Quick Game Comments: Seahawks at Bears 12/2/12

Defense

1. The Bears defensive line was getting handled up front on the run plays. Some of it was lack of discipline as players got out of their gaps but much of it was simply failure to get off of blocks. They did better the second half.
2. On the other hand, the defensive line got good pressure on Russell Wilson as they were able to penetrate in passing situations.
3. It looked like the Bears might have played quite a bit more zone defense today than they have recently. Lots of cover two and maybe some quarters coverage. Certianly not as much single high safety as wenve been seeing.
4. On a related not, as usual the Seahawk wide recievers were a hand full for the Bears defensive backs. They always seem to have guys like Mike Williams or Golden Tate coming through for them year after year to cause the Bears trouble.
5. I can see why Russell Wilson is starting for Seattle. He’s about as accurate as any quarterback you’ll see. That little college option that he runs with Marshawn Lynch out of the shot gun is surprisingly effective. He did a lot of damage on the run.
6. I thought it was interesting that Shea McClellin was the one spying Wilson in the second half.
7. I would have liked to have seen some better tackling near the end with the game on the line. As color man Tim Ryan pointed out, they did look tired.

Offense

1. The run game went nowhere as the Bears got dominated up front. They successfully executed the short, quick passing game instead. They moved the ball nicely at times doing that as Seattle settled for limiting the big play. In fairness, the Bears did run better late in the game.
2. Having said the above, the pass protection wan’t bad and Gabe Carimi in particular was pretty good at his new postion most of the time in this respect.
3. Nice play by Jay Cutler on the first touchdown as he flipped the ball over an unblocked defender to find Earl Bennett.
4. Cutler was a little erratic today. He was really accurate at times, especially when he threw to Marshall. He was fitting the ball into some very tight windows. On the other hand, there were times when easy throws were off base by quite a bit more than they should have been. He did a lot of damage at important times by taking off and running.
5. Much was made of Seattle’s big corners and how they were going to handle Brandon Marshall. They didn’t succeed as he once again caught many balls. Admittedly they were short passes. As stated above, the Seattle corners were concentrating on keeping him in front of them.
6. What a downright stupid decision to go for it on fourth down near the beginning of the second quarter. With the offensive line being pushed around by a physical Seattle defensive front, Lovie Smith had to have been blind not to have seen what would happen. His decision to coach like he’s actually got talent on the unit was really poor. He has to see what’s going on and be smarter than that.

Miscellaneous

1. Chris Myers did a nice, straight forward job. My Bear senses were tingling as I thought I occasionally sensed a pro-Seattle bias. Borderline calls were often pronounced to be in favor of Seattle even though they were eventually reversed upon a more neutral review by the referee. Myers even continued to argue with former Vice President of Officiating Mike Pereira on the dropped Seattle touchdown at the end of the first half after the score was overturned. Still, honestly, if the bias was there at all it wasn’t enough to bother me. It certainly wasn’t overt.Nothing against Ryan, who was fine and who I’ve always liked, but after a long series of seeing some of the best announcers in football, he was a half step down. Teaching moments were fewer and farther between.

   Jamie Maggio did a good job of getting Pete Carroll’s take on the overturned touchdown as she caught him giving the referees an ear full going in at half. And she’s hot.

2. Seattle’s wide recevers did a good job of avoiding drops. The the Bears Earl Bennett dropped a touchdown in the second quarter. Marshall dropped one near the end of the third quarter that would have been a first down.
3. A horse collar tackling call on Brian Urlacher all but put the Seahawks in field goal position in the first half. J’Marcus Webb had a damaging false start in the fourth quarter as the Bears were nearly in field goal position. They eventually punted. Julius Peppers had an offsides that sopped the cloack late in the fourth quarter.For Seattle Bruce Irvin’s’ illegal hands to the face followed by a personal foul on Alan Branch in the third quarter let the Bears off the hook deep in thier own territory. The Bears eventually scored a touchdown.

   Brandon Marshall had a good penalty as he prevented an interception by committing offensive pass interference at the end of the third quarter.

4. Seattle kept the Bears pinned up against the goal line for much of the game. I wasn’t entirely sure what the Bears were doing on the punt return early in the second quarter where Eric Weems ran back at the last minute to field a punt. On the other hand the Bears did a nice job of limiting Leon Washington’s production.
5. The Marshawn Lynch fumble in the first quarter was huge as it stopped a nice Seattle drive to open the game.
6. This was one you look back on at the end of the year and remember the game that got away. Things fell right for the Bears today. They fumbled three times and got it back all three times. Tipped balls were getting through. They were the beneficiaries of a few borderline calls and a couple no-calls. They played good defense all day, were ahead in the fourth quarter, then collapsed and let it get away.I honestly think that Seattle is a little bit of a better team. But the Bears should have won this one.