Now I am a person who tries my best to always accept responsibility for my own actions, but much to my dismay I am not actually a member of the Chicago Bears organization. Thus, I have no choice but to point fingers. I just wish I knew where to point them, after an exasperating (even borderline dull) loss to the Houston Texans on a cold, rainy Sunday Night.I could start by pointing a finger at Mike Martz, which would not do much good since he is no longer with the organization, yet he is the reason that tight-end Greg Olsen scored two touchdowns for the Carolina Panthers, whereas his Bears replacement, Kellen Davis fumbled the ball. I still miss Olsen terribly, does it show? Perhaps I could point a finger at Jay Cutler for throwing two very ugly interceptions in the first half, but that seems a bit harsh since he did not have the opportunity to redeem himself after he missed the second half with a concussion. Maybe blame lies with Mike Tice for not appearing to make any adjustments to the play-calling in response to the tough Texans defense, or the fact that the back-up quarterback Jason Campbell was now in the game. Finally, a finger could be pointed at Jerry Angelo; although I am happy to report he is no longer the Bears’ general manager, as he can be blamed for letting safety Danieal Manning go to the Texans. Manning seemed to be on a personal mission to prove that the Bears should have re-signed him by causing the Davis fumble and also picking off Jay Cutler.
Finger(s) cannot be pointed at the play of the Bears’ offensive line. Wow, when is the last time a Bears fan could legitimately utter those words? They did not allow a sack on either quarterback the whole game. Nor do I think the Bears defense can be blamed for the loss. In the lead in to the game, Cris Collinsworth asked if Chicago even needs an offense with the way their defense is playing. If this game is any indication, the answer is a resounding YES. Tim Jennings had two interceptions on Matt Schaub; Charles Tillman held Schaub’s favorite target, Andre Johnson to a mere four catches for 35 yards; and Arian Foster finished with 102 yards rushing and a touchdown catch; but they did not score any points. Still, the offense should have been able to overcome 13 points! Sure this game was touted as a defensive showdown, but the Bears defense did their part while the offense was lackluster at best.
To be fair, the field conditions were suspect in spots, and a slick football is never helpful, but that is Chicago Bears football at its finest! The offense needs to be more than Cutler to Marshall or Forte and Bush trying to pound the ball. Any defense worth its salt is not going to let the star receiver single handily be the one to beat them, and the Texans sure proved that in this game. While I loved the quote from Lovie Smith, “that the Bears deserve a receiver like Brandon Marshall – someone who is big and tough,” and I appreciate that the Bears management made seemingly the right moves including signing a decent back-up quarterback in Jason Campbell who has 70 NFL starts in his own right; yet something is not clicking. On this dark and stormy night, it was the Houston Texans who came into Chicago and played what we fans like to call “Bears football:” tough defense with just enough offense to win the game.
