There’s no home field advantage for the Chicago Bears this season, losing 27-14 to the Miami Dolphins in Soldier Field. Marc Trestman isn’t having any success with his offensive ideas, as Jay Cutler reverts back to his old ways of costing his team games instead of winning them.
The Bears fall to 3-4, putting them two games behind the joint-leaders of the NFC North, the Lions and the Packers. Despite getting their offensive line back to its fullest when it comes to health, the offense didn’t look any better. The play calling was weird once again, with just two running plays in the first half, and overall ignoring Matt Forte, finishing with just 12 carries. He’s a bit more involved in the receiving game, but there are other worries, as Alshon Jeffery caught only two passes for nine yards.
Jay Cutler threw one interception and fumbled the ball three more times, one of them lost as a turnover. In all the Bears turned the ball over three times, finding it very difficult against the excellent pass rush the Dolphins possess. Cutler was sacked three times and brought down to the ground hard on a couple of more occasions. His performance was an eyesore, especially due to the fact that Ryan Tannehill put on his best performance of the season and possibly his pro career, completing 25-of-32 passes for 277 yards and a couple of touchdowns, while also rushing for 48 yards.
He was nearly perfect in the first half, completing 14-of-15 passes for 176 yards and his two touchdowns, as the Dolphins went up 14-0 in the second quarter. After struggling most of this season on play action, he was perfect with 8-of-8 on the hand-off fake in the first half, throwing for 103 yards. The Dolphins continued to find success with the zone read, getting 84 yards on 17 rushes that way, including 49 yards on three carries for Tannehill.
Trestman is 11-12 since becoming the head coach of the Bears, coming with the allure of an offensive genius from the Canadian Football League. Last season he got a pass. It seemed like Cutler was improving, and fixing the defense was the issue. This season and it looks like there aren’t enough corks to plug all the holes on the sinking ship. The win over the 49ers on the road seems more and more like a rare escape from the norm, not the actual day-to-day ability of this team.
The Bears gave Cutler a huge extension, as expected when you put your faith in the hands of a franchise quarterback. So far, Cutler is disappointing. Another example of how he hasn’t advanced or learned was his long-distance throwing situation: He completed only 3-of-11 for 52 yards and an interceptions on throws traveling more than 15 yards. He’s tied for third-worse in the NFL with 7 interceptions so far this season.
It’s not all on Cutler. The offensive line did a terrible job of protecting him. The defense is a mess in almost every area of the field. But that just means a bad job of creating, coaching and calling this team is has been done so far this season. The Bears weren’t expected to be so far behind in the division so soon, and the way they’ve been performing has been over poorer. One year and a bit on the job isn’t something to fire someone on, but the groundwork being set doesn’t seem to be all that promising.
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