I'm not really sure who is best to blame in this one. Sure, Skippy Reed is the obvious candidate - he so thoroughly blew his relatively simple job duties, and cost us the game. But there were a few other things that really, really bothered me.
Ben played fine. He started really hot, but that INT got to him. I'm not sure what it was, but he all-of-a-sudden lost confidence and started hesitating on his throws. Whatever the cause, though, he played well enough for us to win.
The running game was OK too. 22 carries, 105 yards. Can't really bitch about that. Yeah, they got stuffed a few times. But they also moved the chains on our two TD drives, so you can't gripe too much about that, either.
The receivers had a rough one. Santonio had 3 drops - 2 of them which were really unacceptable. I'm not sure if the rain was really fucking with them that bad, and maybe it was, but he had two 15-yard outs that were in his hands for first downs. The one in the end zone was a tough, tough catch, and you can't give him too hard a time for not coming up with it. Also, Mike Wallace on the last drive. Rookie mistake. 3:30 left, need 10 yards, and he makes a catch at 7, and rather than turning inside for the first, and to keep the clock moving, he gets one extra yard and steps out of bounds. That hurt both for the time, and the fact that it set up a 3d and 2 we couldn't convert.
The front 7 were fine. They were after Cutler all day, got good pressure, and stifled the run.
My issue, more than anywhere else, was with the defensive backfield. They looked lethargic, incompetent and, worst of all, disinterested. Ike Taylor hasn't looked good all year, and he looked especially bad yesterday. On one play, we got pressure up the middle, and Cutler made a HORRIBLY ill-advised under-handed toss, about 5 yards over the head of a receiver in the flat. If you watch on that play, Ike Taylor seems perfectly content to take an incompletion, when an extraordinary effort on the play (the kind that Troy gives you every play of every game) would have given him a shot at an INT. If he does have 4.25 speed, as his speed coach (the same one who coaches Chris Johnson - saying Taylor is even faster) boasts, then he's got a shot at that ball, and a HUGE play in a tightly-contested game. Rather, the ball falls incomplete and the Bears live to fight another day. I can't say that Little Evil didn't care, he's just not very good. He isn't aggressive, and on the Bears second TD, he played off 5 yards, and then at the snap, took two steps back. What the fuck? Where did he think that receiver was going to go. We brought everyone, and Carter knows this. What he needs to do is play tight, and force Cutler to make a pass under pressure, rather than sitting 4 yards deep in the end zone, and giving the receiver all the space in the world to make his cut...
So, not having Troy IS a big problem.
Anyhow, we have Cincy next week, in a rather crucial game. If we can win next week, I'll breathe again. If we lose, well, we're in trouble.
Just better hope that Ty, Ike and Skippy can bring their A-games for a change.
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