The Bears came back to beat the Steelers in the home opener at a rain-soaked Soldier Field. Jay Cutler rebounded with an error-free performance and Robbie Gould drilled a 44-yard field goal in the closing minute. The defending champions let this slip away. Jeff Reed had two critical field goal misses. It was Cutler’s poise and Alex Brown’s dominance that ruled the day.

A Goulden Finish (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh).

Quarterback
Jay Cutler (27-38-236, 2 TD) played a tremendous game. His numbers don’t tell the whole story. He continually bought himself time against countless blitz packages. He showed much better patience with his receivers, and found the tight end and running backs with more regularity. Cutler drilled a 6-yard touchdown strike to tight end Kellen Davis in the right seam and also found rookie Johnny Knox from 7 yards out with two unblocked blitzers bearing down on him. He led the Bears on a 97-yard touchdown drive at the close of the first half to even the score at 7-7. There were only a few bad passes, and they weren’t the kind that lead to turnovers. The poorest of them was the pass too high for Knox on a 3rd and long. Overall, it was a brilliant performance. GRADE: A

Running Backs
Matt Forte (13/29, 5-33, fumble) did not have a good game. He was trying to look for things that weren’t there when he needed to hit the point of attack hard. Forte’s pass protection was also not up to his usual performance level. He fumbled a screen pass in the fourth quarter that could have ended the winning drive. Jason McKie was again a nonfactor, apart from a holding penalty. Adrian Peterson saw a few series of action, and ripped off a 15-yard run for the Bears’ lone rushing highlight. He dropped a swing pass but it was erased by a Steelers penalty. It’s time to sort out the running game. GRADE: D

Receivers
Rookie Johnny Knox (6-70, TD) was a favorite target of Jay Cutler. Knox made several great leaping catches to snatch the ball out of the air, one of them to pick up a key third down conversion. Tight end Kellen Davis stepped in for the injured Desmond Clark and responded with 5 catches for 38 yards and a touchdown. He also had a drop. Davis held on to a bullet between two defenders at the end of the first half for a touchdown. Devin Hester (4-21) had a quiet day, but picked up a critical first down over the middle at the end of the game. Tight end Greg Olsen (3-41) took a beating. He was separated from the ball by safety Tyrone Carter on a deep pass along the sideline. Olsen also had an early third down drop. But he redeemed himself by jumping on Forte’s fumble in the fourth quarter. Earl Bennett had two catches for 22 yards, including a 15-yard screen. GRADE: B-

Offensive Line
Each member of the Bears’ offensive line should take turns buying Jay Cutler a dinner each day of the week. He was only sacked once, but was under a great deal of pressure. The one sack allowed was when James Harrison pushed past Orlando Pace and forced Cutler up into another defender. Pace made a nice block on several of many screens that were called. Confusion reigned in blocking assignments for first-year tackle Chris Williams. On one play, he had two defenders in front of him, and they went inside and outside of him and he chose to block neither of them. Left guard Frank Omiyale pulled to seal off a linebacker on Peterson’s 15-yarder off right tackle. But he was mostly a nonfactor as a run blocker and committed a false start. Garza had one as well. Olin Kreutz had his hands full with another massive nose tackle (Casey Hampton). 2.4 yards per carry is unacceptable. GRADE: D

Defensive Line
Alex Brown (4 tackles, 2 sacks, 2 TFL) was the most dominant player on the Bears’ defense. Not showing up in the impressive stat line is the pressure he put on Ben Roethlisberger (23-35-221, TD, INT, 3/6, TD) that led to a Charles Tillman interception. Brown left late in the contest with an apparent ankle or foot injury. The Steelers used traps and cutbacks to negate Adewale Ogunleye’s aggressiveness. Tackle Tommie Harris was consistently the last person off the ball. He came up with a key tackle for loss in the fourth quarter. Mark Anderson committed the bonehead play of the game—unnecessary roughness to set up Pittsburgh’s second half touchdown. They had decent pressure on the elusive Roethlisberger, but the run defense could have been better (22/105, TD). GRADE: B

Linebackers
With Brian Urlacher out for the season, Lance Briggs was named a captain of the defense this week. He responded with another strong performance, leading the team with 8 tackles, a pressure, a tackle for a loss, and several big hits. Hunter Hillenmeyer had an up and down performance in the middle for Urlacher. He made a key pass deflection over the middle of the field to break up a play. On Rashard Mendenhall’s 39-yard run, Hillenmeyer was tackled to the ground by his head. That should have been a penalty. Nick Roach started on the strong side for Pisa Tinoisamoa. He had a tackle for a loss on a pitch in the early going. Jamar Williams saw some action as well. GRADE: C

Secondary
Danieal Manning (8 tackles) started at free safety. In spite of his great speed, he allowed tight end Matt Spaeth to get open running across the back of the end zone for a touchdown. His tackling was not as sure as it could have been. On Roethlisberger’s touchdown run, he fell to the ground under the tackle instead of taking it head on. Al Afalava (4 tackles) started on the strong side and was quiet at best. He did have a good stop on a short pass to Heath Miller on a 2nd and goal play. Kevin Payne saw sub package duty, and took several bad angles to the ball. Cornerbacks Charles Tillman (5 tackles, INT) and Zack Bowman (6 tackles) did well to keep the Steelers from getting the big play. Bowman cost the Bears some field position when he committed a penalty on Tillman’s interception return. GRADE: B

Robbie Gould connected on the game-winning 44-yard field goal with just 15 seconds remaining. He had good hang time on his kickoffs. Brad Maynard had a second straight good punting performance. Coverage on both kickoffs and punts was solid. Jamar Williams and Rashied Davis combined to force a fumble on the kickoff after Gould’s field goal, and Craig Steltz recovered it. Johnny Knox returned kickoffs and had a nice return called back because of a penalty on Al Afalava. Devin Hester had two short punt returns. He let one go that was downed at the 3-yard line that he might have been able to return. GRADE: B

Ron Turner needs to get the running game off of life support. This is the second week in a row where the only dedication to the run is a shotgun draw to Forte on third and forever. How is it that opposing offenses find gaping holes in the middle of the Bears’ zone coverage on third and long? Is it that obvious? Is the coverage that bad? Coaches need to take responsibility here. Pittsburgh overloads one side so the blitz has to have an unblocked man. Why can’t the Bears do that? Instead, the Bears always load up the middle, the offensive line seals to the middle, and it’s all picked up. They did do a better job of including some line stunts. If this is all Tommie Harris has to give, the coaches need to get him out of there. He’s hurting the team. Overall, they had to do more than a few things right to beat the defending champion Pittsburgh Steelers. GRADE: C+

Noots’ Nut Crackers
Carter on Olsen (twice)
Roach on Logan
Harrison on Hester

Nudo’s Kudos
Cutler
Brown
Knox
K. Davis
Tillman
Gould

Horns
Forte
Anderson
Harris

Posted: 09|21|09 at 3:26 am. Filed under: Uncategorized.

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