My Friends,

 

Where do you begin?

 

I think you start and finish in Bob Babich’s office. My guess is that if you look in the “Recent Documents” bin on his desktop you’ll find words like “Frogger” and “Pong,” but nothing that resembles “Game Plan.” If correcting the crappy pass defense (which, incidentally, led to Aaron Rodgers winding up with a 105.8 rating and two touchdowns) involves giving up 200 yards on the ground, I’d say the Bears should take a page out of the San Diego approach and fire Bunky Bob in mid-season.

 

You couldn’t pick up a paper this week without reading about the philosophy of the Bears so-called defensive scheme being to allow inside release on slant patterns, and yet there was Greg Jennings running THAT EXACT PATTERN against Corey Graham for the packers’ first score. And it went downhill from there. Fat cushions in coverage led to green bay receivers catching the ball with nobody around. The packers offensive line blew past the Bears front four and tied up the linebackers as Ryan Grant topped 100 yards in the first half. It was pathetic to watch.

 

We can whine about an offense that posted a measly 234 yards and nine first downs, and officiating that looked the other way while Devin Hester was repeatedly being mugged or Aaron Kampman was diving at Kyle Orton’s bum ankle, but none of that would have made a difference with the way the defense was backpedaling. When you see that the packers had zero three-and-outs, that all but one packer drive made it into Bears territory and the only one that didn’t stalled on the gb 47, you realize the Bears pretty much needed to score on every possession. With a rusty Orton, that was just too tall an order.

 

That, and a head coach who manages the game clock about as well as a teenager manages cell phone minutes. A common complaint here has been that the Bears are gutless when it comes to moving the ball at the end of the half, but there’s a difference between guts and just plain stupidity. When the packers trotted out only ten players and were forced to spend their first timeout as the Bears took over with their back to their own goal line and 1:11 to play in the half, it meant Lovie Smith could force the packers to burn their remaining timeouts and run off most of the time left with three running plays. Instead, an ill-advised sideline pass to Hester was dropped on second down (nevermind the missed pass interference call) and green bay got the ball back with 0:42 left on the clock, which they used to drive five yards and kick a field goal. Didn’t the same type of brain cramp cost the Bears a game in Atlanta earlier this year? The way Smith repeats the same basic strategy mistakes over and over, I half wonder whether the wheels on his car are bent from pounding through the same potholes on his way to Halas Hall day after day.

 

Or maybe the wheels have finally come completely off.

 

Can they really still own a share of first place?

 

LBF

11/16/2008