5 New Concerns Emerge for Chicago Bears After a Giant Beat Down

It's only preseason.  It's only preseason.  It's only preseason.

That's the sound you're hearing from Halas Hall and the entire city of Chicago as a whole after watching the Bears get out-played in every way imaginable in a 41-13 loss against the New York Giants on Monday Night Football.

You're going to surely hear people talk about the fact the Indianapolis Colts have lost eight straight preseason games, and how the 2008 0-16 Detroit Lions went 4-0 in exhibition games.  Heck, even my father was speaking to me about how the 1985 Bears stunk up the joint in the preseason.

But while people are still convincing themselves that last night's game did not matter, there were obvious concerns that emerged from the Meadowlands beat down last night, and none of them concern the offensive line.

Depending on if your a glass half full or empty kind of person, it's great the offensive line did well enough that they weren't the problem, or it's downright scary that the rest of the team was so bad last night, that it makes the O-line an afterthought.

Here are five new major concerns the Bears now must worry about with only three weeks to go until Opening Day.

5. Mike Martz

One has to be concerned that Jerry Angelo and Lovie Smith have allowed a monster to be unleashed in Mike Martz.

He doesn't like receiving tight ends, so the Bears trade one of the 10-best tight end threats in the NFL, Greg Olsen, for a mid-level draft pick. 

Mike Martz worked well once with Roy Williams, so let's go sign a receiver that had less receptions than Earl Bennett, Johnny Knox, Devin Hester, Olsen and Matt Forte.

And maybe the most shocking of all, Mike Martz doesn't like audibles, so we're not going to let the offense execute any.

Martz looks like he's stuck in 1999 with his view on audibles, and it is absolutely shocking that Lovie Smith—nor anyone else in the franchise—forces Martz to adapt to 21st century football.  There was a great case of this last night that was highlighted by the Monday Night Football announcers in which Marion Barber ran into a wall of Giants.

Looking at the replay, it was quite obvious the Giants were going to be blitzing on the left side of backup quarterback Caleb Hanie.  Even though everyone in the stadium could see it, Hanie could not opt out of a running play that'd go to the left side since Martz refuses to allow any audibles.

Perhaps I am dating myself here, but the way Martz coordinates the offense reminds me of the popular Nintendo game "Tecmo Super Bowl".  In that game you had eight plays to pick on offense.  If your opponent picked that same play on the screen, it was a guaranteed blown up play, as you couldn't audible in the game.

One has to hope that the Bears can force Martz to get out of the Nintendo age and get with the times. 

4. Special Teams

Last night the Bears managed to have more special teams gaffes in one game than they had all of last season. 

They gave up a 73-yard kickoff return that set up a Giants drive in the first half.  Later on, they had a punt blocked which led to another Giants touchdown.

Seeing that the Bears have consistently had some of the best special teams units in the NFL since Lovie Smith came to Chicago, it was worrying to see a unit that is usually so stable appear to be so disoriented.

There are a lot of concerns now with the special teams unit.  Brad Maynard is gone after a fight with special teams coach Dave Toub, forcing a punting competition with Adam Podlesh and Spencer Lanning.

Let's not forget that the kick-return game—which has been such a strength of this team—is having to react to the new NFL rule that kickoffs come from the 35-yard line.  Additionally, the loss of Danieal Manning who signed with the Houston Texans removed a very dangerous kick returner from their roster.

Given the success of the special teams unit, one has to believe they'll correct these errors.  But the team cannot afford to have its "third phase" turn into a weakness. 

3. Goal Line Offense

The addition of Marion Barber was supposed to help the Bears short yardage and goal line offense, which quite frankly was often an embarrassment last year.  It sadly became a game of sorts with family and friends here of how many plays it would take to have the Bears get in the end zone once they got within the 5-yard line. 

At one point, the Bears were in the neighborhood of 1-12 to go on the 1-yard line. 

Marion Barber and tight ends like Mark Spaeth were supposed to fix this issue.  Yet, what did we see last night?  More goal line futility.

Between dropped passes, bad blocking, bad runs and poor quarterback play, the Bears looked like their old selves once they got close to the end zone.

Quarterbacks are supposed to watch game film.  The problem is, it looked like Caleb Hanie was watching the Jay Cutler bloopers of the past two years with his horrid pass on fourth-and-goal in the second half. 

Their horrid short-yardage offense hijacked a lot of good drives and scoring opportunities last year.  The Bears managed to get away with it last year, but don't expect them to be able to get to the NFC Championship again with an offense that can't advance the ball three feet.

2. Roy Williams

Just two weeks into the Roy Williams experiment, and it appears to be in danger of ending before it ever really got started.

Williams has no receptions in two games.  He looked like his old self last night dropping a very catchable  ball on third down on the first drive of the game, and not being able to catch the other pass targeted to him.

Cutler didn't look his way the rest of the night.  While Williams still says the chemistry between Cutler and himself is fine, most reports out of camp are that the two have not been able to see eye-to-eye on the field yet.

This isn't the type of performance the Bears were expecting out of Williams, whom they saw as their new No. 1 wide receiver.  The question is, why are the Bears that surprised?

Williams had two good years with Mike Martz in Detroit, but that was four years ago!  Since being in Detroit, Williams consistently disappointed in Dallas, and his 2010 statistics would have made him the fourth receiver in Chicago last year.

It's frankly inexcusable that the Bears refused to look at better receivers and instead relied on how well Williams once was four years ago.  Now the team will have to live with this type of thinking that's looking more irrational by the day. 

1. Team Defense

The Bears pride themselves on good defense.  This is nothing new as it's been the identity of this team for decades. 

That's why many Bears fans were grimacing at the performance of the defense from the best players to the undrafted free agents.  It was a total team failure whether it was the inability to stop the Giants on third down, to making Brandon Jacobs look like Barry Sanders, or letting a back-up run for a 97-yard touchdown when he should have been stopped for a loss.

Eli Manning looked like his older brother throwing deep and high balls over the Bears short secondary as well.  Overall, it was a performance in which not one single Bear on defense seemed to play a good game.

The Bears starters were all smiles coming off the field, and I guess there is a moral victory to be had that their unit was not decimated by injuries like their counterpart.

Still, the Bears defense must improve or this team is doomed to fail, when you consider they have games against their division rivals as well as Atlanta, New Orleans, Tampa Bay, San Diego and Philadelphia.