Taking Applications for a Backup Team

The Chicago Bears might end up being what I hoped they would not be after all. Maybe they are what the pundits thought they were. I've been letting them off the hook. I've been crowning them. But, that hopefulness was as on paper as the upside of the 2014 Chicago Bears.

I expected to see some excellence, or at least improvement, during training camp. They say that they don't play those games to win, but rather to determine the ultimate composition of the team. They might try a few new plays, but they go vanilla and worry more about avoiding injury. That said, they were 2 for 4 in the pre-season and only scored more than 20 points once.

Yesterday against the Bills, they came out strong in the very first drive, and I thought it was going to be a quick, decisive win where the biggest concern was how much the defense could keep the Bills from scoring. Turned out to be a struggle through the end of regulation. From there, it was the opposite of the Lovie Smith era, where he'd defer on the coin toss and let his defense get the ball back in OT. Mentally, that had to be crushing for the opponent when it worked.

Unfortunately, when the Marc Trestman offense gets the ball, it's less of a sure thing that they'll drive enough to hit a field goal. And even if that was the outcome, the new rule would allow the Bills a chance to match. Based on what we saw yesterday, I'm fairly certain they would have scored.

Lovie's old coaching philosophy seemed to be "don't let their offense beat us" and the new Trestman philosophy appears to be: "we're playing to not lose". This has to become more mercenary if the Bears are going to get into the playoffs at all. The offense has to be able to score at will. There need to be more plays like the first drive. If it worked once, they should keep doing it until the other team can stop it.

Overall, I know it's just the first game and probably a little early to panic, but the next seven games should be more difficult than the one they just lost at home, at noon. They fly to SF for a Sunday night game this week, to NY for a Monday night game the following week, then they face the Packers, Panthers, and Falcons before facing the Dolphins (the next game they should be able to win). Then back to NE to face the Pats before the bye. Tough stuff.

Just to leave on a positive note, I saw some great stuff from Willie Young on defense and the replacements on the o-line. No real drop in production there after the starters went out with injuries. And, as usual, Matt Forte was consistent and excellent.