Bears vs. Buccaneers: 9 Things We Learned from Chicago's 24-18 Win

We learned plenty of things from the Chicago Bears' victory over Tampa Bay in London on Sunday. But I'm not too sure how much the Brits learned, seeing as how ugly a game this actually was.

Both teams tried to give the ball away as much as possible, with six interceptions between them.

Still, a win is a win, as they say, so now Da Bears improve to 4-3 and are in the thick of the Wild Card.

Mike Martz continued making stupid play calls, throwing the ball in running situations. But Matt Forte was his usual studly self, and the Bears' defense came up big when they had to.

"Captain Comeback," a.k.a. Josh Freeman, was not very good overall, but he did have some late heroics that actually turned this into a game toward the end.

So the globalization of American football continues. Meanwhile, the Bears head into the bye week with the same record they had at this time last year.

Of course, it will be difficult to repeat last year's 7-2 record after the bye, so I'm not sure how much stock I am going to give the identical 4-3 record after seven games.

You know the drill—come join me as we explore the lessons learned from another Bears win.

Matt Forte: Pay the Man!

Chris Spencer and Roberto Garza had nice blocks on Matt Forte's 32-yard TD run in the first quarter, but much of Forte's runs were all him.

Forte finished the first half with 108 yards rushing and a TD on 15 carries.

With mad Mike Martz as the offensive coordinator, Forte doesn't get nearly the touches he should. Still, he ended up with 145 yards on 25 carries to go with that TD.

But with a lead in the second half, it's surprising that Forte got fewer carries. He averaged just 3.7 yards per carry in the second half as compared with a 7.2 average in the first half.

Marion Barber was effective, too, gaining 39 yards on six carries, good for a 6.5 yard average. So much better than the backup last year, Chester Taylor.

Barber also had a TD.

Meanwhile, Forte is still without a contract. But if they choose to tag him after the season, they will pay elite money to Forte. So you may as well pay the man.

Pay him now or pay him later. That's your choice, Mr. Angelo.

Injuries

Both teams came into this game a bit banged up. And the situation didn't get much better, especially for the Bucs.

It appears that Earnest Graham suffered a serious ankle injury and Tampa already was without starting RB LeGarrett Blount.

S Tanard Jackson suffered a hamstring injury and did not return.

For the Bears, Major Wright was ruled out for the game and Chris Harris started in his place. Yes, the same guy who the Bears benched last week and almost got rid of. Now he's suddenly a starter again.

Meanwhile, I was wrong when I wrote that I thought Earl Bennett would dress for this game. He practiced and looked ready all week, so he's getting close, but he won't start until after the bye week. 

In the game, the Bucs lost their center, MLB, safety, RB and their FB . And center Jeremy Zuttah was already filling in for Jeff Faine and, as previously indicated, Graham was already a fill-in.

Mike Martz Needs To Go. Now!

Just fire Mike Martz now. Please. I'm begging you, Lovie Smith. I know he's your friend, but he's killing this team.

His scheme only worked because he had great talent in St. Louis. And his offense just won't work with this team.

Meanwhile, Martz throwing the ball with 13 minutes left and a 16-point lead, when you have one of the top backs in the game, is foolish.

Of course, it doesn't help that Cutler is back to his old ways of throwing off his back foot.

Sorry, no other way to call it, Cutler made two horrible throws today, and yet, Martz won't run the damn ball and chew up the clock.

A QB like Josh Freeman isn't going to beat you downfield too often; he likes to check down a lot and take what the defense gives him.

But give him enough time and he will beat you. So instead of running the ball and keeping it out of his hands, they allow the Bucs to make a game of it in the fourth quarter.

Martz needs to go away, and the sooner, the better.

Chris Harris Suddenly Can't Play

What the heck has happened to Chris Harris, who was very solid last season?

Sure, he was injured and maybe he came back too soon, but now that he's had sufficient time to heal, he is still awful.

On the Josh Freeman second TD in the fourth quarter to make it a three-point game, Harris was caught out of position on a post-corner route.

Harris has been making late breaks and looks very slow all of a sudden.

Maybe he's still favoring an injury. I don't know. He is a stand-up guy on Twitter and seems like a genuinely good person, but something is wrong.

Can a guy go bad that fast? Maybe.

Shame on Jerry Angelo for assembling this group of safeties. Major Wright is hurt, but isn't great in coverage anyway.

Now, Chris Conte made a great strip on Mike Williams in the first half. But he looks decent only because no one else can play the safety position on this team right now.

England Fans Treated to Some Ugly Football

The NFL is trying to globalize their product, but the way the two teams played today, that won't be an easy task.

Still, you have to wonder how much those fans really understand about football anyway, the way they were cheering.

They were cheering for things like dead balls. Heck, it was so quiet between plays that sideline reporters could hear QB coach Shane Day relay plays to Cutler.

And then there was the wave. Oh man, that is just so wrong. The wave is one of the more stupid things in American sports, so please don't get the Brits started on that.

Maybe the fans were wondering why the ball wasn't round.

But there was lots of action, especially in the first and fourth quarters. There was a sequence that I don't think has ever happened in the NFL.

Three consecutive plays resulted in an interception, another interception and a safety. 

Almost 77,000 fans were pumped up to watch this game. On the other side of the pond, not so much.

Captain Comeback Falls Short

You can't give Bucs QB Josh Freeman a chance to beat you, because he will. In his first 17 starts in the NFL, he has brought the Bucs back in the fourth quarter to win seven times.

Following the Brian Urlacher interception-fumble-interception, Cutler threw a terrible INT and Freeman took advantage, leading the Bucs down the field to make it 21-11.

Then Freeman took Tampa to the end zone again, and suddenly, it was a three-point game.

Before the Bears could say, "Wha' happen?" it was a ballgame.

But in the end, the Bears won and that's all that matters.

Meanwhile, Freeman looks like a solid young QB in the league, but he will need to learn to throw down the field better. When the game is late and his team is behind, he gets better at it.

But until then, he is much too content with checking down.

Stop the Presses: Pressure on LB Blitz

Can anyone else verify that the Bears actually got pressure on a LB blitz? I need to make sure I saw that correctly.

The Bears played a pretty good mix of coverage and pressure all day. Cover 1, zone blitz in the nickle and Cover 2.

But yes, Lance Briggs actually pressured Freeman into a bad throw on third down in the second quarter.

In fact, Briggs played well on Sunday. Only Charles Tillman had more tackles, and he had an interception to boot. 

Briggs made a tremendous tackle on 3rd-and-3 to prevent a first down, forcing the Bucs to use their final timeout and kick a field goal at the end of the first half. . 

On the interception, Briggs ran it to the 1-yard line, but a Tim Jennings block in the back wiped out most of the gain. Still, he ran a better route than the Bucs wideout on that play.  

Briggs and Urlacher stepped up a couple of time to stop the Bucs on third down and near the goal line on screen passes.

Lessons in Receiving in Martz System

Johnny Knox could learn from Devin Hester the way Hester prevented Rhonde Barber from intercepting a pass in the second quarter.

Also, the way Roy Williams got off the jam on his TD was a primer on how wideouts must play in the Martz system to be effective.

You have to get off the line quickly or you need those seven-step drops, which get QBs killed. 

Meanwhile, the press coverage employed by the Bucs is risky. When they miss the jam, lunge, stop their feet like they did on the Williams TD, it's not a good thing for them.

But it's good for the Bears. 

Having said all that, I still would rather not have to even run the Martz offense here. It just doesn't fit.

Turn the offense over to Mike Tice.

Lovie Was Right: The Travel Debate Was Nonsense

It was one of the 5 keys to the game in my opinion, and that's how I wrote it up on Saturday. But I guess I was wrong.

And a lot of people were apparently wrong about that, too. It seems that I was not alone in thinking that the Bucs were at an advantage by going to London early in the week.

Common sense seemed to back this theory up. Even the statistics seemed to support this conclusion.

Teams that had gone to London early had averaged almost twice as many points as the teams that chose to travel later in the week. 

Additionally, teams that travelled late committed five times as many turnovers than their early bird counterparts.

Much of that had been attributed, at least partially, to the jet lag and the adjustment to the time change.

Tampa certainly seemed to buy into that. When they went down late two years ago and got clobbered by New England.

Or, perhaps they were just beaten by a better team. Just like today.

Look, it's only fair to give credit where it's due. Lovie Smith told the media, ‘‘We feel like we have plenty of time [to adjust]. It’s like 48 hours or so before we play. We’ll be rested and ready to go. The best football team will win the game.

Apparently he was right. If anything, the Bears appeared to be the fresher team, especially in the first half.