touchdown pass to Tony Gonzalez that closed out the first half and gave the Falcons a 14-7 lead Roach was pump-faked over by Matt Ryan to create the window for the completion. I'd have to say the odds of Urlacher - with 32 pass deflections and 10 interceptions over the last three seasons - stopping that play are much higher than Roach.
On the White touchdown the defense was caught unprepared by the Falcon's no-huddle offense and only had two defenders out to cover three receivers. I am not saying that Urlacher could've done a much better job than Roach in chasing White down on the play, but that Urlacher's experience means he would've been much more likely to have the defense set or call a timeout in that situation.
5) Jay Cutler red zone INT - Don't count me among the alarmists questioning the play of Jay Cutler given the success Kyle Orton has experience in Denver, but Cutler's interceptions near the end zone have got to stop.
It was a noted problem in Denver, but the theory was this wouldn't be a problem with the Bears because of the ability to run the ball inside the 20. Unfortunately the running woes have put the onus entirely on Cutler and he has responded with 10 touchdown passes.
But as long as the Bears are forced to throw more than they run in order to put points on the board Cutler needs to learn when there is no play to be made and simply throw a ball into the stands. This team is not good enough to miss out on opportunities to score.
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