Chicago Bears: 6 Players Most to Blame for Team's Record

With a 3-3 record, the Bears could be in a worse position, but not much worse.

With the Bears heading to London for their Week 7 contest with Tampa Bay, they have the opportunity to head into their Week 8 bye with the same record they had last season at the same point with a win.  And last season they won the NFC North and were the second seed in the playoffs.

But this isn't last year.

Last year, the Packers were 3-3 at this point and the Lions were 1-5.  This year, the Packers are undefeated and the Lions are 5-1, making a run to a second straight division crown seem all the more unlikely.  

Still, the rest of the conference seems bound and determined to beat themselves, leaving the Wild Card race wide open.  And you never know—Green Bay and Detroit have both had relatively easy schedules so far and have more difficult schedules moving forward.  Anything is possible.

But the Bears have nobody to blame but themselves for the position that they find themselves in.  Poor play and poor coaching have turned the team on it's ear from where they were last year, similar record or not.

The entire team has to take some of the responsibility.  But that doesn't mean that there aren't certain players in particular who are more responsible for this mess than the others.

Today we're going to call them out.

Israel Idonije

Last season, Izzy had a breakout year of sorts, posting eight sacks and finally becoming a member of the starting roster after years as a fan favorite.

But it was obvious last year that his success was due in large part to Julius Peppers and the attention he attracts on the other side of the ball.

With Peppers struggling a bit this year, the Bears needed Idonije to step up and help create pressure.  

He just hasn't done that consistently.  He does have three sacks, but pressure just hasn't been consistent at all from his end of the line, which means that nobody is taking pressure off of Peppers.  

While Idonije isn't the only culprit on the defensive line who hasn't stepped up when needed, he's the most glaring example.

J'Marcus Webb

Webb has been set up for failure.  

The seventh-round draft choice from 2010 was thrust into a starting spot way too early and has remained there based on athleticism and potential rather than anything he's actually doing right.

Such a raw talent needed time to develop instead of being thrown to the wolves.  

In the end, Webb may end up better for the experience, or he may end up having his confidence blown.  

Right now, all we can do is look at the numbers.  Webb is fourth in the league in sacks allowed among tackles and 10th in the league in quarterback hits allowed among tackles.  

He's given up five sacks, three quarterback hits and 11 hurries.

Considering that one of the most glaring problems the Bears face is pressure on Cutler, Webb seems to be a major contributor to that problem.

Major Wright

Wright is young, inexperienced and behind the learning curve.

It's that simple.  With few exceptions, if a big play has happened against this offense, Wright has been involved.  

He looks lost on the field and uncomfortable in the scheme.  He's taking poor angles and choosing  wrong gaps.  And his coverage ability seems to have been overestimated.

This week, Wright was moved to strong safety, and the move seemed to have helped the kid a lot.  Maybe by the end of the season we can be viewing Wright in a slideshow dedicated to Bears most responsible for a winning record.

Brandon Meriweather

If there has been a more disappointing free-agent signing in recent history for Chicago than this one, I can't think of it.  

Where Wright is young and inexperienced, Meriweather is just bad by his own doing.

This is a player coming off of two straight Pro Bowls who was benched this week for rookie Chris Conte with no time in the offseason to learn the defense.  And said rookie outplayed him and made the move look respectable and even wise.

Meriweather has consistently taken the wrong angles to tackles, been out of position in coverage and has no concept whatsoever of tackling fundamentals.  

How was this guy a Pro Bowler again?

Frank "Gate 68" Omiyale

Omiyale is just plain horrible.  

While he's a very good run-blocker, he has no business trying to stop NFL defensive players from getting to the quarterback, and apparently he knows this, because he hasn't even made the attempt to stop them this year.

So far, Omiyale has given up four sacks, two quarterback hits and eight hurries.  

"Wait!" you say?  "Omiyale has given up fewer sacks hits and hurries than Webb.  Why is he higher on this list?"

Well, there's a number of reasons.  But we're going to ignore the fact that Omiyale is a veteran and Webb is in just his second season.  We're going to ignore that Webb is facing tougher competition at the left tackle spot than Omiyale is facing from the right tackle position.  

We'll look at just one thing.

J'Marcus Webb has played 390 snaps, giving him a sack rate of 1.3 percent and a total pressure rating (sacks, hits and pressures divided by snaps) of 4.9 percent.  That is horrible.  

But Omiyale has played only 180 snaps, giving him a sack rate of 2.2 percent and a total pressure rating of 7.8 percent.  

Not that anyone was wondering, but this is why the Bears elected to bench Omiyale (again) and play Chris Spencer with a broken hand at guard so they could move Lance Louis outside to right tackle.

Mike Martz

In the end, the Bears will live and die by Mike Martz and his ability—or lack thereof—to adapt to a bad line.

So far, the Bears have seen mixed results, but this past week was encouraging.

In each of the Bears losses, Martz's stubbornness and inability or unwillingness to adapt has been front and center.  

From abandoning the run, to calling long and complex routes that are slow to develop, to putting the offensive line in a position to fail, Martz has called some stinkers and missed some pretty obvious issues.

This week we saw the "offensive genius" call a game that utilized the best aspects of the Bears roster while hiding it's deficiencies.  

But next week, "Mad Mike" could return.  We just never know what we're going to see from Martz.

And now it's your turn, ladies and gentlemen.  Step up to the soapbox below and let your voice be heard.