They've come a long way, baby
Most of the names are the same from the Week 6 loss to the Seahawks — but it will be a different Bears offense that takes the field for Sunday's rematch.
“Our offensive line play was horrible, so we'd like to play better than we did in that game,” said 13-year veteran center Olin Kreutz of the 23-20 defeat. “They did a great job of confusing us. That starts with me, getting everybody on the right guy, so I'd like to play better with my identifications.”
That game was the first at left guard for Chris Williams, who lost his left tackle job to Frank Omiyale when Williams suffered a hamstring injury in Week 2 that sidelined him for three games.
And it would be two more weeks before Roberto Garza re-entered the starting lineup following arthroscopic knee surgery and a switch from left guard back to his more familiar right guard spot replacing Edwin Williams.
To say the Bears' offense struggled in that game would be an understatement. At first glance, 20 points doesn't seem like a poor outing, but 7 points came on Devin Hester's too-little, too-late, 89-yard punt return with 1:54 that made the final score respectable.
Still, it wasn't as bad as tight end Greg Olsen recalled.
“I think we were 0-for-100 or whatever (converting third downs),” he said. “We didn't convert a third down, and that's bad. That can't happen.”
Actually the Bears were 0-for-12 on third downs, a major reason why they were dominated in time of possession 34:23-25:37. That left the offense mired in the NFL basement in third-down efficiency, with a pathetic 17.6 percent success rate. The next week, in the loss to the Redskins, they were successful on just 2 of 10 third downs. But since then, they've converted at a 44.5 percent clip, well above the league average of 38.2.
A big reason is the improved protection that the rejiggered offensive line has provided for quarterback Jay Cutler, who was sacked six times against the Seahawks— including once for a safety. That lack of support also left the Bears at the absolute bottom of the league in sack percentage allowed. They're still No. 32 but, after allowing 31 sacks in the first seven games, they permitted 25 in the final nine.
“You could tell we were young in our offense,” Kreutz said. “You could tell by watching it that a lot of guys weren't sure of who they had and what they were supposed to do. Now, we're a little farther along in our offense.”
Calling runs on just 12 of 59 snaps in that game didn't do much to keep the Seahawks from teeing off on the pass rush. Reviewing the film this week hasn't been pleasant for anyone on offense.
“It wasn't one of our better moments,” Olsen said. “It was tough to watch.”
It wasn't just the offensive line's fault that Cutler was hurried all day. The Bears also failed at blitz pickup, with 4½ sacks coming from defensive backs — including the one that produced the safety.
“It was hard to tell them where we're trying to get to and what we can be (because) there's just so many thing to fix,” Martz said. “They don't have that vision of where they're trying to get to. Now, when they look back at it, I think some of them are amazed at how far they've really come and it's a credit to them, particularly on the offensive line, and the job (offensive line coach) Mike Tice has done.”
The O-line has remained unchanged for the past nine games, and under the stewardship of Tice, it has become a more cohesive unit. The Bears also became one of the league's most balanced teams between run and pass. And the tight ends and running backs have become more adept at picking up blitzes — although, as a group, they backslid in the regular-season finale when they allowed 6 sacks against the Packers. Cutler was sacked just five times in the three previous games.
“We've come a long way, Jay and everyone included,” Olsen said. “That's the way it should be, moving forward as the year has gone on.”
Sunday they'll try to take another step forward.
Ÿ Follow Bob LeGere's Bears reports via Twitter@BobLeGere. Check out his blog, Bear Essentials, at dailyherald.com.