Fine O-Line 25K for every missed assignment (and other Bears v. Seahawks observations)

It’s embarrassing. Not for the players, but for the fans. I hate that a Dallas Cowboys fan or a Miami Dolphins fan is watching Sportscenter and laughing at how bad our offensive line is. That’s why I want a good football team, because otherwise people in Miami judge me. Here are some random observations from the Bears v. Seahawks: It seems from my vantage point that the Bears are coached well (no penalties), but individual players have to either a) make plays or b) avoid missing plays. I know that sounds simple, but the problem the Bears have more than anyone in the league is when a player misses his assignment. WR Johnny Knox seems to do this three times a game. Safeties Manning and Harris tag-team for a few blown assignments a half and the backs and TEs seem to blow blitz coverage at the worst times. So maybe that is coaching, but I have to think it is on the players. Did I miss something? But the few times we saw Seahawks’ defensive-backs kill Jay Cutler, the announcers pointed out that the tackles weren’t rotating properly. They weren’t flaring out to cover the ends. You know, what you learn in pee-wee, refine in high school, excel at in college and get paid massive amounts of cash to perfect in the pros. How bout this: for every blown assignment, for every time the tackle doesn’t flare out to cover the end, 25K fine. You wanna bet Cutler goes for 300 and four TDs if that happens? The no-name Fox announcers loved talking up how impressive the Seahawks’ offense was. Are you kidding me? That team was pretty bad. But according to generic play-by-play guy and former coach color commentary guy, Marshawn Lynch was the second coming of Walter Payton. Um, he ended up with 44 yards and a TD. Calm down. Running back to the line of scrimmage does not make a running back a pro-bowler. But what the announcers seemed to miss is that the Bears D actually played pretty well. They gave up 21 points, but really, the Bears offense didn’t give them any support. How many times did the Seahawks start on the Bears side of the field? The number of 3 and outs and short fields the Seahawks were given was unacceptable. Once again, a single-phase negatively dominated the game. The O-line troubles are scary. I’ve never seen a part of a football game so out of sync. Something has to change. It’s now painfully obvious that the Bears O-line is terrible in several different combinations. So moving players up and down the depth chart or to new positions does nothing for the final outcome. So what is left? New scheme? New coach? New players? The NFL trading deadline is this Tuesday. I wouldn’t have a problem if you shipped a starter and a couple draft picks and Mike Tice for a left tackle. Everyone wants to rip on Mike Martz and the offensive game plan for not running the ball more. But I watched the game and Matt Forte was putrid. He had eight carries for 11 yards. Would you be okay with Forte having say, 20 carries for 30 yards? Because that’s what was happening. Now maybe this is line play too, but the running game was stalled before it even got started. Those Burger King commercials need to cool it. It’s one thing to have a semi-annoying fast-food breakfast commercial during a football game, but buying 35 spots to just keep playing them over and over and over again is excruciating. It has a negative effect, BK. Where are the boo-birds who were calling it a career for Devin Hester earlier in the season? He leads the NFL in returns. And he moved into a tie for the NFL record for returns. We are very lucky to have the best returner in football history in our city. But when your punt returner is your only hope on offense, well, you are the 2007 Bears. Hey, at least the Packers lost. In OT for the second week in a row. It hurts so good. If the Cowboys could have done in the Vikes, this week would have been a win. But instead, the Vikings are now back in the mix. Damn.