THE GOOD

The Game Plan
I don’t have any doubt that under normal circumstances a guy like Jake Cutler could have picked apart the Bill’s secondary.  But when you’ve got an O-line like the Bears have this year, there is nothing normal about that circumstance.  As a result, the balanced running/passing attack the Bears emplyed worked wonders.  And even though they didn’t carve up large chunks of yards against Buffalo, by running the ball as much as he did, Lovie shortened the game, showed the Bills a different look than they were probably expecting, and played to the marginal strengths of his offensive line, as opposed to its weaknesses.

Minimizing Martz
Clearly Jerry Angelo finally saw what any third grader had been seeing all year: that the Bear did not have the athletes to run the kind of offense Mike Martz was asking them to.  After watching his comments after the game, I’m certain he finally stepped in and pulled the plug on the Our Gang version of the Greatest Show on Turf.  Ironically, if he and/or Lovie had done something a few weeks ago, the Bears might have two more wins right now.

Izzy
The Bears’ classy Canadian, Israel Idonije, had a great game in front of his fellow countrymen in Toronto.  In addition to blocking a PAT, the Bears DE enjoyed a solid game with three quarterback hits, a half a sack and a stuff on Bills’ RB Fred Jackson during a two-point conversion attempt.

THE BAD

Late Hit
Charles Tillman’s drive-extending late hit just before halftime could have been a game-changer, had he not been bailed out by the offense.  I know he’s an aggressive player, but in football the line is often very clear between aggressive and stupid, and on that ridiculously late hit he clearly crossed it.

THE UGLY

The Two Drives
This is a good news/bad news thing, but following a Bears’ go-ahead score in the third, on a magnificent (and frankly stunning) 60-yd, nine-play TD drive, the Bills took possession and immediately marched right back down the field for what would have been (if not for a blocked PAT) the game-tying TD.  When you’ve got a winless team down in the third quarter, and have just scored on your most impressive drive of the year, you put the hammer down.  You don’t let a team full of self-doubt pick itself off the carpet and ram the ball down your throats.  At times I don’t think this team’s offense is nearly as bad as it’s shown.  But then again — as that drive perhaps indicates — I also don’t think this defense is nearly as good as people are saying it is.

Next Week:  Thursday night vs. the Dolphins, at Miami

As anyone who’s been reading my blog all season long knows, after each Bear game I normally choose three things about the team’s performance to put in one of three categories; Good, Bad and Ugly.  But frankly, following Sunday’s game and another pitiful performance by the Bear coaching staff, I just can’t bring myself to do that this week. 

Therefore, given the fact next week is a bye week, I’m reducing those three things in each category to one.  And I’m taking the gloves off.

THE GOOD

The Fans

I’m not so much talking about the fans in Soldier Field here.  I’m talking about Bear fans everywhere, all across America.  I’ve long contended that the Bears have some of the most knowledgeable fans in the entire NFL and this season only goes to support my contention.  Look, this team is 4-3, but there’s not a Bear fan I’ve spoken to, or had call my radio show, that actually believes this is a legitimate 4-3 team. 

This team stinks because most of its coaches stink.  Take away that judgment call by the officials on the final play of Game One, and we’re talking about a team that would be so much in disarray right now that the merciful thing would be to take it out behind the barn and mercifully shoot it.

And what I love is the fact that no self respecting Bear fan anywhere is drinking the Kool Aid the Bear organization and its coaching staff is pouring into little cups for us each week. 

The offensive line is terrible, the offensive coordinator is a joke, and the head coach has turned his offense — not to mention his future as a head coach — over to a guy who might be one of the most tone-deaf play callers I have ever seen.

But God bless all you Bear fans.  You’re not buying it.  You’re not buying the coaches’ contention that this team could be a playoff team.  You’re not buying that with each passing week things are getting better.  And you’re sure as hell not buying Halas Hall’s contention that the Kool Aid they’ve just placed in front of you is exactly what you need to take your mind off the reality of just how miserably run the organization is.

THE BAD

The Coaching

I truly don’t know where to start when talking about the coaching staff.  I guess, to get the good things out of the way, the Bears’ defense and special teams have played as well, if not better, than their talent would suggest.  And someone deserves credit for that, so why not give some props to Rod Marinelli and Dave Toub.

But that’s where it ends. 

What Mike Martz has done to the offense is an absolute joke.  He’s not coaching players.  He’s calling plays.  That’s it.  He could care less whether or not they’re capable of executing them.  He’s going to call what he wants to call and it’s up to the players to somehow become faster, stronger and more talented than they clearly are.

Does that sound like a coach to you?

If Mike Martz were coaching the Bulls back when Michael and Scottie were playing, he’d be throwing alley-oop passes to John Paxson and Steve Kerr because in his offense the two guard is free to drift in from the opposite side for dunk after dunk.  Forget the fact that Paxson and Kerr couldn’t grab the rim, much less dunk.  His offense is designed for his two-guard to dunk, so that’s what he’s going to keep calling game after game after game.

And where is Lovie in all this?  He’s the damn head coach!  I know he used to work for Martz, but it’s his show now.  The man should act like it. 

And when he told us last week that the Bears were going to start running more, what was he just kidding us?  Lovie cut his teeth on three-yards-and-a-cloud-of-dust football.  What the hell happened to him to make him give it up so easily?  It’s not like he’s got Don Coryell or Sid Gillman for an offensive coordinator.  He’s got Mike freakin’ Martz, a guy who wouldn’t know Plan B if he tripped over it. 

I promise you this: that if the Bears this year had announced what plays they were going to run in advance of running them, statistically they’d only be slightly worse off than they are now. 

This offense is a joke, and we’re all just sitting around waiting for what we all know is going to be a not-so-funny punchline.

THE UGLY

The Organization

At some point someone in the Bears organization there is going to be a day of reckoning.  Mismanagement starts at the top, and it’s the product of a culture that engendered by the people holding the reins.

I won’t belabor this point, but at some point the family is going to get fed up with how this football team is run and will either sell it (fat chance of that) or clean house (much better chance of that).  And when they do, maybe a team president will be named who will take control and establish what they have in places like Pittsburgh and Indianapolis; a system that extends from the clubhouse guys to the corner offices, and includes everyone in between. 

And that system will have at its core one thing and one thing only: winning football games. 

That’s not the system in place in Chicago right now, and frankly with the people now running this franchise, it never will be.

Next Week:  Bye

THE GOOD

Jacking Up the Punter
Sometimes the best way to turn a game around is a thundering tackle or a crushing block, because there’s nothing to ignite a team in a funk like one shining moment of good old fashioned smash-mouth football.  Earl Bennett’s laying out of Seattle punter Jon Ryan on Devin Hester’s 89-yd. punt return Sunday was one of the only times the entire game — if not this entire season — I felt like jumping up out of my seat and yelling, “Now that’s what I’m talking about!”  That one block ought to be required viewing over and over all week for the entire offensive line; and not from a technique standpoint, but from a commitment one.

An Encore for the Return Teams
For the second week in a row the return teams almost single-handedly carried the offense.  Hester’s run was an absolute thing of beauty, and Danieal Manning’s kickoff return, while not as pretty, would have been just as effective.  (And by the way, I didn’t see the entirety of Rod Wilson’s hold on Manning’s return, but from what I did see of it on replay, it sure as hell looked like he flat-out pancaked his man.)  Hey, I know relying on punt and kickoff returns is not a real sound offensive strategy in the long run, but until this offense wakes up and gets its head out of its collective ass, I don’t know about you, but I’ll take it.

Johnny Knox
When was the last time the Bears had the fastest wide receiving tandem in the entire NFL.  Exactly.  Look, Knox is not among the league’s elite yet, but he continues to show that someday he just might get there.  And that day may arrive a lot sooner than you’d think.  Not only is he a special athlete, his willingness to go over the middle and make tough catches in traffic shows he’s a kid with a ton of heart and two man-sized stones.  (A special nod here to Devin Aromashodu as well, who after sleep-walking through any number of opportunities to prove he belongs in this league, may be finally starting to get it.) 

THE BAD

Too Much Information
You’ve heard of paralysis by analysis?  That’s what I see happening to Jay Cutler.  This kid’s playing in his third offensive scheme in three seasons.  That would be a lot for Einstein to process.  And not only that, but the third of those three schemes might just be the most complicated in the entire NFL.  At some point I’d love to see the Bears coaches simplify things for Cutler, take a few things off his plate and just let him go out there and be the athlete God gave him the talent to be.  He’s not a computer for crissake, he’s a quarterback. 

Corner Blitzes
How is it that in the second offensive series in the first exhibition game of the year, the Bears found themselves victimized by corner blitzes to the point that they actually removed Cutler from the game rather than risk getting him killed, and now six weeks into the regular season you look around and realize the problem still exists?  Look, when the opposing DB’s — the second worst collection of defenders in the entire NFL — come to town licking their chops at the prospect of playing you, isn’t it time to consider the distinct possibility it’s not them, it’s you?  Fix the damn problem.

Twelve Running Plays?
I know it’s not essential to be a running powerhouse to win in this league, but you do have to be able to run enough to keep defenses honest.  And honestly?  That’s not happening with this team.  There’s nothing wrong with Matt Forte that giving him the ball once in a while wouldn’t cure.  Twelve rushing plays?  Twelve?  What is this, two-hand touch on a city street somewhere?  Mike Martz has to get over himself and understand he’s no longer coaching the greatest show on turf.  He’s coaching a collection of marginally talented linemen, receivers and backs who together might just have it in them to form an offense capable of outscoring their opponents nine or ten times this season.  If he adjusts to what he’s got, he’ll have done a good job.  If not, he’ll have proven what many have long suspected: that for Martz, being right is sometimes more important than being victorious.

THE UGLY

Third Down
Three for freakin’ 40 on third down over the past three weeks?   My god, I could stand out there and throw 40 Hail Mary passes over the course of three weeks and somehow complete three of them.  Three for freakin’ 40?  C’mon.

The Genius
All I heard this off-season was that the Bears were bringing an offensive genius to town.  Well…I’m waiting.  Where’s the genius?  I don’t see genius.  In fact, as far as I can tell, there’s no genius within miles of here.  You want genius in this town?  Take a bus and travel a day and a half in any direction.  Then you might find some genius.  But genius in this town, much less on the Bear sideline?  C’mon.  Three for freakin’ 40? 

Six More Sacks
I don’t know how many times I can say this, but I’ll try one more time.  Unless the Bears’ do something to protect the most valuable player on this team, by the end of the season they will not be making arrangements for a Super Bowl parade, they’ll be making arrangements for their quarterback’s funeral.

Next Week:  Sunday vs. the Redskins, at Soldier Field

THE GOOD

Forte’s Speed and Explosiveness
Matt Forte is a great example of a young running back who gets overworked one year then pays for it the next.  Last year he never once flashed the speed and explosiveness he showed in 2008, or for that matter, on Sunday.  Last year, given how relatively slow he was off the ball, I’m not sure either of his long runs Sunday would have resulted in scores.  But if Forte’s all the way back to his ‘08 form — and temper your excitement, Bear fans; it was after all, just the Panthers — his presence in the backfield will go a long way toward taking at least some of the heat off whoever’s back there with him at QB. 

Return Teams
When your offense stinks — and again Bear fans, let’s be honest; without Cutler this offense sinks — you sure as hell better find other ways to put points on the board.  In the Bears’ case, they’ve found an incredibly unlikely but remarkably dependable way to do just that.  Devin Hester and Danieal Manning are two of the best in the entire NFL at punt and kickoff returns, and are threats to bust one every time they touch the ball.  Their returns on Sunday were electric and went along way toward helping the Bears with the battle for field position — which, truth be told, reduced the pressure on the offense in ways I frankly don’t have the words to explain.

A Win is a Win
In golf they say there are no pictures on a scorecard. The how doesn’t matter.  The only thing that matters is the how many.  And that’s exactly how life gets measured in the NFL. There are no extra credit points for losing pretty, nor do you get penalized for winning ugly.  All that matters at the end of the day is the W.  Right now the Bears are 4-1, and if you had told me at this point in the season they’d be 4-1 after traveling to Dallas and having already faced the Packers, I’d have taken it, no questions asked.  This is the NFL and 4-1 is 4-1.  And for the Bears those four wins are now in the bank collecting interest.

THE BAD

Goal Line Offense
I’m still not so sure Forte wasn’t in on the TD that got reversed on replay.  But that said, the fact that the Bears couldn’t score from six inches out is now no longer a unique and unlikely occurrence.  In fact, just the opposite.  It is a full fledged trend for the 2010 season.  In fact, statistically anyway, this year they have a better chance of scoring from 20 yards out than they do from one.  And while I completely understand that Todd Collins was as bad as bad can be on Sunday, what in the hell was Mike Martz thinking calling a pass play from a yard out — especially in light of who was doing the passing?

Turnover Battle
Yeah, I know: the Bears won the game and that’s all that should matter.  But when you consistently lose the turnover battle week after week, you’re just asking for trouble.  That, or a 2″x4″ to the head at a point in the season that it will hurt the most.

Hester’s Drop
This may sound like nit-picking after the job Hester did returning punts on Sunday.  But when one of your teammates is struggling — especially when that teammate is your starting QB — you do whatever you can do to pick him up.  Collins couldn’t have been worse on Sunday.  But at the depths of his miserable performance he hit Hester square in the hands on a crossing pattern.  I’m not saying Collins’ day would have gone differently had he completed that pass, but that’s hardly the point.  The point is you do what you can to pick up the guy playing the most important position on the field. And when he had a chance to do just that, Hester — literally — dropped the ball.

THE UGLY

Back Up (Starting?) QB Situation
A QB rating of 6.2?  Look, I won’t say anything here that wasn’t patently obvious to even a 6-year old, except this:  without Jay Cutler this team will be hard pressed to win 2 or 3 more games the entire rest of the season.

The Talent Imbalance
For the foreseeable future I promise to take whatever opportunities that present themselves to rip Jerry Angelo for the job he did putting this team together.  Can you imagine what this Bears team might be able to achieve with an offense they could actually depend upon?  But with such a feeble offensive line (and I’m not about to give them a pass just because they held their own against a pitiful 0-5 Carolina team), no viable fallback options at QB, and so relatively few impact players on offense, this team will remain relevant as long as its defense remains healthy and rested.  And trust me, the deeper you get into a 16-game season, the less likely that is to happen.

The Black and Blue Division
This is either good or bad news, depending upon your perspective.  The good news is the Bears just might be able to win their damn division.  The bad news is the vaunted Black and Blue NFC North may just be the most pitiful division in all of football, especially with what’s going on in Minnesota and Green Bay.  And, mark my words, Bear fans.  Do not count those Lions out by any means.  Right now they may be playing the best football in the division.

Next Week:  Sunday vs. the Seahawks, at Soldier Field

THE UGLY

The Marshmallows of the Midway
Normally, after each Bears’ game I try to pick out three good things, three bad things, and three ugly things about the team’s performance and go from there.  Unfortunately, this week that’s impossible.  Why?  Because try as I might, I just can’t for the life of me come up with three good things to discuss. 

What’s more, I usually start with the good and work my way down to the ugly.  But, again, I can’t do that either.  Why? Because the ugly is just too damn ugly to wait.

Look, I had a strong sense the Bears would lose Sunday; they were primed for a letdown after beating the Packers so dramatically the previous Monday night.  But it’s how they lost that still has me so ready to spit nails and tear somebody’s head off.

And what I’m most upset about is how the coaching staff (with an assist from the front office) continues to insist on leaving their starting quarterback out their unexposed, ready to be cut in half by some blitzing freight train of a linebacker. Not only that, but Jay Cutler is such a team guy, that he continues to try to make plays for his unappreciative coaches by holding the ball for as long as he can before releasing it downfield.

The problem with this year’s Bear offense is that it is anchored — and believe me, I use that term loosely — by, without question, the worst offensive line in the last 45 years of football in this town.  You heard of the Monsters of the Midway?  Yeah well, these bozos are the Marshmallows of the Midway; as soft as they are lackadaisical.  And I’m not just talking about the five interior linemen; I’m talking about the tight ends too.  (In fact, I’m sure that if you checked New Jersey state law, you’ll probably find that Greg Olsen’s non-block on that one blitzing Giant was so half-assed it probably meets their legal standards for assault with a deadly weapon.)

Look when you get yourself a shiny new Cadillac, you don’t then go out and put four bologna skins on it for tires, do you?  But that’s what these Bears are doing putting Cutler behind such a clueless and hopelessly inept offensive line.

I could go on, but I won’t.  But mark my words; unless something is done and done soon (if it isn’t even already too late), the finest and gutsiest Bear quarterback in years might not get through this season in one piece.  And I’m not just talking about an injury that could put him on the sidelines for the rest of the year.  I’m talking about one so severe it could fundamentally impact the way he lives out his life.

And if those sound like fighting words, so be it.  But I refuse to stand around any longer and do or say nothing while Lovie Smith and his coaches continue to roll the dice with their quarterback’s life.

 THE BAD

Jerry Angelo
Again, I will not belabor a point made by so many others for so long.  But at some point this guy has to be held accountable for the criminal lack of talent on this and so many other Bear teams he’s assembled. 

Any idiot can open up his checkbook and sign two or three stars.  The general managers who earn their keep, however, are the guys who can fill out their rosters with quality after that.  Jerry Angelo’s never shown he has the ability to do that. In fact, just the opposite.  And that’s the reason he ranks, in my opinion, at or near the very bottom of the entire National Football League when it comes to finding and nurturing young talent.

And shame on any Bear fan for being surprised that it’s come to this.  After all, how many second, third and fourth round draft picks can the front office whiff horribly on, year after year, before all those mistakes in judgment come home to roost?

THE GOOD

Rod Marinelli’s Guys
At one point during the second quarter the Bears quarterbacks had been sacked nine times and they were losing the turnover battle, yet it was still just a three point game.

Julius Peppers is truly a man (a distinction he shares with a lot of other guys on this year’s Bear defense) and he proved that once again on Sunday night.  It’s just a shame his coaching staff doesn’t coach the way he plays.  Because if they did, they’d have the balls to do something I suggested this morning while on the radio here in Chicago; namely, pick ten of the best defenders on the Bears and let them line up with Cutler on the other side of the ball.

And then all Lovie and Mike Martz would have to do is to alternate between letting Cutler hand off to Lance Briggs and throw over the middle to his new All Pro tight end, Julius Peppers.

Next Week:  Sunday vs. the Panthers, at Carolina

Chicago Bears Analysis:  Week 3
Chicago 20 — Green Bay 17
Bears record:  3-0

 
THE GOOD
Peppers, Briggs and Urlacher
Imagine a huge freight train steaming downhill with the throttle stuck on full.  Now, imagine not one, but three freight trains all at full tilt with no way to stop them.  And finally, imagine that all three of those freight trains were actually football players wearing Chicago Bear uniforms.  That’s what Monday night’s game was like.  Watching Briggs and Urlacher pulverize ball carriers like two high-powered battering rams was a sight to behold.  And their double team strip and fumble recovery in the 4th quarter not only won the game, it might rank among the most important plays I’ve seen a Bear defense make in years.  But the guy who still has me buzzing is Peppers.  I know I was vocal about the Bears letting Alex Brown go and bringing in a “specialist” for so much money. But I stand corrected.  Not about Alex Brown, but about Peppers.  The man is a force of nature and has the ability to completely change a football game with his jaw-dropping combination of speed and power.  I know that now because that’s exactly what he did against the Packers.  And if that’s the Julius Peppers the Bears are going to see going forward, all I can say is this could turn out to be one hell of a season.

Devin Hester
I know I took Hester to task for his drops last week, and he deserved it.  But he almost single handedly won Monday’s game with his electric returns.  So if it was fair in Week Two for me to rip him, it’s fitting this week that I give him his due.  He was simply incredible. You know what the difference is between this Bear football team being merely good and it being one that could earn a trip to the Super Bowl?   It’s the difference between the Devin Hester we saw the past two years and the Devin Hester we were treated to Monday night.  More of that latter brand of Hester — that high-stepping, punt-returning, daring-you-to-try-to-lay-a-hand-on-him Hester — and there’s no telling how far this team could go.

Accountability
I’m saving the best for last.  I know this didn’t get much play in the press, but think about how differently Lovie treated his players this past week than he did over the course of his entire run as head coach.  Tommie Harris?  Bad week of practice and who knows what else?  As Hawk might say, “He gone.”  Same for Devin Aromashodu and his freelance route-running and Zach Bowman and his lackluster first quarter.  It used to be talented guys like that got a blank check to do just about anything they wanted to do on the field and Lovie and his coaches — often on the basis of talent alone — would look the other way.  No more.  Lovie’s contract is up.  His job is on the line.  And if this past game is any indication, it’s either his way or the highway from this point forward.  Plus, with two former head coaches now as his coordinators, the entire coaching staff’s tolerance level for mistakes and laziness is now as low as it’s been since I can remember.  At least I hope so.  God, do I hope so.

THE BAD
Pack Ball Control
There truly wasn’t much bad about the game from the Bears’ perspective.  But honesty compels me to comment on a few.  The first was the ease with which the Packers moved the ball up and down the field and kept the Bears’ defense on its heels.  I know Rod Marinelli has them playing a bend-but-don’t-break style of defense designed to create turnovers, but that can be a risky proposition, especially against a team that knows how to close in the red zone.  Plus, don’t underestimate the toll all those extra minutes of game time might take as the Bears head down the home stretch and into the playoffs.

4th and 1….Again
I won’t belabor this point after what happened in the opener, but when you have the chance to put points on the board that will either tie the game or put you in the lead, you take them and move on.  At some point this riverboat gambling thing is going to bite Lovie and the Bears right in their collective ass.

Zack Bowman
It’s one thing to do something that gets the coaching staff’s underwear in such a knot that they don’t dress you for a game.  It’s something else altogether to come out on a Monday night against your fiercest rival, knowing that you’re both undefeated, and play like you’ve got better things to do.  Shame on Bowman, and God bless Lovie for not letting him get away with it.  All I can say is the young man is lucky he still has a job.

THE UGLY
Tommie Harris
I truly don’t know what happened to Harris.  Four years ago he was a force.  Now he’s the equivalent of what in my days we used to call a taxi squad guy.  If you’re to believe Lovie, it’s not about attitude, effort or heart.  It’s about execution and results.  It’s looking more and more like the young man has simply lost whatever talents for the game God gave him.  Unfortunately for the Bears, they’ve not only lost an All Pro tackle, they’re paying a king’s ransom for that All Pro tackle to do little more every Sunday than just watch.

Pack Penalties
This is one of those good new/bad news things.  The good news is that the Bears forced the Packers into more penalty yards than any Packer team in modern history.  The bad news is, the Bears were bailed out so often by so many of those penalties it’s still hard to get a gauge on how good their offense is.

 Minefield Ahead
It’s all there in the cards: undefeated team on a short week coming off an emotional win at home, now forced to go on the road against a talented team with its back to the wall, led by an All Pro quarterback and a head guy who does X’s and O’s as well as any coach in the league?  Check back next week Bear fans, but this has all the earmarks of a cold hard slap in the face.

Next Week:  Sunday vs. the Giants, at New York 

THE GOOD
Jay Cutler:  If Cutler turns into one of the great Bear quarterbacks of all time (admittedly, not a real high hurdle), we might at some point look at yesterday’s game as his coming out party.  Until this past Sunday, Cutler’s doubters had a ton of ammunition. But now, given the game he played, it’s clear this guy has it in him to stand with the league’s best when it comes to three essentials:  the ability to take a hit, the ability to throw accurately downfield and the ability to find his second and even third options while under big-time pressure.  Whether Cutler’s able to do those things consistently remains to be seen.  But this much is sure: he’s got it in him.  And now we’ve all seen it.

Adjusting on the Fly:  Perhaps the single most impressive thing about yesterday’s win was how Lovie and his coaches adjusted to game situations as they happened.  In the past, such adjustments, if they’d taken place at all, would have had to wait until halftime, if not later.  But I have to be honest, watching Lovie repond to Chris Williams’ injury by switching Frank Omiyale from right to left tackle, or Martz completely modify his game plan, and opt to throw the ball downfield after two pitiful series, was not only refreshing; it was downright shocking.  And it gave me a sense of confidence I have not felt about a Bears’ coaching staff — and I mean this literally — in years.

Football IQ:  When was the last time you saw a Bears’ player call for a fair catch on a pooch kick?  Or just fall on an opponent’s fumble, rather than try to scoop it up and risk losing possession altogether?  No, I can’t remember either.  But yesterday, just as I was shocked at how well the coaching staff kept its cool under pressure and made great in-game decisions, I was overwhelmed with how the Bears, for the first time in ages, seemed to play an entire football game with their heads just as much as they did with their bodies and their hearts.

 
THE BAD
Running Game:  The NFL has clearly evolved to the point that you don’t need a 1,600 yd. rusher to win.  But you have to be able to run well enough to slow down the other guy’s pass rush and to make defenses pay now and then — sometimes dearly — for blitzing whenever they damn well please.  Matt Forte looked good again, but I’m still concerned because the Bears’ runners have yet to prove they can punish a pass-rush happy opponent by churning up yards by the truckload when they have to.

One Glaring Mistake:  No turnovers was a major difference between this week’s game and last.  But there was still one glaring mistake that could have been huge had Cutler not picked up one of his teammates.  I’m not sure who the receiver was who lined up illegally in the second quarter, but that illegal formation penalty wiped out a 39-yard completion to Greg Olson that could have prevented Hester’s TD catch from ever happening.  More often than not a penalty like that kills a drive.  And if that had been the case and the Bears not scored when they did, the entire game might have gone differently from that point — especially being on the road.

Defensive Statistics:  There’s always a price to pay, isn’t there?  The Bears absolutely stuff the Cowboys’ running game, so what happens?  Tony Romo completes 37 passes for nearly 400 yds.  Look, the Bears played perfectly fine pass defense yesterday.  And given the current rules of the game, the size and speed of today’s wide receivers, and the willingness of some coaches to put the ball in the air 50+ times a game, big numbers are sometimes going to happen.  What you hope is that those big numbers yesterday were more a product of the Cowboys’ desperation than they were a reflection of the Bears’ true coverage abilities.  We’ll see, I guess.  And I guess maybe as soon as Monday night.

 
THE UGLY
Devin Hester:  Give the guy credit; that was one hell of a catch he made in the corner of the end zone.  But let’s be honest, Hester had at least two drops on very catchable balls — one of which might have gone for six – and those two drops could have cost the Bears a win.  When you’re a playmaker in this league, especially in a tight game, part of your job is to make highlight reel catches.  But it’s only a small part.  The bulk of your job is to consistently make the little, unnoticed plays; the kind of plays that keep long, sustained drives alive and keep the chains moving steadily down the field.

Opening Drives:  Granted, Martz made the necessary adjustments — and did so in spades — but you still have to wonder about the first two drives of yesterday’s game and ask yourself; the guy had all week long to game plan and that’s what he came up with?

Third Down:  If you’re of the mindset that a third-down conversion rate of 9% (1/11) is no big deal because the Bears won, you’re probably also the kind of person who, having hit two scratch-off lotttery tickets in a row, might think it smart to quit your job because you have what it takes to become a professional lottery player.

Next Week:  Monday night vs. Green Bay at Soldier Field

 The System:   A lot of people who followed the Bears this preseason have openly questioned whether or not they have the horses to make an offensive scheme like Martz’s actually work — and rightfully so.  Yesterday went a long way toward quieting some of those concerns.  Granted it was the Lions, and for all their marching up and down the field the Bears still found it ridiculously hard to put points on the board.  But still, over 460 net yards in total offense is nothing to sneeze at, in anybody’s book.

Linebacker Play:   For all you people who said Brian Urlacher was toast, on behalf of Brian and his family; apologies accepted.  I guess there’s a lot to be said for finally being healthy again, huh?  And how about Lance Brigg’s one-man rocket-propelled blitz, strip and fumble recovery — all in less time it takes most guys to adjust their cup?  I felt like I’d stepped into a time warp yesterday watching those two dogging the ball.  Like with Forte, let’s just hope its a preview of more to come.

The BAD
Calvin Johnson’s Catch/Non-Catch:   OK, I get the fact that that may or may not have been a touchdown catch, given one’s view of the thing.  But the bigger issue is this: Why was one of the two or three most talented receivers in the entire NFL, and certainly one of the tallest and strongest, single-covered in the corner of the end zone with less than a minute to go and his team trailing by only 5?

 Devin Aromashodu’s Drop:    When you’re in the NFL, you practice all week long, often for nothing more than the chance to make one single play.  One play per game is sometimes all the separates playoff teams from the rest of the pack.  And when you’re a team coming off a year like the Bears are, and you’ve got a chance to win your home opener against a team you simply have to beat, you do not under any circumstances drop a touchdown pass when your number is called, especially late in the game — no ifs, ands or buts.

 Red Zone Follies:  They say in life there are lies, damn lies and statistics.  But in the NFL, the only statistic that really matters (and one that doesn’t lie) is how many points you score vs. how many you allow.  Everything else is window dressing.  And the Bears can crow all they want about moving the ball.  The bottom line is their inability all preseason, and now yesterday, to put points on the board inside their opponent’s 20 yd. line looks eerily similar to 2009 — or for that matter, 2008.

THE UGLY
First-and-Goal from the One:    Granted, Gunther Cunningham had his Lions defense playing inspired football yesterday — and you can’t underestimate how tough it is to punch it in against a bunch of guys with fire in their bellies who can smell victory.  But when you’re an NFL team at home with a first-and-goal from the one, trailing by less than a touchdown, you find a way.  You hunker down and you find a way; no excuses.

 Fourth Down Plunge:   The only thing uglier than the Bears’ four horrible attempts at punching it in from the one on that series, was Lovie Smith’s patently ridiculous decision to go for it on fourth-and-one.  You’ve got a chance to take the lead against one of the league’s weakest teams, and that team’s starting QB is sitting on the sidelines with his arm in a sling.  When you get a chance to take the lead like that — especially late — you do it, and you let your defense bring you home form there.

Mistakes:   Pop Quiz — what’s the combined record of all the NFL teams over the past 25 years that have made four turnovers and been penalized over 100 yards in the same game?  Not sure?  That makes two of us.  But my sense is I can count the number of wins on both hands, and maybe a foot.  If the Bears think they can put the ball on the ground that often, or regularly make that many penalties and still win in this league, I’ve got a little swamp property just south of here I’d love to unload on them.

I look back at my career with fondness.  I had a great run and other than not winning a championship and playing during an era when players had to actually get off-season jobs to make ends meet, there’s not much I would have changed much about my 14 years as a Bear, even now.

One thing I particularly enjoy is the fact that I am the only player in franchise history who bridged the Bears last two championship eras.  Let me explain.  When I came into the NFL in 1966, there were a number of guys from the ‘63 NFL Championship team still playing.  I then hung around long enough to also take the field with a handful of guys who would go on to form the nucleus of the ‘85 Super Bowl champs.

That fact gives me (quite literally) a one-of-a-kind perspective on the Bears of the modern era, particularly when it comes to the subject of this month’s Buffone Top Ten:  the ten most underrated Chicago Bears on the defensive side of the ball.

With that in mind, here in ascending order are my ten most criminally under-appreciated Bear defenders of the past 50 years:

#10  Allan Ellis, CB
Back in the day, as much as the Bears had a reputation for developing great defensive players, they’d often draft guys who simply couldn’t play a lick.  Every once in a while, however, a rookie would enter camp a virtual unknown and knock peoples’ socks off.  Ellis was one such guy.  A 1973 fifth-round pick out of UCLA, he walked on the field the first day of practice with the ability to run faster backward than just about any of us could run forward.  And in man coverage he was an absolute blanket.  In fact, it seemed at times he was beating veteran receivers to spots they didn’t even realize they were trying to get to.  He was truly amazing.  Our nickname back then for the most underrated cover corner many of us had ever played with — or for that matter, would ever play with — said it all.  From day one, we simply started calling Allan Ellis, “Fast.”

#9  Todd Bell, SS
Bell qualifies as underrated for one simple reason: he had the misfortune of turning his back on the most storied team in Chicago sports history.  As a football player, Todd Bell was not unlike Superman: faster than a speeding bullet and more powerful than a locomotive.  And he did indeed hit like a freight train, playing safety like a linebacker.  Not only that, but he had a real instinct for the ball.  But after he made All Pro in ‘84, he sat out the entire ‘85 season as a negotiating ploy.  Unfortunately for Bell, the team’s Plan B safety, Dave Duerson, proved to be a more-than-worthy replacement and helped the ‘85 Bear defense etch its name forever in the annals of NFL history.  Bell did come back the following season and played once again like an All Pro, but by then his window of opportunity had quietly closed and his chance at football immortality had disappeared forever.

#8  Ross Brupbacher, OLB
In 1970, the Bears drafted a whip-smart, slightly flaky linebacker out of Texas A&M.  As a rookie Ross Brupbacher never did start a game, but was a special teams dynamo and played excellent defense when given the chance.  In fact, on those rare occasions when Brupbacher played opposite me, with Butkus in the middle, the three of us could really get it going.  We weren’t that quick, but in my humble opinion you’d have to look long and hard to find any linebacking trio anywhere, or at any time, with a better collective nose for the football.  Unfortunately for the Bears, Ross never seemed to like the game all that much, and wanted more out of life. After a few years of playing second fiddle in Chicago he signed a deal to play in the WFL, led his team to a title in a year, and then in 1976 when the new league folded, returned to the Bears. His encore season with us was for my money — and I kid you not when I say this — one of the greatest seasons any linebacker has ever had in this town.  In ‘76, despite starting just 12 games, he finished with an amazing seven interceptions and three fumble recoveries, to go along with a ton of unassisted tackles.  Then, to the surprise of no one who truly knew him, Ross Brupbacher simply walked away from football and went home to Louisiana, where he enrolled at LSU Law School, graduated with honors and became one of the most feared lawyers in that state’s history.

#7 Joe Taylor, CB
Imagine if Ronnie Lott or Steve Atwater had played corner.  That’s what Joe Taylor was like in the early days of my career.  Quiet and soft-spoken, Taylor could put the clamps on a lightning-fast receiver just as effectively as he could fight off the block of a massive offensive lineman and drill a 220 lb. ball carrier between the numbers.  Taylor, who was raised in Florida and who played college ball at North Carolina A&T, was like a lot of kids in the 60’s from small, mostly black southern schools.  He never said much, on or off the field, but let his football do the talking for him.  Though his career numbers aren’t overwhelming, that only speaks to his greatness.  Because much like a strong-armed outfielder who doesn’t get a lot of assists because no one runs on him anymore, Joe Taylor never picked off a lot of passes in a Chicago Bear uniform because he so utterly dominated his side of the field that most NFL passers eventually stopped looking in his direction.

#6  Jim Osborne, DT
Look up “Underrated Chicago Bear” in the dictionary, and there’s a good chance you’ll see Jim Osborne’s tired old face staring back at you.  A starter his rookie year and a defensive anchor throughout his largely anonymous 12-year career, Osborne once started 154 out of a possible 170 games, a percentage that would have been significantly higher had he not missed ten games in 1975 due to a career-threatening injury.  As a player, he didn’t do any one thing particularly well, except show up every day, even at practice, and give the coaches everything he had.  And he never once cheated anyone, especially himself.  So many times in the years since I’ve watched some young, enormously talented defensive lineman come into town and fail to live up to expectations.  At those times I’ve thought to myself, “If only that kid had Osborne’s heart.”  But then I reflect back on Jim, what a warrior he was, and how he gave his all to the Bears every time he put on his uniform, and I catch myself.  It’s then that I think, “If only Jim Osborne had that kid’s talent.”

#5  Leslie Frazier, CB
In 1985, there was enough macho bravado on the Bears defense to fill ten locker rooms.  Guys like McMichael, Hampton, Singletary, Wilson, Marshall and Dent were all full of man-sized bluster, and rightfully so.  They were all amazing football players who always made great copy, either by the things they did on the field, or the things they said off it.  One guy on that defense, however, was very different from the rest.  Leslie Frazier was quiet, unassuming and rarely, if ever, given to outward displays of chest-thumping.  But he was one heck of a pass defender and he studied and understood the game like few of those ‘85 Bears did, including their twin symbols of football smarts, Singletary and Fencik.  That’s why when all is said and done, my sense is the only defender on the ‘85 club (besides Singletary) who will ever land a head coaching gig will be the quiet little guy very few people ever talked about; the thinking man’s cornerback who spent his all-too-brief career, not strutting around, posing for the camera or filming TV commercials, but learning the game of football, inside and out.

#4  George Seals, DT
You want to know how tough Seals was?  Back in the day, no one — and I mean no one — took on Butkus.  Everybody backed down.  Except George Seals.  I’ll never forget one day when the two of them got into it over something that happened on the field.  Though no punches were thrown and nothing ever came of the showdown, it amazed us all.  And I always wondered if somewhere deep down inside Butkus there wasn’t a small voice telling him to be leery of any guy either stupid or crazy enough to want to take him on.  Seals was an offensive lineman for five seasons before switching to the other side of the ball.  The move seemed to fire him up and he in turn helped elevate both the ferocity and the intensity level of every one of us on defense.  There were a lot better football players around back then — even on his own team — but if my back were against the wall and my life depended on one guy being there for me, there was no teammate I would rather have had standing by my side than George Seals.

#3  Mike Hartenstine, DE
When I was playing, the coaching staff would evaluate defenders by calculating the average yards per carry the opponents gained when they ran to our side of the field.  For the first 8 years of my career, my average yards-per-carry was among the best on the team; consistently under three yards per attempt.  But then in 1975, the front office brought in this mountain of a defensive end from Penn State to play on my side, a kid who learned football under Joe Paterno.  The following year, with that kid playing in front of me and stuffing runners and blockers like he was the Great Wall of China, my average yard-per-attempt was cut in half — half — to just over one yard per carry.  I’m not sure I have the words to explain just how great (and unsung) a football player Mike Hartenstine was, and it still confounds me how far his name’s fallen through the cracks of time.

#2  Willie Holman, DE
I’m sure this pick surprises a lot of people.  In his time, Willie Holman was viewed by both fans and sportswriters alike as just one more in a long line of very good, tough-as-hell Bear defensive ends.  But let me tell you, Holman wasn’t just good. He was great.  And he was as tough as they came.  And not just physically tough; he was mentally tough.  A lot of current scouts pay players the highest compliment by saying they “never take a play off.”  That was Willie Holman in his day.  The guy gave everything he had every time he lined up in his stance.  Like Joe Taylor, he was a kid from a small, black college who never tooted his own horn or brought unnecessary attention to himself.  He was simply a four-down warrior who every Sunday played the game like it was the last time he would ever do so in his life.  There are ten great football players on this list, but all you need to know about my feelings toward Willie Holman –  both a man and as a football player– is where I’ve placed him compared to eight of those other guys.

#1   Alex Brown, DE
It Willie Holman at #2 surprises some people, I’m sure this pick shocks them.  But let me tell you why Alex Brown is the most underrated Chicago Bear since the days of the first Mayor Daley.  Unlike the nine other players on this list, all of whom played when football coverage amounted to handful of broadcasts and newspaper stories per week, Brown played in the age of media saturation and wall-to-wall air time.  He was a Bear when NFL beat reporters and commentators had so much shelf space to fill they’d report on who guys were dating or what they were having for breakfast.  And that’s not even taking into account the internet and the explosion of user-driven outlets like Twitter and YouTube.  Yet despite all that airtime and all that coverage, very few fans (and even fewer reporters) came to appreciate just how much of a gladiator Alex Brown was.  The guy wanted to play every down, never wanted to come out of a game, and could play the run or the pass as well, if not better, than virtually every one of his teammates, including many of the so-called specialists.  I know why the front office went out and signed Julius Peppers this past off-season.  I really do.  After a year like ‘09, they needed to bring in fresh blood and to give Bear fans a reason to get excited.  But trust me, Peppers came at a price tag much bigger than all those zeroes in his contract.  It cost them one of the hardest working and most consistent linemen in Chicago Bear history. And the day will come — and believe me, it will be here sooner than anyone realizes — when most of those same Bear fans will be sitting in Soldier Field thinking, “Wow…do I miss Alex Brown.”

Look, don’t get me wrong, I was pretty lucky when it came to pro coaches. After all, for my first two NFL seasons I played for the Old Man himself. And if there was such a thing as a Mt. Rushmore of NFL coaching, you can bet your next paycheck that George Halas would be up there as one of the four most important coaches in league history.

But that doesn’t mean I wouldn’t have loved to play for other guys as well — especially as my career started winding down and I began to feel my chances at a championship slipping through my fingers. So for this month’s Buffone Top Ten I offer: ten coaches I would have loved to play for, in ascending order. Some were old timers, like myself. Others are contemporary. Some trafficked in emotion and inspiration. Others were brilliant, even cerebral strategists.

All, however, are winners. Or at least were winners. And all knew how to get the most out of the talent they were given.

(And one more thing these guys shared: all but one of them had the good fortune of having a Hall of Fame-caliber quarterback to lead his offense. Which, as most Bear fans will attest, is something as alien to the Windy City as palm trees and pink flamingos. But that’s another story for another time.)

#10 Mike Ditka
Mike certainly had the benefit of one of the most talented bunch of football players ever assembled, as well as a defensive coordinator (Buddy Ryan) who could somehow work the vast collection of All Pros under him into a virtual lather week after week. But all that aside, Ditka was still one of the great motivators the game has ever known. He also understood what it took to win football games. But more than anything else, his fire, intensity and larger-than-life personality set a perfect tone for what turned out to be one of the briefest, but most storied runs of dominance in NFL history.

#9 Tom Flores
Ask most people to name the great NFL coaches of all time, and very few will ever bring up Tom Flores. But Flores, one of the most decent men you’d ever want to meet, was one heck of a coach and in 1981 pulled off one of the most improbable Super Bowl wins ever. He spent almost his entire playing career as a backup QB, and maybe that was his key. Because just as so many journeymen catchers seem to mature into great baseball managers, there seems to be some link between NFL coaching success and smart, attentive young men who do little more than hold a clipboard Sunday after Sunday, year after year, and make mental notes about what works and what doesn’t.

#8 Don Shula
I will admit I was never taken with Shula as a coach. But then one day long after I retired I had the occasion to interview him. It was then that I finally got it. Don Shula is a great guy, has a ton of energy and has forgotten more football strategy than a lot of coaches will ever know. In fact, if you were to divide this list of great coaches into two categories — the inspirational hellfire-and-brimstone preachers and the mad scientists of strategy and play-calling — Shula is one of maybe two guys on the entire list you could argue fits comfortably into either category.

#7 Weeb Ewbank
Ewbank has been largely forgotten by many of today’s football fans, but he was one of the great coaches the league has ever known. Not only did his Jets manhandle Shula’s Colts in the single greatest upset in Super Bowl history, but his 1959 Baltimore Colts won what many still feel was the most exciting title game ever played — and a contest that, quite literally, changed the NFL forever. I had the good fortune to play an exhibition game under Ewbank (the ‘66 College All Star game at Soldier Field), and that one game made me appreciate what playing for a guy like that might have meant to both my career and my ring finger.

#6 Bill Cowher
Talk about Old School. Cowher was a blast from the past; an old-time blood-and-guts leatherhead who bled Steeler black and gold, week after week, year after year. But what was different about Cowher from all those other tightly wound workaholic control-freaks who pass themselves off as head coaches is that the guy’s act never grew old. His players never tuned him out. Not once. In fact, just the opposite: most seemed to love him more and more each year. And despite losing one star after another to free agency, he continued to get more out of his players than just about any coach in my lifetime. We haven’t seen the last of this guy by any means.

#5 Bill Belichick
Whoever said there are no second acts in American life never met Bill Belichick. The guy went from boy wonder to whipping boy to “Boy, I wish he was coaching my team.” And what I like most about Belichick isn’t so much his run of Super Bowl appearances, or even his stunning regular season success. It isn’t even how he’s transformed the Pats from league doormat to league super-power. It’s that he’s created a system that provides unwanted veterans and aging stars the opportunity to come in, do what they still do best, and maybe — just maybe — win a championship before hanging them up.

#4 Tom Landry
To appreciate how great Landry was it’s important to understand how bad the Cowboys once were. Long before they were America’s Team they were an expansion laughingstock. But then Tex Schramm started drafting the best athletes he could find, regardless of sport, and charging Landry with the task of teaching them how to play football. When I came into the league in ‘66, the process finally paid off and the Cowboys not only finished above .500 for the first time ever, they lost a heart-breaking NFL championship game to, arguably, the most powerful Packer team Vince Lombardi ever assembled. He might not have been my kind of motivator, but from a X’s and O’s standpoint Tom Landry took a back seat to no one.

#3 Bill Walsh
At first blush, you might ask why a three-yards-and-a-cloud-of-dust defender from the coal mines of Western Pennsylvania like myself would ever want to play for soft-spoken, gentlemanly, offensive genius from Northern California. Well, all those Super Bowl rings aside, there’s this: You want to know how to get the most out of any defender, especially late in the 4th quarter with everything on the line? Easy. Keep him off the field as much as possible up to that point. And that’s exactly what Walsh’s pass-first West Coast Offense did. And that’s exactly why I would have loved to play linebacker under a guy who eventually emerged as the NFL’s undisputed lord and high-master of ball control.

#2 Chuck Noll
Speaking of Western Pennsylvania, when I was a senior at Louisville the Steelers called and said they wanted to draft me. I pleaded with them not to. I said I had no desire to play for them. I wanted to go where I had a chance to win. The Steelers back then were not just bad; they were laughable. But then along came Chuck Noll in 1969 and with him soon came four Super Bowls in six years — not to mention a reason to feel proud about being from that area, even as the U.S. steel industry was slowly dying. If I had only known then what I know now, I would have been willing run naked from my house to the Steeler offices, pen in hand, and ask one simple question: Where do I sign?

#1 Vince Lombardi
If someone were to come up and ask me why I would ever want to play for Vince Lombardi, about whom Jerry Kramer once said, “Lombardi treated us all equally; like dogs,” I would have to steal a line Louis Armstrong once used when a reporter asked him to define jazz. He looked at the young man and said simply, “If you have to ask that question, you’d never understand my answer.” #