Noots’ Notes Game 14: 31-7 Loss at Baltimore
Noots’ Notes-Game 14: 31-7 Loss at Baltimore
(holiday edition)
By
Michael Nudo
The Bears (5-9) nearly missed their flight to Baltimore due to inclement weather. Those who hung around to watch this debacle quickly realized that nobody showed up from the Chicago side anyway, apart from Earl Bennett.
OFFENSE
Jay Cutler—more red zone picks. Stinko. Rotten play call on short pass in flat to useless fullback is deflected and picked off. Serves them flippin’ right. Are you kidding me? Season is over, you’ve got nothing to play for but pride, you’re trying some fourth and short plays, and you’re going to sprinkle in a 3-yard flat pass to Jason frakin’ McKie? Ron Turner should go sit on a football (cleaned up for public consumption). Devin Aromashodu was targeted ten times. Two of them were completed. Oh, and Rashied Davis still can’t catch.
Matt Forte—more fumbly. More fumbly. Sluggish. Slug-like. Heaven help us. That’s enough. At least Earl Bennett is breaking tackles on the USELESS 1-yard pass plays they’re calling for him. From the center to the left tackle, there isn’t a run block to be had. There were actually several plays where the battle at the line of scrimmage was won at right guard and right tackle. They were pushing people off the ball. Must have been a few plays where they forgot what they were supposed to do and improvised. My guess is Shaffer won’t get a whiff of a chance to start on the line next year. Makes too much sense.
Five turnovers and 220 total yards says it all. GRADE: F
DEFENSE
Adewale Ogunleye is out for the season. Really? I didn’t realize he had been playing since the bye week. Then again, the same can be said of Alex Brown as well. Oh look, yet another quarterback throws for a 70-plus percent completion percentage and really the only thing that stops their offense from going down and scoring every time is an occasionally poorly-throw ball. Guys were wide open even on the incompletions.
Ravens receivers were running untrammeled through the Bears’ secondary all afternoon. It was especially true for tight end Todd Heap, who made nickel back Corey Graham look as fluid in coverage as William “The Refrigerator” Perry. No that’s harsh. Perry could occasionally flip his hips and might have been adept enough to look back for the ball. Pathetic.
Give credit to the linebackers coach Bob Babich and his innovation. Linebackers Lance Briggs and Hunter Hillenmeyer took turns finding new ways to get blocked, fall down, over run plays and generally MISS running back Ray Rice.
Charles Tillman and Al Afalava had double coverage on career nth receiver Demetrius Williams and yet he still came up with a touchdown against their joint efforts, which included pass interference. Do you get the picture? GRADE: F
Special Teams
Earl Bennett was the lone bright spot, weaving his way for a 49-yard touchdown on a punt return. Excellent stuff. He doesn’t possess the speed of Devin Hester or Johnny Knox. He’s just a good football player. He’s smart. He’s reasonably tough. There’s your lone bright spot on a dismal day. Yippee. GRADE: B
COACHING
All I can say is that I hope this one ices it for this pathetic collection of coaches. The only question left to ask is whether or not they stubbornly stupid or stupidly stubborn? Either way, BAD! GRADE: F
Noots’ Nut Crackers
Nothing worthy of it—was this a friendly?
Nudo’s Kudos
Earl Bennett
My new friends Lexi and Dana, who watched the game with me at the bar in Lake Geneva. Thanks for your moral support and the suggestion of Sambuca for the sore throat.
Horns
All Coaches
Jay Cutler
Rashied Davis
Corey Graham
Probably a lot more, but they don’t merit the keystrokes…
December 21st, 2009 at 3:07 am
I have never seen you this angry.Understandable though.I found it bizarre that twice ,back to back, Cutler and Forte ran out of bounds to stop the clock when it helped their opponent at end of first half,to get the ball back in time for a score.
I have genuine concerns now over Jay’s vision and judgement .How is it possible to always blame the line and the receivers? I liked Jay’s runs by the way.Too bad he didnt do this in the end zone when they turned it over on the 4th down after 3 plunges into the middle then used a low percentage pass attempt to get the td. Awful,just awful lack of imagination. Soon as they get near the goal ,they immediately think run at the strongest part of their opponent when several short passes would suffice. Too bad Jay ,who did some great runs ,did not carry that into the end zone like Rogers did in Pittsburgh.What happened to spreading your opponents near the goal??
It is apparent that the Bears ,in all but record ,are now worse than Detroit and if they play like they have been ,they will lose there.Have a Great Christmas and New Years,Noots,and thank you for your fine analysis.L.U.Smith