Chicago Bears: Was Monday Night The End Of An Era For The Bears?

The scoreboard read 24-13 at Ford Field as the Detroit Lions defeated their rival Chicago Bears.  The Lions are 5-0 for the first time since the Eisenhower administration and the Bears fell to 2-3 to join teams like the Philadelphia Eagles and Atlanta Falcons as early-season NFC disappointments.

Still, 11 points doesn't exactly sound like a blow out right?  Teams lose by that much all the time. 

For sure, if you open up a newspaper tomorrow not having seen any of the game, you'd believe this was just another game in the NFL.  In fact, you'll see the Bears dominated the time of possession by almost 20 minutes.

However, if you saw the game, you witnessed something I can best describe as the potential end of an era in Chicago.

To put it plainly, the Bears were out coached, out gunned and quite frankly, they just looked old.  The entire team, from the outdated "Tampa 2" cover scheme, to the players on the field looked archaic. 

While the Bears are far from the worst teams in the league, it was plain as day that tonight's game against the Lions looked like a changing of the guard.  For several years, the Bears and Vikings seemed to be the contenders for the NFC North crown until Aaron Rodgers came along.  Now the Lions have built up their team to take the other spot in the division.

Thanks to General Manager Jerry Angelo failing to draft well in recent years and making horrid free agent pickups, the Bears are a group of veteran players that are getting beaten up on both sides of the ball.

Taking a look at the game against the Lions, there really wasn't anything positive you could say aside from the great play of running back Matt Forte and Jay Cutler's ability to take a hit and run away from pressure. 

The offensive line looked positively offensive all night.  While the box score will say the Lions only had three sacks, Detroit's defensive line got to Jay Cutler nearly every pass play.  It was only because of his ability to evade tacklers that Cutler survived.  He was knocked down over 10 times and pressured many more times.

It also doesn't help that Cutler's receivers aren't getting open for him.  Free agent pick-up Roy Williams was supposed to catch between 70 and 80 passes this season, according to Mike Martz, yet he caught only one pass for 11-yards on Monday .

The defensive line was unable to pressure quarterback Drew Stafford and now Julius Peppers is banged up.  The defensive backfield blitzed improperly on the few times it was called to do so and was unable to contain Calvin Johnson.

And then you have the linebacking duo of Lance Briggs and Brian Urlacher.  The two men really looked their age tonight as they were unable to get to speedy players like running back Jahvid Best.  

On the coaching side, the ESPN Monday Night crew continually pointed out that the Lions were able to expose the Bears defense due to the fact that it's been in place for many years without any major changes made to them.  On the offensive side, Mike Martz still can't find a way to protect Jay Cutler and the inability of the tight ends to help block makes the trade of Greg Olsen look even worse as each day passes.

Overall, the team looked outdated and lost.

The question is what's next for the Bears?  To me, while they're not anywhere near as bad as the Lions of 2008, they need to hit the reset button on the entire franchise, from the top on down.  Whether this will happen is doubtful, but the Chicago Bears are quite frankly stale, and are going to waste the talents of the best quarterback and running back duo this team has seen since the 1985 Super Bowl team.

General Manager Jerry Angelo has been the "mastermind" of what we see on the field now.  His failure to draft any game breaking players in the past several years has contributed to this mess.  His refusal to address the offensive line via free agency is quite frankly a joke. 

Then you get to the fact he's signing guys like Roy Williams or Marion Barber, who was cut by the Cowboys because his injury issues.  What a shock it was to see Barber miss the first three games due to injuries.

Lovie Smith has been the best coach the Bears have had since Mike Ditka, but his defensive scheme is old and it's now being exposed by good teams week in and week out.  In an NFL where the passing game is utilized more every week, the Bears Cover 2 defense simply can't keep up anymore, as evidenced by the amount of yards they're giving up each game.  Despite the addition of Julius Peppers, the Bears don't have the defensive line in place to get consistent pressure with just four pass-rushers. 

On offense, Mike Martz's style has never allowed Jay Cutler to truly succeed.  While Cutler has been very inconsistent, he still can't audible out of plays like almost any other quarterback can.  He's also constantly on the run which frankly is helping him succeed.  Why you may ask?  Because he has a great ability to throw on the run, yet Martz has essentially refused to design plays to use this part of Cutler's game. Of course since he's running for his life every other play, perhaps there is no point. 

The Bears still have talent on this team:  Matt Forte, Johnny Knox and Devin Hester are some of the fastest players in the league.  Jay Cutler for all his faults, still has some of the best raw talent at the quarterback position.  Brian Urlacher, Lance Briggs and Julius Peppers while aging, still have talent. 

But the way the Bears' are currently constructed won't help them find compete for the NFC North.  That mantle now belongs to the Packers and Lions.  It will take wholesale changes by Chicago to knock those teams off their perch.