All Flags, No Fun

Balance? Forget balance. How about an approach that works?

After the utter devastation the , it seemed as though every Bears fan and their grandmother was clamoring for a more balanced offensive attack.

After passing 52 times and running the ball 11 times against the Saints, the Bears and offensive coordinator Mike Martz approached their face-off against Green Bay with a game plan that saw 38 passing plays and 11 runs. It also found Jay Cutler sacked 4 times, leaving the Bears with 15 allowed sacks total this year.

Meanwhile the total rush yards the Bears had gained in those 11 runs was a meager 4 yards. These rather dismal numbers brought us a 27-17 loss to the Packers.

So, you ask, what has to change?

First and foremost, too many flags. The Bears racked up 10 penalties for 70 yards, including 4 false start calls—3 of which were committed by tackle Frank Omiyale. The Packers were also plagued by rampant penalties, but they had yards to spare. The Bears defense was shredded by Green Bay's talented offense, led by quarterback Aaron Rodgers.

The line has to get more pressure to make the cover two defense work. There was barely any pass rush, and it gave Rodgers time to do whatever he wanted to do, which mostly involved throwing touchdowns to Jermicheal Finley.

Charles Tillman continued to miss tackles and blow coverages, and is seemingly too focused on using his signature and largely ineffectual "ball punch" move. Um, Lance, that doesn’t really work when the ball carrier has run past you. Somehow Briggs has 14 tackles, but what must be understood is the Bears defensive scheme leans mostly heavily on the bulk of the tackles toward Briggs and Urlacher.

Now, back to this thing we call an "offense." While Jay Cutler threw for 300 yards again and did not play horribly, he made mistakes, including missing Roy Williams on what was a guaranteed touchdown pass.

That said, the main issues continue to be the wide receivers being out of position or simply dropping the ball. And you demanded balance?  Well ... Chicago’s longest run of the day was 5 yards. That’s out of Matt Forte having 11 carries, six of which were for negative yards. The numbers aren’t exactly encouraging folks. Balance does not matter. Not if the run is entirely ineffective.

I wish I knew how to fix this team, but I’m lost. And I’m not alone. The Bears coaching staff clearly has no idea either. When asked if the balance is right, Cutler responded, "We’re 0-2 with this balance, what do you think?" Well Jay, I’m sorry but you don’t have a choice ... You are all this offense has.

As always, we welcome and appreciate your feedback here in the comments or at jakeandtimblog@gmail.com. Jake Buss will elaborate on his thoughts both on the Bears and on football at large on The Jake Buss and Jon Duca Podcast Show later this week.