Noots' Notes Game 1: 21-15 Loss at GB

[Noots]

Noots’ Notes-Game 1: 21-15 Loss to Green Bay
By
Michael Nudo

The Bears fell to Green Bay in their opener. Jay Cutler’s 4 interceptions were too much to overcome.

Fallen Angel (AP Photo/Jim Prisching).

OFFENSE

Quarterback
Jay Cutler (17-36-277, TD, 4 INTs, 3/16) took too many chances with the football. He kept some plays alive with his feet, but threw the ball into coverage far too often. He had some really nice throws, especially the 68-yard bomb to Johnny Knox and the 36-yard touchdown to Devin Hester. He needs to be more patient, and hit the checkdowns to his tight ends and running backs. His moving in the pocket also led to some inaccurate throws. Forte had no catches? Eesh. GRADE: F+

Running Backs
Matt Forte (25/55) was bottled up the entire game. He received little help from the offensive line, but also missed a few running lanes. Jason McKie was useless as a blocker and dropped a simple swing pass. Garrett Wolfe had 3 carries for 15 yards. The diminutive Wolfe was hurdled by a linebacker in pass protection for a sack. GRADE: D

Receivers
Earl Bennett (7-66) had a nice game in his first start. He held onto the football despite tight coverage. He erased another of his own catches by lining up offsides. Devin Hester (4-90, TD) showed great elusiveness catching a zero route and making a defender miss. He also got open deep for the Bears’ lone touchdown. Johnny Knox (2-82) caught a deep bomb up the right sideline that nearly went for a touchdown. He fell down on the last offensive play. Tight ends Desmond Clark (1-23) and Greg Olsen (1-8) each had costly drops (one on a third down and the other in the end zone). They were not the factors many thought they would be. Clark took a shot to his lower back on his one catch and although he returned, he later had to leave. Considering how well the Packers had bottled up Bear receivers in previous contests, this was an improvement. GRADE: B

Offensive Line
The new look offensive line did a fair job of keeping Cutler upright. However, they struggled mightily in generating any push on the ground against the Packers’ mammoth line. Chris Williams held up nicely in his first extended action. Olin Kreutz forced an offsides by his line mates when he missed the snap count. He also could have been given credit for a tackle on Wolfe on a screen play. Frank Omiyale played poorly. On several occasions he made a 310-lb defensive lineman look slippery as he let his man free to get a tackle for a loss on Forte. He was not sustaining his blocks in space, either. This was before he left with a leg injury. He returned later. Roberto Garza had a solid, if unimpressive game, as did Orlando Pace. GRADE: D+

DEFENSE

Defensive Line
Adewale Ogunleye ate tackle Allen Barbre up and spat him out. Ogunleye had two sacks and 5 hits on quarterback Aaron Rodgers (17-28-184, TD). He did get caught inside, over pursuing a play that Grant (16/61, TD, 1-6) cut back for a big gain. Defensive tackle Marcus Harrison had a few decent plays against the run and pass. Alex Brown (5 tackles) played the run well but was not a factor against the pass. He committed a personal foul after a touchdown which was tacked on to the ensuing kickoff. Tommie Harris played extensively and had one tackle, seven yards down the field. He was slow off the ball. Mark Anderson played both end and tackle (in passing situations) and was very active. He played the run better than in the past. He also looked decent in coverage. Anthony Adams held the point of attack in the middle. GRADE: B

Linebackers
Pisa Tinoisamoa left with a knee injury after the first series. Nick Roach replaced him and had a quiet game apart from a pressure. Brian Urlacher left with a wrist injury and Hunter Hillenmeyer replaced him. Lance Briggs was the constant, and he played well. The group didn’t rack up a lot of tackles, but they were disruptive against the run and in coverage to get into the passing lanes. GRADE: B

Secondary
Charles Tillman returned to action and started. He held Donald Driver in check most of the night. Nathan Vasher restored our lack of faith in his coverage skills. He let Greg Jennings beat him for a 50-yard touchdown bomb with the game on the line. Rookie safety Al Afalava (5 tackles, sack) had a decent game, as did safety Kevin Payne (3 tackles). The Packers got behind them a few times, but overall they were not a problem. Zack Bowman got into the action but wasn’t a factor. Danieal Manning led the team in tackles with 6. He registered a sack and a safety on a blitz. GRADE: B

Special Teams

Robbie Gould connected from 47 and 21. His kickoffs were all deep. Punter Brad Maynard had one of his better games as a Bear. He put two of his 4 punts down inside the 20, and had a 46 yard net. Devin Hester returned two punts for 15 yards, in spite of his running more than 50 yards to achieve that number. Danieal Manning returned 3 kickoffs for 80 yards. Snapper Patrick Mannelly called an audible when he thought the Packers had too many men on the field and snapped a punt to Wolfe, who ran for a gain short of the first down. This gave the Packers a first down in field goal range. Kickoff coverage was below average. Punt coverage was solid. GRADE: B

Coaching

The defense did a great job of keeping this one in reach. Credit should go to the coaches there for the improved play of the entire defensive squad. The offense struggled in their timing and looked like they were still feeling their way along. The offensive play calling was uneven at best. The draw at the end of the half was questionable. Early on, it seemed that Ron Turner forgot the Bears could run. The early pass to run ratio was more than two to one. The Bears had an opportunity for a 2-point conversion in the second half but let it slip by. The offense needs to shore up quite a few things. The Steelers are going to be a bigger challenge than the Packers. GRADE: C-

Noots’ Nut Crackers
Briggs on Grant
Urlacher on Rodgers
Anderson on Grant

Nudo’s Kudos
Ogunleye
Bennett
Hester
Knox
Manning
Afalava

Horns
Omiyale
Vasher
Harris
Cutler

[jason]

Great job Noots! I couldn't agree more. Love the write ups.

[Urlacher36]

While I am certain this will not be a regular thing from Cutler, he made me think highly of Rex Grossman tonight. That's a really bad sign.

[madlithuanian]

To me, turnovers don't make the whole picture.

 

As much as Cutler f'ed up...he circled the wagons and led the team down to what should have been the win after all those mistakes earlier. If it were Grossman, he would have continued to snowball downward. Cutler has more moxie. Yep, the last pick sucked. But the D got torched at the worst moment, and he shouldn't have had to have another series. But, with that said, he still botched it and deserves blame. However, I see him very differently than Grossman.

 

As horrifically as we played, we only lost by 6 on the road agasint a good team.

 

If we can win 2 of the next 3, we're still more than OK. I don't suspect a win w/ PIT, but I think we can beat SEA and should beat DET.

 

While I am certain this will not be a regular thing from Cutler, he made me think highly of Rex Grossman tonight. That's a really bad sign.

 

[Lucky Luciano]

great job as always noots.

 

in my opinion you could add turner to your horn section.

 

this offense looked like they had never played together in their lives. they looked confused and inept at the least. the playcalling was in itself was not only poor but predictable in many instances. throw on 1st down and if it's an incompletion then run the ball on second down seems to be a trait of turner.

 

i am totally dumbfounded as to why we ran the ball over left guard/tackle on 2nd down inside of the packers 5 yardline. we gained almost NOTHING running on that side of the line all night yet in this critical instance turner thinks we can turn this around with the entire defense bottled up in that short space. where was the qb rollout and where were our big receivers/tight ends???

 

it seems that turner has at least a handful of stupid/inept plays in every game and it usually costs us in the end. a TD with a first and goal at the 5 should have been a near given with a pro-bowl qb and would have put us in the drivers seat at that time.

[adam]

Surprisingly only one of Cutler's INTs resulted in pts for the Packers.

[bowlingtwig]

Surprisingly only one of Cutler's INTs resulted in pts for the Packers.

That is a great point.

[bradjock]

Great work as always Noots. I always enjoy reading your work.