Griese Returns with a Vengeance in Bears Loss

Well, this game ended just how it started: ugly. That’s really the only way to describe yesterday’s return of Brian Griese. From the opening play when Tommie Harris got involved with Bucs offensive lineman Donald Penn, it was obvious Tampa Bay was playing dirtier than usual. After early penalties on both teams, the referees seemed to contain most of the emotion. Though it proved to not be enough as another fight broke out in overtime with the game on the line. After the defense halted Tampa on third down, one of the Bucs offensive lineman refused to get off of a Bears defender, even going so far as to forearm the Bear in the facemask. Obviously, this starts an old-fashioned scrum. Entering late, Bears cornerback Charles Tillman got involved with a Buccaneer trying to helmet him in the back. Tillman throws that player to the ground and gets flagged for unnecessary roughness, giving the Bucs new life in the form of a first down. Brian Griese then methodically leads his offense down the field and sets up the game winning field goal.

As stupid as Tillman’s actions were, he didn’t cost us the game. The defense did. The offense managed to put up 24 points off of the Tampa turnovers, and kept the defense one the sidelines for a majority of the game. Even with the lengthy drives Tampa had in the fourth quarter and overtime, the Bears still lead in time of possession 39:17 to 31:22. That comes out to be a normal NFL game where no one team dominates time of possession. The defense had a ten point lead in the fourth and allowed Brian Griese to pick them apart for first down after first down while in the no-huddle offense. I know that not huddling restricts the defense from making substitutions, but honestly, they should not have been that worn out. They were exhausted during the first drive, when their offense had a 3 to 2 ratio in time of possession. There’s no excuse for a defense of their supposed caliber to give up that many completions to an average quarterback and a mediocre wide receiver corps. Despite Tillman’s lack of judgment, the Bears defense had their chances.

Griese exposed the Bears using almost exclusively one play: the quick slant. Every offense likes to use the slant pattern to get a few quick yards and see if their wide receiver can make a play. It gets the ball out quickly and lets the QB avoid the pass-rush. However, most defenses after seeing this play used to success multiple times on the same drive would adjust and try to force the offense to try something else. Not this coaching staff. They are married to their cover 2 scheme and flat-out refuse to let the opposing offense change their ideas. If they only slid their outside linebackers in front of the wide receivers they would have taken away the slant and made the offense adjust to them, instead of the other way around. It was simply embarrassing to watch.

Brian Griese, in knowing the defense’s weak points, managed to put drives together when it mattered on Sunday. He was never really challenged beyond the third quarter. Even on his 67 pass attempts the Bears never managed a sack. He threw for over 400 and two touchdowns yards in a game where the Bears defense took away the running game early, and therefore should have been guarding against the pass all day (actually putting him above the joke of 300 yards and two TD's in my preview). This is just another example of the Bears coaching staff not putting their players in position to win.

On offense, the Bears came alive in the second half. Kyle Orton passed for a career high of 268 yards, putting him in a position to bust my prediction of less than two 200 yard outings. Orton recovered after throwing two interceptions to throw two touchdowns, one to Brandon Lloyd, who shockingly had 124 yards on six amazing catches. If he isn’t the Bears’ number one wide receiver, then it should be Matt Forte, who caught the other touchdown. Forte had 155 yards of total offense, getting touches on 46% of the Bears offensive snaps. The Bears have to be really careful not to exhaust Forte too early in the season. They should be using Kevin Jones more often to alleviate the pounding Forte will take. That won’t happen, but I just thought I’d mention the idea.

In the end, this was a typical Chicago Bears game. The defense plays well in the first half and causes turnovers, but the offense can’t produce touchdowns, keeping it a close game. The defense then tires out in the second half as the opposing team mounts a successful comeback. The only difference was that the offense came to play in the second half and took pressure off the defense, who failed to deliver.