Joe's 2011 Gameday Recap: Raiders 25, Bears 20

As I assumed, today’s loss to the Raiders was a slow, painful death. Chicago hung around after several costly turnovers, but couldn’t mount the offense to overcome Sebastian Janikowski’s six field goals and a late touchdown from Michael Bush, halting their five game win streak. As much as I’d prefer not to, let’s get to the breakdown.

Chicago Tribune

(7-4) Oakland Raiders 25
(7-4) Chicago Bears 20

With Caleb Hanie at the helm, the Bears struggled to move the ball through the air. Going into this game, most fans would have expected Martz to rely more heavily on the run than he would if Cutler was playing, but that wasn’t the case. The game started off balanced in terms of run/pass ratio, but that eventually faded away as Hanie was forced to throw from behind. However, Martz needed to give his QB help by focusing on getting the ball to Forte and Barber, both of which had solid numbers despite their lack of attempts. Hanie was jittery early on, overthrowing or vastly under-throwing his receivers, which led to the first and second of his three interceptions. He played relatively well after he settled down, making scrambles for large gains and big throws to Johnny Knox for a 29 yard TD in the second and a deep throw for 81 yards as the Bears mounted a miracle comeback in the fourth.

One of the key blunders of the game came on a trick screen play that came in Bear territory.  Hanie looked right but came back to Kellen Davis on the left side, but Kamerion Wimbley got in the way and took it back 73 yards. The execution was bad but the play-call was even worse. I have no idea what Mike Martz was thinking, I only know that it was utterly idiotic. The only positive on that play was the all-out hustle from Lance Louis, who ran down Wimbley from behind and horse-collared him for the touchdown-saving tackle.

Give some credit to the special teams unit, as Robbie Gould connected on two field goals of 50 and 53 yards, making him 5/5 on the season from fifty plus. His onside kick wasn’t that bad either, thanks to a complete jacking by Charles Tillman. Corey Graham almost made a game-shifting recovery, but failed to bring it out of the pile. Johnny Knox even had a nice 59-yard kick-off return filling in for Hester (who barely saw the field), but the Bears were outplayed on the special team front, a rare occurrence. The Oakland Raiders made their case for the best punter/kicker combination in the NFL. As previously mentioned, Janikowski made a case for his first Pro Bowl ever (which sounds ridiculous) by connecting on all six of his attempts. As great a performance as that was, he may have been outshined by punter Shane Lechler, who proved that great kicking can take any great return man out of the game. He even kicked an 80 yarder. Eighty. Yards. Even with the touchback, he netted a cool 60. Hester didn’t even know what to do with it. Oakland dominated the field position game all day, putting Hanie in terrible spots where his mistakes had maximum negative impact.

Defensively the Bears just couldn’t hang on any longer. They were holding tough in the first half, forcing field goal after field goal despite Hanie’s miscues. The defensive line was converging at the quarterback, putting Palmer to the turf four times, two of which were from Julius Peppers. Tim Jennings had a really solid three and a half quarters, but he failed to make the catch on two possible interceptions that the Bears desperately needed. A Brandon Meriweather tipped ball led to a Corey Graham pick which set up the Bears’ first touchdown. However, they slowed down in the fourth quarter, evident by the 47-yard bomb to Louis Murphy that beat Jennings deep and had Chris Conte out of position for the second time on the day. That third down play came after two other opportunities the Bear defense had to get the Raiders off the field, but Palmer and crew kept converting. They simply ran out of gas, even if the stats say the time of possession was a pretty even split.

-It was good to see FOX carry plenty of shots of Jay helping Hanie out on the sidelines. A nice contrast from the NFC title game when all they showed was moping.

-Chris Conte is showing his inexperience at free safety. His two bad angles cost the Bears on both 47 yard plays they gave up. (The first was to the Raider fullback. The hell?)

-Johnny Knox had a productive day as a receiver, but he was the only one. Hester, Bennett, Hurd and Williams were essentially no-shows.

If you’re jumping off the Bear bandwagon after this one loss (an inexperienced QB’s first start), then go ahead. They don’t want you anyway. It’s easy to get wrapped up in today’s results, but Hanie should improve as he gets grounded in the position, which should prove worthwhile down the stretch as the Bears take on lesser teams. The Raiders are a very good team and are hitting their offensive stride. Even with Jay they could have lost this game, so curb the overreactions. Get smashed tonight and let’s move onto next week.

Bear Down and Happy Jay Cutler Day!