By
Michael Nudo
The Bears treated their fans to a 23-10 victory over the Jacksonville Jaguars at a frigid (wind chills in the low single digits) Soldier Field on Sunday. The Bears made just enough plays in every aspect of a hard fought team victory to improve their record to 7-6 in the NFC North. They’re one game behind Minnesota, who eked out a 20-16 victory over winless Detroit.
Coming through in the clutch (AP Photo/David Banks).
OFFENSE
Quarterback
Kyle Orton (20-34-219, 2 TD, INT) bounced back from his worst game of the season with a solid performance. He drilled a 3-yard touchdown pass to Desmond Clark on a curl in the end zone. Orton also threw a perfect lob up the right sideline for Devin Hester to run under for 31 yards. He delivered a great play action pass for a touchdown over the middle to Greg Olsen. On the downside, Orton threw a horrid interception to open the second half. Two receivers were in the area, and he threw it between them to a defender. He took a sack once where he held the ball too long. He was forced to throw the ball early on one or two occasions because of pressure. Overall, this was easily his best game since the ankle injury over a month ago. The prognosis then was he’d miss around a month. Hopefully he’s back on track now with a crucial three game stretch starting this Thursday against the Saints. GRADE: B
Running Backs
Matt Forte (21/69, 5-37) had a big first half, picking up huge chunks of yardage. As the game wore on, he struggled to find openings. He more than made up for it with his consistent productivity as a receiver, in spite of a dropped pass in the flat. Adrian Peterson (3/19) gave Forte a rest and also subbed in the final possession to kill the clock. He ran hard and is again proving to be an excellent complementary back. Jason Davis again subbed for the injured Jason McKie. Davis’ inexperience was evident as he was a bit hesitant to get his nose into the point of attack. GRADE: B
Receivers
The tight ends were difference makers. Greg Olsen (3-52, TD) had a 26-yard tackle-breaking romp to add to his touchdown reception. He also had a drop and a missed block that resulted in a big loss for Forte. Desmond Clark (2-8, TD) shook off a slight hamstring pull on Friday to catch the opening touchdown pass from Orton. Marty Booker (3-28) picked up 12 yards to convert a third down and was a big target for Orton on a fast release laser off the line. He’s still not 100 percent and was slow to get off the field several times. Devin Hester (5-80) was up and down as a receiver. He had the beautiful over the shoulder catch for 31 yards up the right sideline and another 19-yard reception early in the game. Hester added a drop, a short gain where he was tackled by a turf monster and a screen pass where he ran away from the line of scrimmage. Rashied Davis (2-14) dropped a slant that should have been caught. Brandon Lloyd played but was a non-factor. There were too many drops in this group; leading to several stalled drives in the second half. GRADE: C
Offensive Line
Olin Kreutz pulled from center to make a key leading block for Forte’s big 26-yard run over right tackle in the early going. John St. Clair had a better game than last week, but still allowed some pressure to destroy the timing of a few pass plays. He and Greg Olsen whiffed on blocks on a toss around left tackle to lose yardage for Forte. Their blocks are a key to allow the pulling Josh Beekman to get around tackle and for Forte to reach the point of attack. Roberto Garza committed a false start in the red zone. He and John Tait did a solid job in both run and pass blocking. Run blocking and pass blocking overall was slightly above average, but far from impressive. GRADE: B-
DEFENSE
Defensive Line
The Bears did just enough to keep Maurice Jones-Drew (12/55, 7-47, TD) and Fred Taylor (13/53, 1-6) from killing them. Tackles Israel Idonije (4 tackles, 1.5 sacks, TFL, PD) and Anthony Adams (8 tackles) took advantage of increased playing time to have their best games in quite a long time. Both were extremely active, making plays all along the line of scrimmage including screens and draws. Adewale Ogunleye (5 tackles, 0.5 sack, PD) somehow managed to combine for a sack with Idonije in spite of being held by his helmet. Ogunleye was held quite a bit without penalty. Alex Brown (2 tackles, TFL) had a good case in the second half as well. Brown made a big tackle early but on several occasions was victimized by trying to tackle Jones-Drew too high. Mark Anderson registered his first sack in year when he finally used an inside move to free himself. Tackles Marcus Harrison and Tommie Harris played but neither were factors. Harris was in the locker room before halftime but returned for a few plays in the second half. Three sacks, several pass deflections and pretty decent pressure to force David Garrard (19-38-178, TD, INT, 3/11) into a poor day were more than enough from this group. GRADE: B
Linebackers
I’m going to be tougher on this group, despite the win. There were plenty of carries for Jones-Drew and Taylor where the linebackers were blocked too easily. Jones-Drew used cutbacks to get Brian Urlacher (8 tackles, PD) and Lance Briggs (5 tackles, PD) tied up by interior linemen. Urlacher was too high on some tackles, resulting in misses. He did have a nice deflection on a screen. Briggs had a nice pressure on the blitz. Nick Roach (3 tackles, PD) had a sweet pass deflection on a pass over the middle intended for Marcedes Lewis (4-43). But Lewis later hauled in a 27-yarder over his coverage. The linebackers need to be more sure in their tackles, especially against the draws and cutback runs. GRADE: C
Secondary
Charles Tillman (8 tackles, PD, FF) and Corey Graham (4 tackles, PD) had the kind of lockdown cornerback day that Bear defenders have only dreamed about this season. Their only blemishes were a missed tackle by Graham when he dropped his head and a gain Tillman allowed where he lost his footing on the shoddy Soldier Field turf. Mike Brown (8 tackles) was flying around the line of scrimmage to force runners to make cutbacks. Daniel Manning (2 tackles, INT, 2 PD) turned in the pivotal play. Manning picked off an early Garrard pass and returned it inside the 5-yard line before fumbling it out of bounds. The referees incorrectly ruled it a touchback. The play was reviewed and possession went to the Bears at the one. Manning also had a pass break up and a nifty tackle for 3 yards on a draw. Kevin Payne (3 tackles) was less of a factor but did put a big wallop on Taylor. It was a good thing to see an opposing quarterback struggle to complete half of his passes for less than 5 yards per attempt. GRADE: A-
Special Teams
Robbie Gould hit all three of his field goal attempts (22, 36, 35) and consistently got his kickoffs down inside the 10-yard line on a chilly day. Brad Maynard had by far his best game of the season. He put four of his six punts down inside the 20-yard line and still netted 44.2 yards per punt. His punting was a key to keeping the Jaguars pinned back. Danieal Manning had a 52-yard return among his three kickoff returns. Devin Hester returned 3 punts for 22 yards. He also had two unforced fumbles. Thankfully, he was able to recover them. In coverage, Adrian Peterson made the tackle on the first 3 kickoffs. Trumaine McBride made a great tackle on a punt inside the 20-yard line. Garrett Wolfe injured a hamstring on an early special teams play and did not return. Overall, special teams had as big a hand in the victory as any other area. GRADE: B+
Coaching
The Jaguars lost the coin flip and the Bears deferred the kickoff. Lovie Smith made the right call in challenging a ruling of a touchback on Manning’s interception runback. As the half was ending, the Bears faced a third and 8 and were in shotgun formation. I shouted, “watch the pinky draw!” Ron Turner must have figured the Jaguars thought the same thing. Kyle Orton executed a perfect play action fake of the draw to Forte and then hit Olsen over the middle for a touchdown. On defense, the secondary was very stingy against the pass, especially to Jaguar wide receivers, who were mostly ineffective. There was just enough pass rush from the line, but the blitzing is still very predictable and lacks imagination and disguise. It’s a shame the Bears couldn’t get a scoring drive together in the third quarter to give some rest to the starters. They’re on a short week, playing New Orleans on Thursday night. GRADE: B
Noots’ Nut Crackers
Kevin Payne on Fred Taylor
Nudo’s Kudos
Brad Maynard
Robbie Gould
Israel Idonije
Anthony Adams
Charles Tillman
Danieal Manning
Horns
John St. Clair
Devin Hester
