According to the Bears "braintrust" today they called those plays to get Grossman comfortable. Hm. Maybe you should have played him against the Vikings then? Idiots.
Muhammed (however its spelled) is a bust, dude. He has about as many drops as the rest of the Bears WRs combined I think. People were ready to run him out of town a month ago but with Grossman back most people seemed to be willing to side with him that it was Orton's fault. Now Muhammed is blaming Grossman for his lack of production. Btw, I notice how Carolina seemed to miss him.
Grossman made some nice throws and some bad ones, I think he did ok. The loss has to be pinned squarely on the defense and the coaching. Bad plays were called (again, why no doubling of Smith?) and guys made bad decisions and were consistently out of position. That really was not the defense we watched for 16 weeks this season, it was an abomination. I blame that squarely on poor game planning and probably lack of preparation.
Rivera can't even be considered more than a decent coordinator at this point. He's been in the job 2 years now, and has had some success but is still really green. He learned under Buddy Ryan, and let me assure you this guy is no Buddy Ryan...at least not yet. Ryan would make adjustments between series that would shut down the other team, Rivera is hardpressed to make effective halftime adjustments. I can't see this guy being a head coach, but screw it...see ya.
The officiating sucked beyond words too. I'm not saying thats why the Bears lost, but it was bad on both sides. That first TD to Smith? They called interference on Tillman (who had the worst game I've seen a Bears CB have since the days of Vestee Jackson) when Smith clearly knocked him down. That was totally offensive interference, yet they flagged Tillman because Smith almost tripped over him after knocking him down. Whatever. Then there was that Jones fumble that they called a touchdown. Eh? Huge break with that facemask happening before the fumble or it would have been a Carolina touchback, but how do you sit on top of that play and call a score when the ball was out of Jones' possession a good yard before the goalline?
The punting was horrible too, but the bottom line is that the Bears offense had ass field position and Grossman still got them 21 points. All year long all we heard was "If the offense scores 14 we can win any game". Well, you got 21. The defense blew it, period. The coaching blew it. That field goal they gave up before halftime? Pathetic. The Bears come out and score on their opening drive of the second half to make it 16-14 Panthers. If the defense actually bothered to shut Carolina down before the half the Bears would have been up 14-13 instead, and who knows what would have happened then?
They were laughing about Delhomme on the local sportstalk radio today. They said every time he saw Tillman line up across from Smith he got those big cartoon eyes that bounced out of his head. Pretty accurate I think. Especially since the safeties forgot to roll coverage to his side and Rivera wouldn't double team the guy. Or blitz aside from maybe 4 times. I still like Tillman as a CB because he takes chances to make plays and is normally a very good tackler, but he was bringing the suck yesterday and needed help badly.
As far as that screen went, I don't think it worked out but maybe one time. What was pissing me off is that they didn't recognize it any of the 7 or so times they ran it and no one jumped it for a pick. The Bears used to run that damn WR screen all the time about 5 years ago and eventually it became like Ringling Brothers with all the things defenses were doing to it.
Anyway, what a waste of a nice season. Even Urlacher said today that the season meant nothing cause they fucked up in the playoffs. I totally agree. You play beyond expectations, sure. But as long as you're here, win something. You get the 2 seed in the playoffs and embarrass yourself. Yay.
Ah well. At least I still have the White Sox.
