Noots' Notes Game 12: 34-14 Loss at MIN

[Noots]

Noots’ Notes-Game 12: 34-14 Loss at Minnesota

By

Michael Nudo

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Up 7-3, the Chicago Bears (6-6) were stone walled in a goal line stand. Moments later Gus Frerotte connected with former Bear Bernard Berrian for a 99-yard touchdown strike. The Bears were never in the game after that huge sequence. The Vikings now hold sole possession of first place in the NFC North.

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Trailing (AP Photo/Tom Olmscheid).

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OFFENSE

 

Quarterback

Kyle Orton (11-29-153, 2 TD, 3 INT) had his worst game of the season. Orton threw 3 awful interceptions and was fortunate to not finish with 3 more. He was grossly inaccurate. Numerous passes were under thrown, resulting in incompletions, deflections and interceptions. He threw poorly to Hester up the right sideline on a fade route. If the pass was there, Hester would have been gone. The highlight of his day was a 65-yard touchdown pass on an adjustment he made at the line to hit Devin Hester on a hook route. Hester did the rest. Orton got little help, and we’ll discuss that further in a moment. GRADE: D-

 

Running Backs

Matt Forte (22/96, 4-29, TD) continues to be the lone bright spot on an offense that could only muster 228 yards. Forte’s big play was a 26-yard scamper around left end that came up just short of the end zone. Adrian Peterson (1/5) gave Forte a breather for a series and dropped a third down pass up the left sideline that would have been an easy conversion. With Jason McKie out, Jason Davis started at fullback. Davis and Forte took turns getting swallowed up by the Vikings’ stout defensive front on the fateful goal line stand. GRADE: B

 

Receivers

These guys only hurt Orton’s cause. Let’s start with the highlight first. Devin Hester (3-67, TD) slipped a tackle and faked another player onto the turf en route to his 65-yard touchdown. The rest of his day was so bad I was shocked he wasn’t pulled from all phases of the game. Hester notched a false start, a third down drop and had a ball bounce off his arm because he didn’t have his head turned around at the quarterback. The icing on his cake was his complete lack of effort in chasing down a linebacker who had intercepted a Kyle Orton pass. There is no way that anyone else should have beaten him to the ball, yet a Vikings linebacker and two Bear players did. One of them was 300-pounder John Tait. Greg Olsen (1-7) forced a fumble on the play. It was one of few contributions he made. He was clearly interfered with early in the game, having his arm hooked on a short pass. There was no call to bail them out. Rashied Davis (1-17) dropped a slant and had another deeper pass go just beyond what would have been a spectacular fingertip catch. Brandon Lloyd made a key 24-yard reception on third and long. Desmond Clark (1-9) played but wasn’t much of a factor, either. There were too many drops from this group. GRADE: D-

 

Offensive Line

Jared Allen had his way with John St. Clair. Allen beat St. Clair to the tune of 8 tackles, 3 sacks and 3 tackles for a loss. He was constantly harassing Kyle Orton. St. Clair was beaten to the inside and the outside. Allen went past St. Clair like he was running around a statue. On the goal-line stand, Pat Williams (5 tackles, PD) demolished perennial Pro Bowl center Olin Kreutz, disrupting two of the Bears’ plays. Josh Beekman made a key block to seal the edge as he pulled around left tackle for Forte’s 26-yard run. Beekman kept Kevin Williams (5 tackles, TFL) off Orton, but wasn’t as impressive in straight ahead blocking. Roberto Garza joined Kreutz in getting manhandled at the goal line by Pat Williams. John Tait was flagged for being lined up too far off the ball. Rookie Chris Williams saw some goal line action as well. There was nothing there to get excited about. Run blocking was good, except when it counted most. Pass blocking was below par, mostly with relation to blocking Allen. GRADE: C-

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DEFENSE

 

Defensive Line

Alex Brown (5 tackles, sack, 2 TFL) had a good game. He had a sack and several pressures, and made several big plays against the run. Adewale Ogunleye had a pass deflection to stop a third down conversion and some early pressure. He got away with a hit on Gus Frerotte (16-25-210, TD, INT) after the ball was gone. Frerotte seemed to back up into Ogunleye, and he decked him. Looking at the replay and how hard he was hit, Frerotte seemed to be playing opossum, laying motionless on the turf but returning for the next series. Tommie Harris (5 tackles, sack, TFL) had an early sack and then disappeared for a big stretch. He was more effective way from the point of attack, chasing down screens and plays to the outside. Dusty Dvoracek suffered a severe arm injury early in the game and did not return. Anthony Adams replaced Dvoracek and was one of the few stout players on the defense. Mark Anderson played quite a bit and was again gashed by the run. He was holding and clinching as he fell to the turf like a boxer who has taken too many hits and is trying not to go down. Israel Idonije (3 tackles, 2 TFL) made a few nice plays against the run late. Rookie Marcus Harrison had 4 tackles but was not a factor rushing the quarterback. Apart from Adrian Peterson’s (28/131, TD) 59-yard run, these guys played the run fairly well. Wait, we can’t throw that run out, can we? Well, I think we have just cause to do so this time. To get 2 sacks in 25 attempts is about right, as well. GRADE: B-

 

Linebackers

Brian Urlacher (6 tackles, 2 TFL, PD) had a decent game. He was all over the field, using his speed to stop Peterson from picking up cutback yardage on the edge. He provided blitz pressure that drove Frerotte into Alex Brown. Urlacher also made a sweet tackle for a loss on a screen to Peterson. Of the linebackers and secondary, Urlacher was consistently the most sure tackler of the bunch. Oh, and we’ll get to them, too. Nick Roach made a nice tripping tackle on Peterson. Lance Briggs (8 tackles, TFL) made some decent plays against the screens and run plays as well. However, he joins a list of others who fail to wrap up, leading Peterson to picking up extra yardage. Hunter Hillenmeyer allowed a 20-yard pass to the goal line to the sloth-footed Jim Kleinsasser at the end of the first half. GRADE: C-

 

Secondary

Charles Tillman (5 tackles, 1 slice of bread, burnt) was completely smoked on Berrian’s 99-yard touchdown reception. It appeared as if Tillman was either expecting deep help or bit on something that clearly was not there. He later added a horse collar tackle to the misery. Oh look, Corey Graham (9 tackles, TFL, PD) led the Bears in tackles. He joins the hit brigade of knuckleheads who failed to wrap up on Peterson. He was the chief culprit on Peterson’s big run. In fact, his non-wrap may have actually knocked the also non-wrapping Briggs and Kevin Payne off the play. Payne (5 tackles, INT, 2 PD) was late getting over to help Hillenmeyer against Kleinsasser. He did make a key pass deflection to stop a third and goal pass in the end zone. Payne had the big highlight in the secondary, hauling in a Danieal Manning (3 tackles, PD) pass deflection for an interception and returning it 36 yards. Mike Brown (2 tackles, TFL) was not a factor apart from a couple of big hits. GRADE: D-

 

Special Teams

 

Robbie Gould continues to have very good kickoff depth. But the Bears suffered another coverage lapse, and had to be again saved by a Garrett Wolfe tackle. Gould didn’t have any field goal attempts. Brad Maynard had a 29-yard clunker that went out of bounds at the 50-yard line. Overall he had a better game, with 5 of his 9 kicks inside the 20-yard line. Devin Hester is ridiculous. Relatively speaking, of course. He is the only punt returner I have seen that can catch a low line drive on a dead run and then stop and turn around and run the other way. If the Bears can get Hester to run sideways, it will be a marked improvement. Sideways, after all, is positive when compared to running backwards. Relatively speaking, of course. Oh wait, almost forgot—it was also especially excruciating to watch Hester call for a fair catch, at the 5-yard line. Danieal Manning averaged 27.6 yards on five strong kickoff returns. Rookie Earl Bennett had a 17-yard punt return. GRADE: C

 

Coaching

 

Ron Turner and his offense had a putrid day. It was hard for Turner to get anything going with Kyle Orton throwing precision passes to Viking defenders and Jared Allen making John St. Clair look like an orange cone. Why not give him some help? But Turner needs to be called into question for the goal-line stand. Why bother running between the tackles against the enormous Viking defense, let alone with a fullback who hasn’t yet carried the ball as a Bear this season? Some might question the pass on first down. I would question why they didn’t try at least one more against one of the NFL’s best rush defenses. On defense, the Vikings waited for the Bears to play soft on the corners at the end of the first half and took advantage of it for an easy scoring drive. Bob Babich’s defense couldn’t stop Adrian Peterson even when they had 12 players on the field. Listening to the interview with Lovie Smith at halftime, you would have thought the Bears had this game in hand. I guess some people think it’s ok to go through life being blissfully ignorant. GRADE: F

 

Noots’ Nut Crackers

Mike Brown on Adrian Peterson

Mike Brown on Visanthe Shiancoe

Vinny Ciurciu on Danieal Manning

 

Nudo’s Kudos

Matt Forte

Brian Urlacher

Alex Brown

 

Horns

Kyle Orton

John St. Clair

Devin Hester

 

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[Pixote]

Thanks Noots. I know it is not fun writing up these articles when the Bears struggle. We all appreciate the great work you do in breaking down the games for us. I would prefer to read your analysis of the Bears games than any other sports writer out there in print or on the net. There are weeks when your articles do not get many responses but I am sure it is not out of a lack of appreciation but just frustration on the part of the fans trying to sort out why our team is unable to turn the corner and play like we feel they should be capable of.

[Noots]

Thanks Noots. I know it is not fun writing up these articles when the Bears struggle. We all appreciate the great work you do in breaking down the games for us. I would prefer to read your analysis of the Bears games than any other sports writer out there in print or on the net. There are weeks when your articles do not get many responses but I am sure it is not out of a lack of appreciation but just frustration on the part of the fans trying to sort out why our team is unable to turn the corner and play like we feel they should be capable of.

 

Thanks Pix, much appreciated.

 

BTW, I'm using BBcode now for my reports (icky) and it appears my photo didn't make it. Can you tell me what I need to do there by looking at the underlying code of my post?

[Pixote]

Thanks Pix, much appreciated.

 

BTW, I'm using BBcode now for my reports (icky) and it appears my photo didn't make it. Can you tell me what I need to do there by looking at the underlying code of my post?

 

 

When I look at your post by going to edit/full I am not seeing the link to the photo, just the line that would appear under the photo. You might want to try editing the post using the "insert image" link at the top of the editing area and see if your image shows up that way, or just provide me the link and I will give it a shot.

[madlithuanian]

Keep 'em comin' Noots!

 

Like Pix hinted at...I feel like everyone here reads your material on a weekly basis! We just don't always express our appreciation all the time!

 

Keep up the great work!

 

Thanks Pix, much appreciated.

 

BTW, I'm using BBcode now for my reports (icky) and it appears my photo didn't make it. Can you tell me what I need to do there by looking at the underlying code of my post?

[Lucky Luciano]

good analysis noots.

 

a couple of comments:

 

not sure if it wasn't payne who cleaned briggs off of petersen in that long run. maybe not?

 

orton... while a poor performance, the tone was set with the receivers continuous dropping of balls that were directly in their hands. this stopped at least a couple of drives and put our offense on the defensive continuously.

 

payne... is one of the worst tacklers i have ever seen. at least doug plank, another poor tackler who worked well with the sure tackling of fencik, could hit hard enough to at least knock em down while payne just seems to bounce off. also arm tackling big backs and te's above the waist is becoming almost laughable.

 

coaching... this is one poor coaching staff in my opinion. their game plans are as predictable as a high school history book. turner must be a lifelong contrarian.

 

they can't seem to correct mistakes that players continually make game after game that should have been corrected in their rookie training camp (tackling techniques like payne and now graham not to mention a multitude of others).

 

their control (management) of the clock has been atrocious since lovie came to chicago and is only getting worse.

 

their decision making has hit an all time low when you decide to not only run the ball up the middle at the goal line against two all-pro wide body tackles instead of play action or rollouts but actually going for the 4th down td in a game like this when you could have put yourself in a more comfortable lead before halftime is mindboggling incompetence.

[Connorbear]

Noots - each week I look forward to your analysis. Thanks for the effort.

 

Peace