Contrary to popular belief, I am not going to go off on a rant that the Bears season is in the toilet and they are only going to win two games the rest of the year. Numerous others writers have already beaten me to the punch, nor do I believe that to be true. The Bears did not, in one week, go from being a middle-of-the-road team in the NFC to one rung above the St. Louis Rams and the Tampa Bay Bucs. I believe this game became a combination of a few things: 1) the Bengals were not who we thought they were. They were much better; 2) the Bears got outplayed, plain and simple and 3) the Cover Two defense’s days in the NFL, if they aren’t numbered, are over.

I realize that it’s Lovie Smith’s baby and it worked in the past, but there comes a time that you have to change the defense, or at least make some tweaks to it to give your team a chance. Let’s analyze (gasp!) this here.

Question: What is the driving force for success of the cover 2?
Answer: Pressure from the front four.

Those defenses in Tampa in the late nineties and early millennium, the few good St. Louis Rams teams a few years back, and the Bears of 2005-2007 (for the most part), were able to do this with remarkable consistency. Yes, the corners are on islands, but if the front four creates pressure, problem solved.

What happens when the front four doesn’t get pressure, like, at all? You get what we saw on Sunday. Painful as it is, let’s look at Palmer’s stat line from Sunday: 20/24; 233; 5 TD’s. On the Bengals second touchdown drive it might as well have been eleven-on-seven. The Bears corners and safeties were nowhere near any of the Bengals wide outs. It was stunning to me how easy and fast that drive was.

I’d like to address two points here: First, I’m not saying that all of the Bears defensive players are bad and we need to get rid of them. No. I believe the defensive scheme, with the players we currently have does not put them in a position to succeed. The cover two requires the front four to get pressure nearly every down. So we’re asking the aged ‘Wale, the always injured Tommie Harris, and a collection of second-tier players (Gaines & Anthony Adams, Anderson, Idonije, and Harrison) to consistently put pressure on the opposing signal callers. Alex Brown might be the only guy we have who can do this on a regular basis. But, since he’s one guy out of seven, you just have to put a tight end on his side and the problem is solved. My guess is opposing teams will take their chances every damn time.

Secondly, what was the overarching concern along with the lack of a top tier receiver? … Correct, dear readers, our extremely suspect secondary was almost more pressing than our lack of a big name wide out. Again, the game this past Sunday is evidence enough that in the event we don’t get pressure from our front four, we have to drop our linebackers (leaving us vulnerable to the run) or blitz (leaving our secondary even more vulnerable). Give me a secondary of Champ Bailey, Nnamdi Asomugha, Ed Reed and Troy Polamalu and I’m still scared. Obviously the Bears secondary isn’t in the same stratosphere as any of those guys. With the ‘talent’ that we have on defense, there just isn’t a way we can consistently win by employing the cover two. Changes must be made.

Unfortunately, it’s far too late for that. Changes should have been made in the off-season; egos should have been checked at the door, and the coaching staff should have taken a real hard look at their defensive situation and made some changes. Whether that called for making some trades, going to a 3-4, or tweaking the current way of doing things, something needed to be done.

Talk radio made a big deal this summer about Lovie Smith calling the defensive plays. I heard that and thought “that’s neat.” As I thought about it more–since I kept hearing it–I began to wonder what the big deal was. Lovie is calling the plays: great. He’s still got the same players to execute them. What the fuck does it matter if Lovie or your girlfriend call the plays????? How does that change ANYTHING???

I’m of the opinion that Sunday’s game was a fluke. We won’t see the defense get their face rubbed in shit time after time like that again. That said; if nothing is done to remedy this, we’ll see high scoring games all season long; Cutler will be forced to throw because we can’t run (another rant for another time), we’ll be behind on the scoreboard, and his interception total will sniff 25 or 30. Do something Lovie, Jerry, and Virginia, and fucking do it quick.

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