After being called out all week long via Twitter by Chad Ochocinco, and being dissed by once fat and lazy running back Cedric Benson, you would have thought that the Bears would have come out with a little more effort than they showed in a complete trouncing at the hands of the Bengals in Cincinnati.

A preview of the duel would have you thinking that the teams were essentially equals. The Bears had showed some flashes of greatness and some mediocrity and some flat out bad football. The Bengals had done the same in their five games. Just one week ago the Bengals were shredded by the Houston Texans and coming into the game yesterday Cincinnati was 28th in the NFL in passing defense. It didn't matter.

The Bears were done after two drives, defeated both on the scoreboard and in their heads. The Bengals offensive line was just as determined as Cedric was to make sure the Bears walked away the fools, the Bengals offensive coordinator had Lovie's defense pegged and called play after play that allowed his receivers to find gaping holes in the Cover 2 defense that Smith swears by.

There was only one thing to play for in this game, and that was pride. Entering the game these teams were almost statistical identicals, though it sure didn't look that way once the whistle blew.

The Bears were beaten at the point of attack, on both sides of the ball. Olin Kruetz, Frank "Ole" Omiyale and Orlando Pace were all pushed aside routinely as Cutler took hit after hit throughout the game. The D-line once again never got to the quarterback and Carson Palmer was left to toss the ball around like it was training camp.

There was no silver lining to this. There are no positives. Lovie Smith says post-game that "it is business as usual" from this point on and that they are 3-3 "in the bigger picture." While this is true, I suppose, Lovie has to make some changes. He was asked about Omiyale's status after last week's performance and he decided to make no changes to the offensive line. Not good.

Then Smith comes out against one of the best running attacks in the NFL and shows the Bengals six and seven in the box while. Carson Palmer had to be drooling when he saw that; he and his core of receivers are too good to not take advantage.

THE COVER 2

What bothers me more than anything about this game and even some of the things I have seen this season is Lovie's insistence to run this scheme despite lacking the talent to properly execute it. In case you are not familiar with the concept of the Cover 2, or the Tampa 2, it is as follows:

The "Tampa 2" typically consists of four linemen, three linebackers, two cornerbacks, and two safeties. The scheme is known for its simple format, speed, and the aggressive mentality of its players. Although it lacks the complexity of other defenses, it instead relies heavily on the attitudes of its players and tremendous team speed. Tampa 2 teams are known as gang tacklers and practice to always run to the ball. It also requires a hard hitting secondary to cause turnovers.

The simple flaw with the Bears lies not in the scheme, but in the players. Lovie has a love affair with athletic players forgetting that the Bears simply don't have the talent right now to run this defense. With Brian Urlacher out for the season and the Bears forced to shift the linebackers around they have exposed themselves in the middle of the field, the spot where Brian was so quick to cover.

Safeties Al Afalava and Daniel Manning while very athletic, aren't good enough to make up for the gaps the linebackers leave on the field and because the defensive line is unable to put any pressure on the quarterback the cornerbacks are exposed (in reality the Bears have only one of those) and the whole thing breaks down. Yesterday was the prime example of all that can go wrong when this scheme is run with players who are unable to handle it.

Unfortunately not much can be done about this now. The only changes that can be made are in the players heads. They need to take this loss and let it fester and remember the feeling of being completely dominated by a team that essentially told you they were going to do it.

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Comments (2)

Ducksauce
written by Stephen LaMontagne Jr. , October 27, 2009

http://www.sportsbybrooks.com/...dude-26681

...
written by Rex Jaybels , October 27, 2009

Steve, stop sharing stories about your nights out on the town with NFL QB's you jersey chaser you.

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