Bears Flaws Exposed

At 7pm central time Sunday a Bears fan could’ve said ‘our offensive line is going to get Jay Cutler killed’ and chuckled. Three hours later that seemed like far too disturbing a reality to joke about.

What a difference a loss makes.

Now the Bears must deal with a concussed quarterback and an offensive line that has been exposed as a fraud. Being 3-1 is nice, but that same start wasn’t able to get the 2009 Bears in the playoffs.

So what is going to be different this year?

Matt Bowen of National Football Post has already identified most of the Bears blocking issues as technique based. But how comforting is that when one of the big off-season additions was supposed to be Mike Tice?

Is he this years Rod Marinelli?

The offensive line has to be able to block in some capacity in order for the offense to succeed. And athough they are far from the only culprits for Sunday night’s disaster, the linemen are the easiest to criticize.

From the moment Cutler under threw Devin Hester — and missed a sure touchdown — he looked determined to make up for that play. Instead of taking the open underneath pass the Giants offered with their zone coverage Cutler patted the ball and waited for something bigger to develop.

So while a Bears defense that was questioned coming into the preseason demanded respect in a second straight national TV appearance, the offense crumbled under the pressure. Two weeks removed from brilliantly adjusting to the Dallas pressure and the loss of Chris Williams, the Giants stunts and an injury to Lance Louis proved to be too much.

That is the Bears biggest flaw. Despite ample talent and experience in almost all other areas the very foundation of the team is cracked and crumbling. Years of neglect by Jerry Angelo have created an amalgamation of inexperienced low draft picks and aging veterans along the offensive line.

Even with an unexpectedly strong performance by the defense and receivers, the running game and Cutler can’t preform at the level they need to without a little help. Will that help come? The Bears weak schedule over the next few weeks may not help us reach a conclusion but starting with the Minnesota Vikings after the bye week fans will find out just how well this team can adjust.