Chicago Bears Report Card Week 10: Grading Each Unit

Bears fans can rejoice in the effort put forward by the Monsters of the Midway Sunday evening.  The Bears came home and dominated the Pride defensively, shutting down Calvin Johnson and Matthew Stafford.

The Bears didn't allow a touchdown to the Lions until 10 minutes into the fourth quarter.

The offense just couldn't get it going tonight, but didn't need to, as the defense scored twice and Devin Hester did what he does best, scoring on a 82-yard punt return before exiting due to illness.

That's right, Devin scored a TD on a return while he was ill.

What the Bears did tonight was to take another step forward towards the playoffs.  They move into a tie with the Lions in the division, but the Lions still own the tiebreaker due to having the better division record at this point.  

With the Lions facing a much tougher schedule than the Bears going forward, the Bears would seem to be in prime position to take the fifth seed in the NFC playoff bracket.

This game was a must win for Chicago—maybe the most important game of the season thus far.  And the Bears defense came up big.

Let's take a look at how the individual units graded out.

Offensive Line

What you see in the provided picture is pretty much what you saw all day.  Forte had no holes, and was often hit in the backfield.  Run blocking was bad.  

Pass blocking was better, but the team did give up two sacks and Cutler had to move out of the pocket a lot because of pressure.

The loss of Chris Williams didn't help matters, and the Bears will have to find a way to move forward without their starting left guard, as Williams underwent surgery after the game on his wrist and is expected to be out for a while, possibly the rest of the season.

But considering the level of improvement over the Bears' first meeting with the Lions, the offensive line looked miles better.

Grade: C+

Defensive Line

The defensive line pestered Matthew Stafford constantly and it showed in his accuracy.  The Bears registered two sacks to go with a forced fumble and a fumble recovery.

The line wasn't bad in run stoppage, but they weren't great either.  The Lions ran up 4.2 yards per carry but only earned four of their 22 first downs on the ground.

Julius Peppers just seemed to have the Lions offensive line convulsing in fits, as he lined up all over the line and got penetration from every spot.  His WWE style clothesline of Calvin Johnson on the Lions' first possession started the flood of turnovers that saw the Lions give the ball to the Bears more times in that one game than they had turned the ball over in the previous eight games.

Grade: B+

Receiving Group

The receiving group wasn't exactly a centerpiece of the game this week, as quarterback Jay Cutler only threw 19 passes.

But Earl Bennett continued to shine in his second game back, catching six of Cutler's nine completions for 81 yards.

The rest of the unit caught two combined passes, one by Sam Hurd on a clutch third down play and the other by Johnny Knox on an impressive grab over the middle.

The tight ends weren't seen much in the passing game, with Kellen Davis dropping his only target.  And their blocking wasn't anything to crow about tonight either.

The rest of the receiving group was pretty much nonexistent.  Devin Hester was limited due to illness and Dane Sanzenbacher and Roy Williams just didn't do anything other than Williams' miscommunication with Cutler on an early target.

Grade: C-

Linebackers

It wasn't a spectacular day for the linebacking group, but it was a solid day.

Brian Urlacher and Lance Briggs each played well in coverage and both recorded nine total tackles.  'Lach also picked up a fumble that Peppers forced from Johnson on the Lions' first drive.

Strong-side linebacker Nick Roach finally gets some good press.  He had a fine day as the Lions tried to pick on him in coverage.  Roach defended the pass well, and made tackles before the first down marker when he allowed receptions underneath.  It was probably Roach's best game this season.

The linebackers did relatively well in bottling up the Lions rushing attack after being gashed in their first meeting.

All in all, it was a good day for the linebackers.

Grade: B+

Running Backs

Matt Forte has spent the majority of the season being the beginning and the end of the Bears' offense.  But Sunday wasn't a good day for Forte.

Forte ran 18 times for just 64 yards and hauled in one pass for just three yards.  More disturbing is that Forte earned 40 of those 64 yards on one rush, leaving just 24 yards on his other 17 carries—or just 1.4 yards a carry.

The line didn't exactly help Forte, but he seemed uncharacteristically unable to make anybody miss this week.

Marion Barber didn't fare any better, reeling off just 27 yards on 13 carries.  Normally that wouldn't be so bad for a short yardage back, but Barber wasn't used that way today.  

Grade: D

Secondary

The star of this game had to be the Bears' secondary, and the star of that secondary was Charles "Peanut" Tillman.

Tillman kept the Lions receiving phenom Calvin Johnson Jr. in check all game, allowing seven receptions for 81 yards and no touchdowns.  He also jumped a route, taking the ensuing interception for a touchdown.

Tim Jennings could probably share that award, having intercepted a pass himself and forcing and recovering a fumble on the Lions' second drive.  He also led the team with 10 total tackles.

Major Wright had a good game, picking off a pass and returning it for a touchdown and recording three tackles.

And Chris Conte could have added two interceptions to the total, but couldn't find the handle.  He did record two tackles, and was good in coverage.

DJ Moore was ejected from the game after retaliating vigorously when Matt Stafford dragged him down by his helmet while Moore was blocking for Jennings on an interception return.

Grade: A+

Quarterback

Jay Cutler had a game manager sort of game, and to be honest, that's all the Bears needed from him.

With the defense scoring 14 points and Devin Hester adding another seven from a punt return touchdown, the Bears just needed Cutler to do something with the remaining turnovers.

He guided the Bears to a touchdown after Stafford's fumble on the first drive and to a field goal after Jennings mugged Nate Burleson on the second Lions drive.  From that point on, the offense seemed to go into cruise control.

Cutler did fumble twice.  Once on a hand-off to Forte and once when his arm was batted by Lions defensive end Cliff Avril.  The Bears lost the first but retained the second because no Lions ran immediately in to grab the ball.

Cutler's final numbers looked much like a Kyle Orton stat line from 2005.  He completed nine passes on 19 attempts for 123 yards with no touchdowns or interceptions.  Nothing spectacular here, but he didn't need to be, and he didn't hurt the Bears other than his lost fumble.

Caleb Hanie entered the game in mop up duties, but just to hand the ball off.

Grade: C-

Special Teams

Any day that Devin Hester returns a punt for a touchdown is a good day for the special teams unit.  

But it wasn't just one play.  Hester nearly broke another earlier and was brought down by the punter.  Yet the Lions continued to kick the ball to him.  

Blocking was impressive on Hester's three punt returns, for which he averaged 40 yards.

Robbie Gould had a decent day, hitting field goals for 50, 43 and 35 yards but missed on another 43-yard kick wide right.

Adam Podlesh recorded 280 yards off of six punts, including a 70 yard bomb.

Grade: A