Bears and Falcons get Crazy in Atlanta

That one hurt. The Bears had no business winning that game, and after taking the lead with eleven seconds left, they proved that ideology correct. There are plenty of issues to be taken up with Lovie Smith and his coaching staff regarding the decisions made late in that game, but the blame must be shared equally with the players on the field. Their execution (or lack thereof in the case of the defense and special teams) let the Falcons steal back their victory from the Bear jaws of defeat.

On defense, the Bears looked downright pathetic between the 20’s. They were ripped apart by rookie Matt Ryan time after time, as he was six for six on third down conversions of nine yards or longer. The Falcons were nine of sixteen on third down, embarrassing the best third-down defense going into Sunday’s schedule. The passing game was the only aspect of the Falcons’ offense that worked on Sunday, as the Bears completely shut down the most productive running back in the league in Michael Turner. Turner only garnered 54 yards on 23 carries, while back-up Jerious Norwood picked up 31 yards on only three carries. Atlanta never got anything going on the ground, but continued to handoff on first downs which often ended in a short gain or a loss, putting them in a difficult second and long for most of the day. The Bears defense never figured out how to stop receiver Roddy White, despite putting Atlanta in obvious passing situations where White would be the natural first option for Ryan. This has been the largest issue during the Lovie Smith regime. Too often does the opponent’s number one passing option have a huge day against the Bears’ rarely adjusting cover two defense. It shows stubbornness on the part of the coaches to refuse to adjust to what the opposing offense is doing, no matter how unsuccessful they are in defending it.

The defense made Atlanta settle for multiple field goals, but bent too often to realistically expect a victory. Getting turnovers, normally a Bears trait wasn’t apparent on Sunday. The stats will say each team lost a fumble, but both occurred on the same play. Tommie Harris recovered a Falcon fumble on the ground, and somehow managed to lose control of the ball as he attempted to stand up when he realized no one had made contact with him. It was a mind-numbingly dumb play from Harris, who had a few quarterback pressures on Sunday. He was part of an ineffective Chicago defensive line, which is unacceptable for the amount of money that’s invested in it. The Bears are forced to blitz to be effective, but that exposes an injured secondary. There are just too many problems for such a highly paid defense.

Injuries piled up in the secondary, as Danieal Manning went out early in the game and was later joined by Charles Tillman, who may have re-aggravated his shoulder injury. Marcus Hamilton, recently acquired from Tampa Bay off waivers, stepped in as Tillman’s replacement. This left the Bears with only two healthy corners in Hamilton and Graham, forcing them to abandon their nickel defense for more traditional zone looks. This factored into the last offensive play the Falcons took.

On a day where the Bears defense had major problems, the offense actually stepped up in the second half and made enough plays to win the game. They had a sad showing in the first half, only netting three points off the boot of Robbie Gould. Matt Forte and the running game were ineffective early, leading to a load of short drives that never included more than one first down. The Bears came back late with four impressive drives, three of which went for scores.  Matt Forte finally “got his rush on” on the first touchdown drive. The second lengthy drive ended in a goal line stand for the Falcons. On third and fourth down from the one, this Bears offense which prides itself on running the ball couldn’t punch the ball in on the ground. Third down was a quickly called play for fullback Jason McKie that shouldn’t have had a problem getting in the end zone. Fourth down’s play featured a triangle backfield with two blockers at the fullback level and Matt Forte behind them in the middle. The blockers both went for the same spot on the line, on the left “A gap” beside center Olin Kreutz. The Bears got no push on the line, and Forte was stopped in the backfield. A lot of people have been complaining about these calls. I’m fine with them. You go with what’s been working, and at that point in the game, the Bears had the advantage in running game. The play-calls made sense.

After getting no help from the defense, the Bears drove down the field again late and converted another field goal attempt, making the score 19-13 in favor of  Atlanta. After a rare Jason Elam miss, the Bears were in prime position to go for the win with a touchdown. Kyle Orton took charge of his team in the no huddle offense and found Devin Hester multiple times on the drive, which culminated in a strike to Rashied Davis on the left edge of the end zone. With the PAT came a one-point lead and a sense of accomplishment for Chicago, having stolen a victory. After all, there was only 11 seconds left, the game must be over, right? This is where Chicago fan’s collective stomach really began to churn.

After Norwood burned the Bears special teams on the previous kick return for 85 yards, Lovie Smith wasn’t about to take any chances, giving Robbie Gould the go-ahead for squib kick. The short high-arcing kick is used for the purpose of getting it to one of the heavier lineman in the return formation after a few bounces, giving your team more time to get to the ball while limiting the return yards. This is normally utilized when the kicking has a sizeable lead or doesn’t want to be gashed by a speedy returner. The tradeoff with this tactic is that it’s a short kick, giving your opponents better field position than off of the average deep kick. Now, with Norwood’s prior return, I can understand the desire to squib it, because a good return can put the Falcons in position to kick the game winner. Unfortunately, this particular kick was poorly executed by Gould, and the Falcons recovered close to mid-field, leaving six seconds remaining. Squib kicks need to made on specific game situations when certain conditions are met, and when you’re only up one with 11 seconds left, you have to make the opponent traverse as much turf as possible. A bad squib kick late can cost you a game.

Now the Bears defense had to make up for the poor kick by ensuring the Falcons didn’t connect on any quick and deep sideline routes, since that was the only way they would have time to set up a kick. I’ll give a lot of the credit to Atlanta’s rookie head coach Mike Smith for trusting Ryan in this pressurized situation (though it was an easy decision, as he had been torching the Bears the entire game). Ryan, under pressure from Tommie Harris, dropped back, still managed to located receiver Mike Jenkins behind corner Marcus Hamilton and yards away from safety Mike Brown. Chicago used a two deep safety look on that play, with zone coverage on the outsides. Hamilton got drawn in by a harmless receiver coming out of the backfield, and was left behind by Jenkins. He’s a back-up for a reason.  It’s the coaches’ fault for not putting the players they had left in the position to win. If you drop three safeties deep, you cover any crazy throw that may occur down the middle, but more importantly you have safeties patrolling the sidelines. If man coverage on the receivers is added to that, then Hamilton would have been in place to make a play. Still, a veteran like Mike Brown should have known the situation and been closer to the ball’s destination. From there, Jason Elam had redeemed himself by knocking through a 48 yard field goal with one second left. There wasn’t anything left to cheer about on the Bears’ sideline.

After this heart-breaking loss, Chicago must regain their confidence before they meet Minnesota this Sunday for the first time this season. The Vikings and Packers both won on Sunday, creating a 3-3 logjam at the top of the NFC North. Having played one divisional game thus far, the Bears have the opportunity to control their own fate going into these last eleven weeks, when their schedule gives them a chance to go on significant winning streaks. If Lovie Smith can’t get his team to focus every week, then they’ll continue losing the games they should win, while beating superior opponents. Such is the Lovie Smith era.