Chicago Bears Stuck in Long, Vicious Downward Spiral

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Quarterback Jay Cutler hadn't even thrown the third of five interceptions Thursday night in one of the worst Bears offensive displays since the one-year era of former offensive coordinator Terry Shea.

Yet the analysts, and experts with NFL Network, and Internet bloggers, had already begun crucifying Cutler. The trade of Kyle Orton had blown up in the Bears' faces, the buzz went, and now they're left with no first round draft picks until 2011, along with a quarterback who is Rex Grossman with legs.

This is the kind of garbage you normally get from the people with networks and national websites who look at the surface, check out a number, give a grunt, and point a finger at the obvious as a problem.

While it's hard to defend someone after a five-interception effort against a bad San Francisco team, Cutler's situation requires deeper thinking.

No good? A waste of draft picks?

If Cutler isn't legit, how did he produce more TDs than interceptions, and higher passer ratings with a Denver Broncos team that had virtually as little complementary running game as the Bears?

For one, the Broncos at least blocked for Cutler to get him time to throw, even if they couldn't block for the run. After being sacked 19 times in nine games, Cutler is only eight sacks from the total he went down last year. He's been sacked already eight more times than in all 16 games for 2007.

Sacks don't tell the whole story in this case. If Cutler lacked the ability to step up, move side to side, or throw on the run, he'd probably already be on injured reserve. There are plenty of crash dummies that suffer less of a pounding in nine weeks than Cutler has.

So it's the offensive line's fault. This much can't be denied. They're unable to block for the run. They can't protect Cutler.

They also commit senseless penalties, like the one Chris Williams had for unnecessary roughness on the final drive with the game on the line. Center Olin Kreutz makes more than an allowable share of bad shotgun snaps, one of which was probably responsible for one Cutler's interception.

The effect of all this is easy to see for someone who paid attention to Cutler when he played in Denver.

Cutler dropped back, and his feet were set when he threw. He looked through his progression of receivers and didn't rush. Now, when he gets a rare three or four seconds to throw in the pocket, his feet are never set until just as he is supposed to release the ball, because he's getting gun shy.

It happens to anyone who takes a beating.

Watch the running of Matt Forte. He looks a little slow this year, most likely the result of his lack of training in the off-season after a hamstring pull in organized team activities. It set him back when he should have been building strength, and conditioning for the season.

However, he also has altered his running style, because the offensive line has absolutely no push. Forte is more likely to cut back away from the blocking scheme, because he panics, a bit like Cutler does. There is no hole, and he can't follow the scheme. When he cuts back, he cuts right into the back-side pursuit and goes down quickly.

Who can blame him? Who can blame Cutler?

The trouble here is who can really blame the offensive line?

Orlando Pace, obviously, has had it. Chris Williams is basically a rookie at right tackle. Frank Omiyale was brought in with no playing experience, and turned into a starter. You can't assemble a viable offensive line this way.

So now we arrive at the real root of the problem with the Bears' offense.

General manager Jerry Angelo drew praise on all sides after trading for Cutler. Now, though, it's apparent he has failed miserably in other ways.

Angelo has been a complete failure in drafting on Day One. The only first-round picks made by Angelo still on the team are Tommie Harris, Greg Olsen, and Williams.

One of Angelo's biggest failure has been relying on free agency over the years to retool the offensive line, instead of actually drafting good linemen and playing, or training them.

Heading into this weekend's play, the NFL's Top 10 offenses had only one 2009 free agent line acquisition playing. Baltimore is the 10th-ranked offense, and the Ravens got center Matt Birk from Minnesota in free agency. The Top Nine teams have no 2009 free agent acquisitions starting.

In fact, almost all of those lines are entirely comprised of players drafted by their current team, and used immediately as starters—or trained for a few years before becoming a starter.

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