| 16 August 2010
We're back for another season of video reviews for the 2010 Bears season. Overall there were promising signs from the first team players and the primary backups who will be called upon to play a lot this year.
The 2010 Chicago Bears opened up the pre-season against the San Diego Chargers, a playoff team from last year and by all accounts a Super Bowl caliber team. Sure it's the pre-season so not everyone is playing for the full 60 minutes or bringing out everything they're capable of doing.
This game was a nice game to start to the pre-season and really forced the Bears to step up their game and compete. For the most part the Bears did just that, they competed on defense and they protected the QB well on offense.
The Chargers start the game with three straight passes with Phillip Rivers out of the shot gun. Julius Peppers gets pressure on Rivers each time he throws the ball. The first pass is complete for five yards, and the next two fall incomplete as Peppers knocks his man back into Rivers' throwing lane. Peppers' pressure comes so quickly that Rivers only has time to make one read and one attempt to complete his pass. If this is how the pressure for the 2010 Bears is going to start it's going to be a good season.
Bears on offense a run call to Matt Forte gets minimal yards, a gain of one as the interior of the line struggles to get a push off the line.
Jay Cutler's big pass to Johnny Knox Cutler had nearly four seconds to throw out of a seven step drop. It was a great route run by Knox and a good throw by Cutler even though it was a tad late in arriving. The pass protection overall was pretty good on this play which made it happen.
The second pass to Johnny Knox was again great protection with a blitz call, Williams slides out wide to pick up the blitzing DB, again Cutler finds Knox first down Bears. Very well executed two passes by the first team offense. It's a shame Cutler wasn't in there longer based on this opening drive performance.
Running game grade on drive one
Missed blocks on a sweep, and things got blown up at the point of attack on a zone read play. The entire interior of the O-Line looked bad from Kreutz, Louis and Garza.
Key Play:
On second and eight, Forte whiffed big on a blitzing CB which really hurt the momentum of this opening drive. That was the play of the drive, Forte missing that key blitz pick up. If Forte makes that block who knows what happens.
Second defensive drive:
Things blown up at the point of attack, Anthony Adams blown up out of his hole and pushed back. Decent down the line pursuit by Tommie Harris, linebackers fill their gaps.
Pass play Bears in Cover-3 with safety in the box, Chargers run some quick outs and complete the pass.
Well executed screen by the Chargers.
Bears in Cover-2 burned badly on the pass play...no pass rush not very good zone coverage and the Chargers nail a big pass play.
Bears in cover-4 and first and 20 after two Charger penalties, draw up the gut gains a few yards.
Key Play:
Bears in Cover-2 on second and 14 and they are absolutely burned by a play that is designed to beat the Cover-2 defense. This play was covered in detail by Matt Bowen of the National Football post and the Chargers execute it to perfection for the touchdown. No pressure by the front four, and the Chargers essentially send everyone deep and force the safety Harris to make a choice, run with the TE up the seam, or take the man to the outside that gets the realease from the CB. Harris takes a couple false steps towards the TE who is covered decently underneath by Briggs and then is late in his break. Being late in his break means he's absolutely toasted for the touchdown. The frustrating thing is Zack Bowman almost sees it coming and doesn't fully give up on his man coverage on the WR. In Harris' defense, Bowman didn't get much of a jam or even a press on the receiver at the LOS. The receiver was essentially given a free release which really doomed this play from the start.
Below is a diagram which references the Cover-2 killer that Matt Bowen spoke about in his beating the Cover-2 article:
Bears second offensive drive:
Hanie gets time and goes through progressions and hits the FB on a check down for a small gain.
Hard CB blitz from the outside no adjustment by Hanie, ball nearly picked off.
Key play
Fumbled snap by Caleb Hanie from Josh Beekman.
Bears back on defense:
Decent push up the middle on a run play by Mark Anderson, Anderson and Tinoisamoa make the tackle. Harris double teamed, Adams shoved out of his gap.
Lance Briggs leaves his feet trying to make a tackle the back shakes the tackle bounces it outside and gets big yards. Horrible missed tackle by Briggs.
Great penetration by Tommie Harris and the rest of the Bears come in and clean up a minimal gain on the rush.
Peppers gets good pressure on a late developing screen pass, Peppers cleanly beats his man who is not a part of the screen set up.
Well execute draw on third and 10 gets good yards, but Bears keep it from a first down, good defense on the whole.
Key Play:
Harris' penetration on the run play look like vintage Tommie Harris and allowed the pursuit to get there to completely stop the play for no gain. This is the type of gap penetration the Bears will need to get from Harris all season long.
Bears back on offense:
Major cushion on Hester quick pass for a few yards, well executed sight adjustment and communication between Hester and Hanie.
END OF THE FIRST QUARTER
Screen pass batted down.
Great pass protection for Hanie, nice slide out to pick up a rusher by Frank Omiyale Hanie makes a good throw and completion for a first down.
Beekman gets beat badly (He's playing center) and holds the nose tackle and a big pass play to Kellen Davis is called back. Great throw by Hanie, two great throws in a row too bad this is called back on a holding call.
Hanie follows up the two great passes with one bad pass in which he overthrows Devin Aromashodu. Hanie received a lot of criticism for not nailing this completion. He didn't quite set his feet before rushing his throw. Small break down in fundamentals sent the ball sailing, but he can't be perfect.
Chester Taylor with a great run on the draw play...didn't get a ton of yards, but just looked really good in the way he ran....
Taylor fumbles but it wouldn't have mattered much because the interior line blocking on this play was so poor. Bears recover, but it's a bad play all the way around.
Taylor chooses the wrong hole to run through
Beekman gets stood up on the pass rush and steps on Hanie's foot which completely throws everything off.
Penalty gives the Bears a first and 10....
Lance Louis stood up at the point of attack on a running play, Beekman nice combo block and ,pick up of the linebacker. Kellen Davis and Chris Williams nice combo block on the DE Williams doesn't quite get to the second level. FB misses his block completely. Garza stood up at the point of attack and pushed back.
Hanie gets good protection goes short to Chester Taylor who gets a first down with some nice YAC.
Rugby scrum on the next run play...all sorts of failures.
Play-action fake, Hanie gets good protection and fires a nice pass to Aromashodu down to the six yard line. Great pass by Hanie here, he's made more nice throws than bad throws to this point.
Louis having all sorts of problems run blocking, really getting beat up at the point of attack.
Beekman gets run backwards like a tackling dummy right into Hanie's face, Hanie rolls and rifles a touchdown pass to Armashodu....that's at least four great throws, to the one bad throw in which Hanie over shot D.A. earlier this drive.
TE for the Chargers absolutely runs Mark Anderson backwards and down the field. These are gsimple stretch play went for 9 yards and the Chargers ran right at Anderson.
Batted ball by Anderson to follow up getting run down the field.
Idonije takes a hard inside slant and completely loses contain....neither one of these guys is going to replace Alex Brown's run defense skills.
No penetration no push and the Chargers get the easy first down on a run up the middle. Toeaina Harrison and the rest of the second team defense in at this late point in the second quarter.
Quick inside draw to Mathews who gets more big yards against the weak defense.
Bears in Cover-4, Chargers run a quick pass underneath the coverage and get good yards. Decent pressure from the front four goes for not.
Chargers bang ahead on fourth down and inches for the first down it's not even close.
Jarron Gilber gives up the edge with a hard inside slant and gives up contain....Mathews gains another big chunk of yards.
It does come back on a holding call.
Matt Mayberry on the tackle a short dump off to the back.
Mayberry gets pressure on the blitz but misses making the sack, QB completes for big yards down inside the red zone.
First and goal for the Chargers less than two minutes to go in the first half.
Major Wright makes the tacke he can step up and fill the hole well. Good tackler hopefully he can play just as well in coverage when called upon.
Wright with another tackle, seven tackles in the first half, hurt his finger and is out for the game.
Bears no defense on first and goal inside the five....touchdown.
Rashied Davis with a big catch just before the end of the first half. Then goes up and almost makes another catch between two defenders. This is the type of game that Davis has that he manages to keep his job with.
So a video review of the first half reveals that the interior of the offensive line overall struggled with run blocking....was above average to good in pass blocking. Major Wright had a good game/first half with seven tackles, he's a gamer that can fill the gap and make tackles in run support which is what the Bears prefer in their safeties.
Caleb Hanie looked really good in this game, he had some shaky moments, but that's to be expected from a guy who doesn't often play in game situations. Hanie however does always do enough to show that if allowed to play and allowed to develop he could actually turn into a pretty good back up QB option. You don't ever want to see Hanie as the starter, but I think you can say that he could one day be a starter in the NFL, he has that kind of ability.
The defense looked very shaky for the most part, but didn't run a lot of aggressive schemes. They preferred to stay in coverage throughout most of the first half and the Chargers took advantage by running a lot of routes in which the receivers simply sat in the open spots of the zone and delivered the football. The Bears didn't get a lot of pressure from their front four, though Tommie Harris showed a flash here and there and Peppers got some pressure for the brief stints they were in the game.
Overall the back up D-Line leaves a lot to be desired and to be concerned with. As a starter Anthony Adams continues to struggle and Marcus Harrison didn't show me much either. Idonije and Anderson both struggled as did Jarron Gilbert.
Johnny Knox is a great receiver as is Devin Aromashodu, the receivers showed a lot of savy in their route running as well as their ability after the catch and getting open. The bright spots we saw in the passing game only confirm what we already have heard about the receivers, as a whole they are one of if not the deepest group on the field.
I think there should be a solid level of confidence in this unit in their pass blocking ability amongst the primary starters. Although the Chargers don't really dial up the pressure until the second half, the pressure they did bring in the first half was picked up more often than not. Yes Forte missed a key block and there was another missed block by Taylor I believe, but overall the offensive line protected well. Hanie did enough with the time allotted to move the team down the field in 15 plays and put the Bears ahead against a playoff caliber team with a touchdown drive. That says a lot about most of the players on this team, the players that will likely get the majority of the playing time.
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