Bears would prefer to see a lack of sacks
Riding the crest of a five-game winning streak, their longest in the same season since the first five games of 2006, the Bears can point to several positive signs as the playoff race heats up.
Despite a poor first half Sunday, the defense still is among the league's best in most categories. The offense, too, has made strides.
But the Bears also are aware of one problem that has plagued them all season: sacks.
Jay Cutler remains the most sacked quarterback in the NFL after being taken down four times for the second straight week. He has been sacked a whopping 41 times, even though he missed 1½ games with a concussion, which was the result of a sack.
As a team the Bears have been sacked a league-worst 45 times, 5 more than the next-worst team, the Arizona Cardinals, and three times as many as Sunday's opponent, the New England Patriots.
Interestingly, Cutler and the offense have begun to flourish.
Cutler's 92.8 passer rating, if maintained, would be the highest of his five-year career. Despite hitting the canvas eight times in two games, he has thrown 5 TD passes, no interceptions and completed 35 of 47 passes (74.5 percent) for 481 yards and passer ratings of 146.2 and 117.0.
It's the first time in his two years with the Bears that Cutler has been interception free in back-to-back games and only the second time in his career.
“Of course you don't want your quarterback to get hit at all,” Bears coach Lovie Smith said. “But they have scholarship players on the other side, too. You do have to live with that a little.”
Cutler has done a remarkable job, especially during the win streak, of minimizing the damage that could have resulted from a sometimes-porous offensive line.
As many times as he has been sacked recently, Cutler has bolted from the pocket to pick up significant yardage.
During the five-game winning streak, Cutler has been dropped 14 times for 106 yards in losses. But he has run 15 times for 132 yards, an 8.8-yard average. That doesn't include 11 kneel-downs for minus-12 yards at the end of halves that are included in his rushing statistics.
“It's good to have a guy like Jay, who still can be productive (as a runner),” Smith said. “(If) you look at most of the games, quarterbacks are running a lot of the time trying to get away from the pressure. (But) we'll continue to try to take care of him.”
The Bears did a poor job Sunday of protecting Cutler from Detroit left defensive end Cliff Avril, who had 3 of their 4 sacks, mostly at the expense of rookie right tackle J'Marcus Webb.
“There are always a lot of factors involved with it, but of course we don't want to give up that many,” Smith said. “We'll continue to get better on the offensive line. You have to give Cliff his due also. He had a heck of a game. Those 3 sacks were big.”
Just before the current winning streak started, the Bears suffered through a four-game slump, which included 3 losses, during which they allowed 23 sacks. In the next two games they permitted a total of just 3 sacks, and it appeared progress had been made.
But after 11 sacks in the past three games, there still are concerns.
The final two regular-season games are against the New York Jets and the Green Bay Packers, who are 13th and fifth, respectively, in sack percentage.
And in two weeks there's the rematch with the Minnesota Vikings and defensive end Jared Allen, who has 7½ sacks in his last five games against the Bears.
ŸFollow Bob LeGere's Bears reports via Twitter@BobLeGere. Check out his blog, Bear Essentials, at dailyherald.com.