Noots' Notes Game 3: 27-24 OT Loss to TB

[Noots]

Noots’ Notes-Game Three: 27-24 OT Loss to Tampa Bay

By

Michael Nudo

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Former Bear quarterback Brian Griese led a second-half Tampa Bay comeback to tie and then defeat the Bears 27-24 in front of a stunned Bears’ home opener crowd.

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Losing more than their composure (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh).

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OFFENSE

QuarterbackKyle Orton (22-34-268, 2 TD, 2 INT, 6-21) had an up and down performance. He threw an interception for a touchdown on a middle screen intended for Desmond Clark. Orton missed open receivers on numerous short routes that left many observers scratching their heads. On deeper passes, he under threw open receivers on several occasions as well. His other interception was an under thrown ball that Forte nearly came up with but bobbled away in the end zone. Orton’s timing was inconsistent. When it was good, he was hooking up with Brandon Lloyd for solid gains and then hitting Forte for a short touchdown in the left flat. He threw a beautiful strike to Lloyd up the left sideline for a 19-yard touchdown. Orton scrambled for some decent pickups, but ran one time too many, coming up short on a key play late in the game. Linebacker Barrett Ruud made him pay with a hit that sent him helicoptering to the ground. This was Orton’s best statistical game. However, he left quite a few yards on the field, and his completion percentage didn’t tell the whole story in terms of just how inaccurate he was. GRADE: C-

Running BacksMatt Forte (27-89, 7/66, TD) was all the Bears had on offense for much of the game. He didn’t have as much room to run as in the first two weeks. Tampa knew he was coming. That said, he showed great patience in setting up his blocks on a key 8-yard run. Then later he broke a tackle on a screen for 19 yards. His end zone bobble of an under thrown Orton pass led to an interception and touchback. He also failed to recognize a corner blitz early in the game to let Ronde Barber get an easy sack. Even though Forte’s numbers weren’t as good as in previous weeks, Jason McKie (2/17) had one of his better blocking days. GRADE: B

ReceiversBrandon Lloyd (6/124, TD, 2 PT) had his best game as a Bear. He made a circus catch on a pass that came over his head with his back to the ball for 27 yards. He put a move on Barber to pick up his 19-yard touchdown reception. Lloyd also went up high to catch a two-point conversion attempt. Rashied Davis (3-37) let a Kyle Orton dart go right through his arms over the middle. He missed the catch in nearly the exact same fashion as he missed one in the preseason. Tight end Desmond Clark (2/8) missed an early pass over the middle near the goal line. The drive would end in a field goal instead of a touchdown. Apart from Lloyd, the receivers didn’t do much to help Orton. GRADE: C

Offensive LineCenter Olin Kreutz had another illegal snap penalty. John Tait let veteran Kevin Carter beat him to the inside for a sack. Roberto Garza committed a false start. Run blocking was fair. Pass protection was sketchy at best. Josh Beekman allowed a pressure in the second half. Neither Kevin Jones nor Matt Forte could break a run longer than 11 yards. GRADE: D

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DEFENSE

Defensive LineBrian Griese (38-67-407, 2 TD, 3 INT) had 67 pass attempts and was not sacked once. The only pressure the Bears could bring was via the blitz. Tommie Harris had just one tackle, well downfield. Dusty Dvoracek made several key plays to bottle up Earnest Graham (12-16). Adewale Ogunleye (4 tackles), Alex Brown (PD) and Mark Anderson (TFL) did a solid job against the run but were mostly ineffective against Tampa Bay’s timing based passing attack. Israel Idonije and Marcus Harrison played but were not factors. All week long we heard about how Griese is a statue and the Bears would rather face him because they knew where he was and could get to him. How’d that work out? If they’re going to throw slants all day, can’t somebody get their arms in the air? Run stopping was very good, but that’s not enough to help the grade when there are sixty-something passes with little disruption. GRADE: D

LinebackersLance Briggs (6 tackles, TFL, INT, 3 PD) stood out on defense. He had an early interception thanks to a deflection from Brian Urlacher. Briggs stopped Graham for a 4-yard loss. He also put some heat on Griese to lead to a Nathan Vasher pick. Urlacher added a fumble recovery and a tackle for loss to his fine day. He had one blemish on the run, getting blocked on an 18-yard Warrick Dunn carry. Hunter Hillenmeyer made a key stop on third and one on Graham. He also made a nice breakup on a pass to Stevens. Unfortunately, Stevens split out wide left at the goal line and caught a quick slant inside his coverage for a touchdown. Buccaneer tight ends combined for nine catches against the Bears. GRADE: B-

SecondaryIn a wild, up and down contest, Charles Tillman had the most mercurial game of all. Tillman (11 tackles, 2 PD, FF) was all over the field. He forced yet another fumble and deflected a pass in the end zone to prevent a touchdown. But Tillman also added a penalty for illegal contact and a personal foul in overtime to sustain a drive. After a critical third down stop, he rushed to the aid of his teammates who were involved in a scrum that started when the Buccaneers’ offensive line was delivering some late cheat shots to Adewale Ogunleye. That penalty will be looked at as the play that cost the Bears the game. Nathan Vasher had an interception and nearly another in coverage. However, he allowed a 19-yard completion at the end of regulation to set up first and goal at the one-yard line. Kevin Payne had his first interception of the season. He and Mike Brown allowed quite a few passes over the middle to Tampa’s tight ends and wide receivers. Danieal Manning had a few pressures blitzing off the edge. The turnovers were nice, but they had opportunities to do so much more. GRADE: C-

Special Teams

Garrett Wolfe provided one of the few early Bear highlights with a 38-yard run on a direct snap of a faked punt. Robbie Gould connected on field goals from 40, 43, and 28. He missed from 49. His kickoff distance was consistently excellent, including a touchback. Kick and punt coverage was good, highlighted by an excellent open field tackle by Jamar Williams. Adrian Peterson was whistled for an illegal block in the back (he hit the defender in the side). Brad Maynard had his best game of the year, putting three kicks inside the 20-yard line. Danieal Manning and Nathan Vasher each had strong days returning kicks and punts. Danieal Manning also added what appeared to be a forced fumble but the play was not reviewed. GRADE: A

Coaching

For the second week in a row, the Bears won the coin flip and elected to defer the kickoff return. For the second week in a row it paid off. This time, Briggs and Urlacher combined on a deflection and an interception. Pass to run ratio was good. However, the play calling was very predictable in the early going. Run, run, play action, punt. At halftime it was determined it’s not against the rules to use play action on downs other than third. Great call on the direct snap to Wolfe. Is anybody on this staff ready to do something about Tommie Harris? It took eleven quarters for the Bears to throw their first touchdown pass. It’s a good thing Kyle Orton put a few decent plays together in the second half. There would have been quite a few calls for rookie Caleb Hanie. Playbook or not, plenty of guys with clip boards could have hit some of the short passes that were missed. You can’t blame the coaches for the lack of a pass rush. You do have to wonder if they reminded anyone up front to raise their hands. Like it or not, Tillman’s lack of composure that cost them late is also a reflection on the coaches. He’s supposed to be one of the team’s leaders. GRADE: C

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Hardest Hits

Briggs on Dunn

Briggs on Clayton

Ruud on Orton

Game Balls

Brandon Lloyd

Lance Briggs

Matt Forte

Horns

Charles Tillman

Tommie Harris

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[DrunkBomber]

Quarterback Kyle Orton (22-34-268, 2 TD, 2 INT, 6-21) had an up and down performance. He threw an interception for a touchdown on a middle screen intended for Desmond Clark. Orton missed open receivers on numerous short routes that left many observers scratching their heads. On deeper passes, he under threw open receivers on several occasions as well. His other interception was an under thrown ball that Forte nearly came up with but bobbled away in the end zone. Orton’s timing was inconsistent. When it was good, he was hooking up with Brandon Lloyd for solid gains and then hitting Forte for a short touchdown in the left flat. He threw a beautiful strike to Lloyd up the left sideline for a 19-yard touchdown. Orton scrambled for some decent pickups, but ran one time too many, coming up short on a key play late in the game. Linebacker Barrett Ruud made him pay with a hit that sent him helicoptering to the ground. This was Orton’s best statistical game. However, he left quite a few yards on the field, and his completion percentage didn’t tell the whole story in terms of just how inaccurate he was. GRADE: C-

Dont let Bearsox or BrianBear read this, they will call you an idiot.

[Da Bears 88]

Dont let Bearsox or BrianBear read this, they will call you an idiot.

[DABEARSDABOMB]

Once again, accurate as hell recap Noots!!!

[selection7]

Some exaggeration on Kyle's inaccuracy though. Reading Noots summary I was thinking "what? I don't remember getting aggravated at his innaccuracy on the medium and short stuff", so I checked it out.

 

Kyle only missed 12 passes all day. minus 2 (at least) for outright drops, minus 2 (at least) for deep misses, minus 1 for the pass striaight to the TB lineman...and you're left with 7 incomplete passes. And unless you're claiming nearly all of those were incomplete due to innaccuracy, then likely you're looking at Orton only threw 3-4 inaccurate short/medium passes out of 34 attempts. Sounds about right considering I almost surely underestimated the drops and deep balls (on the other hand, maybe a couple of completions were only the result of significant adjustment by the reciever). Anyway, that won't win him any awards but it's good enough to win.

[Noots]

I understand your point...to a degree. The overall completion percentage was good but is not indicative in any way nor does it explain away how Orton can be so far off on some of the shorter routes he was throwing. You have a 2 yard pass to the flat that misses wildly. Almost was behind the line and recoverable. How can he miss on stuff like that? It wasn't the only such play.

[jason]

Orton has to be dropped a grade. The "beautiful strike to Lloyd" was just a result of Lloyd making a very good catch on a poorly thrown ball. It's even mentioned briefly in the WR section.

 

The "C" grade for the coaches, however, is ridiculous. This game is squarely on the shoulder of the coaches. The offense was fairly inept considering the field position advantages. The defense made absolutely no adjustments in the second half and allowed a gun-shy QB to sit in the pocket and throw 60+ times while the Bears brought a four-man rush the majority of the time. And Lovie didn't call out either coordinator that we know of. The coaching grade should be a D at best, and probably deserves to be slightly lower with a D- or an F.

[Pixote]

Love the recap and would only add that I would have been tempted to do a split grading of the WRs with Lloyd getting an A+ and the remainder of the crew getting an F. Lloyd is the only highlight among the receivers in this game. If he continues to play like this he will definately entrench himself as a #1 WR.

[madlithuanian]

This staff continues to infuriate me to the point of bewilderment. This team does not know how to play 4 quarters...and most importantly THE 4th quarter.

 

Orton has to be dropped a grade. The "beautiful strike to Lloyd" was just a result of Lloyd making a very good catch on a poorly thrown ball. It's even mentioned briefly in the WR section.

 

The "C" grade for the coaches, however, is ridiculous. This game is squarely on the shoulder of the coaches. The offense was fairly inept considering the field position advantages. The defense made absolutely no adjustments in the second half and allowed a gun-shy QB to sit in the pocket and throw 60+ times while the Bears brought a four-man rush the majority of the time. And Lovie didn't call out either coordinator that we know of. The coaching grade should be a D at best, and probably deserves to be slightly lower with a D- or an F.

[madlithuanian]

Agreed. Lloyd had a great day and shouldn't be lumped in with the rest of the garbage.

 

Love the recap and would only add that I would have been tempted to do a split grading of the WRs with Lloyd getting an A+ and the remainder of the crew getting an F. Lloyd is the only highlight among the receivers in this game. If he continues to play like this he will definately entrench himself as a #1 WR.

[DABEARSDABOMB]

Some exaggeration on Kyle's inaccuracy though. Reading Noots summary I was thinking "what? I don't remember getting aggravated at his innaccuracy on the medium and short stuff", so I checked it out.

 

Kyle only missed 12 passes all day. minus 2 (at least) for outright drops, minus 2 (at least) for deep misses, minus 1 for the pass striaight to the TB lineman...and you're left with 7 incomplete passes. And unless you're claiming nearly all of those were incomplete due to innaccuracy, then likely you're looking at Orton only threw 3-4 inaccurate short/medium passes out of 34 attempts. Sounds about right considering I almost surely underestimated the drops and deep balls (on the other hand, maybe a couple of completions were only the result of significant adjustment by the reciever). Anyway, that won't win him any awards but it's good enough to win.

Just cause a ball was completed, doesn't mean it was an accurate pass. On quite a few of Lloyd's catches you saw Lloyd have to make very good plays to come down with the ball. You also saw numerous receivers have to stop and wait for the ball. Very rarely all game did Orton actually hit a WR in stride.

 

In fact, two of the only times I can think of him hitting a guy in stride:

1. When he hit Rashied Davis in the hands in OT only to have Rashied drop it.

2. First drive of the game, he hits Desmond Clark on a slant which would have either put the Bears at the 1 or given them a TD and Clark dropped it

 

Bottom line this was the 2nd straight week where Orton left yards on the field with his inaccuracy. However, it was an improvement from Carolina where he was so inaccurate that they couldn't even complete most of those passes where as this past week the Bears WR's just had to stop and wait for the ball but at least were able to make catches. That said, if Orton throws a couple balls on the money the Bears end up with another TD or two.

[DABEARSDABOMB]

Orton has to be dropped a grade. The "beautiful strike to Lloyd" was just a result of Lloyd making a very good catch on a poorly thrown ball. It's even mentioned briefly in the WR section.

 

The "C" grade for the coaches, however, is ridiculous. This game is squarely on the shoulder of the coaches. The offense was fairly inept considering the field position advantages. The defense made absolutely no adjustments in the second half and allowed a gun-shy QB to sit in the pocket and throw 60+ times while the Bears brought a four-man rush the majority of the time. And Lovie didn't call out either coordinator that we know of. The coaching grade should be a D at best, and probably deserves to be slightly lower with a D- or an F.

Lloyd's TD reception from Orton was probably the best ball Orton threw (2nd would have been his pass to Davis) so I assume you are referring to the pass which set up the TD (where Lloyd made the over the head catch). Had Orton thrown a good pass, not only would it have been a routine catch for Lloyd but it would have been a TD pass. Sure the Bears still ended up getting the TD, but you can't ignore the fact that a good pass and they get the TD a few plays earlier (cause you never know what happens on future plays, especially given the Bears ineptitude).

[Da Bears 88]

selection7, i swear you make more excuses for Orton than anyone i've ever seen.

 

If this was Rex, you'd be tearing his ass apart. Give me a break.

[BearSox]

selection7, i swear you make more excuses for Orton than anyone i've ever seen.

 

If this was Rex, you'd be tearing his ass apart. Give me a break.

And if this was Rex, you'd say he had a good game. Give me a break.

[jason]

Lloyd's TD reception from Orton was probably the best ball Orton threw (2nd would have been his pass to Davis) so I assume you are referring to the pass which set up the TD (where Lloyd made the over the head catch). Had Orton thrown a good pass, not only would it have been a routine catch for Lloyd but it would have been a TD pass. Sure the Bears still ended up getting the TD, but you can't ignore the fact that a good pass and they get the TD a few plays earlier (cause you never know what happens on future plays, especially given the Bears ineptitude).

 

That's exactly what I'm referring to. I figured the "beautiful strike" had to be in refernce to that pass, because a corner lob pass can't really be described as a "strike".

 

I wonder how many points the Bears would have this season if Orton would hit guys in stride.

[Ed Hochuli 3:16]

Dont let Bearsox or BrianBear read this, they will call you an idiot.

Why? Nobody said he had an awesome game. But he wasn't even the 3rd reason we lost the game. Turner's playcalling, the defense, and a stupid penalty were the reasons, with an honorable mention to Rashied Davis.

[DrunkBomber]

Why? Nobody said he had an awesome game. But he wasn't even the 3rd reason we lost the game. Turner's playcalling, the defense, and a stupid penalty were the reasons, with an honorable mention to Rashied Davis.

Thats your opinion but I felt this post validated what was being discussed in the Orton sucks thread. I was getting flamed for saying he had a terrible game and this just proves Im not the only one who thinks so. Anytime I try to be critical of Orton somebody brings up Grossman when its not the point, I was glad to see a few neutral people agree because there are a lot of people who will lay the bulk of the blame on orton.