http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2011/...eat-in-chicago/
Jerry Angelo taking increased heat in Chicago
Posted by Gregg Rosenthal on September 27, 2011, 3:11 PM EDT
APBack-t0-back beatdowns of the Bears are bound to cause a lot of finger pointing in Chicago.
The fans are up in arms about Mike Martz’s no-dimensional offense. Media folks are pointing the finger higher up.
Neil Hayes of the Chicago Sun-Times writes that Jay Cutler’s career is being “held hostage” by G.M. Jerry Angelo. The team’s lack of talent at receiver and offensive line are Hayes’ biggest complaints.
“Angelo has hoped Cutler could elevate mediocre offensive talent while he tries to reload a defense undermined by years of poor drafts,” Hayes writes. Later on: ”Cutler isn’t failing the Bears. The Bears are failing Cutler.”
ESPN’s Michael Wilbon also targeted Angelo, saying his performance this year “stinks.” The free agent crop has been a bust and Angelo’s promises about the improved offensive line ring hollow.
We will hold off on hot seat talk in Chicago (for the coach and G.M.) until the Bears start losing games we expect them to win. That hasn’t happened yet.
It could this Sunday against the Panthers
(links to original articles)
http://www.suntimes.com/sports/football/be...rs-offense.html
Do you think Jay Cutler wishes he had stayed in Denver?
By Neil hayes nhayes@suntimes.com September 26, 2011 11:38PM
Dressed in suits and carrying briefcases, Jerry Angelo and Tim Ruskell walked briskly down the hallway outside the Bears’ locker room after Sunday’s 27-17 loss to the Green Bay Packers, four eyes staring straight ahead, presumably attempting to make a clean escape.
The Bears’ general manager and director of player personnel had to realize what was obvious to everyone. The talent gap between the Bears and defending Super Bowl Champion Packers isn’t narrowing. It’s widening. Worse yet, 34 games into his Bears career, the franchise quarterback isn’t improving. He’s regressing.
Jay Cutler demanded a trade three years ago when former Denver Broncos coach Josh McDaniels made him feel unwanted. Two-plus seasons later, if he wanted out of Chicago, it would be understandable. His career is being held hostage by two of Angelo’s pet theories, and that’s not likely to change anytime soon.
While most teams build their teams around their franchise quarterback, Angelo has hoped Cutler could elevate mediocre offensive talent while he tries to reload a defense undermined by years of poor drafts. Meanwhile, Cutler doesn’t have the protection, scheme or weapons to match his rival, the Packers’ Aaron Rodgers.
Angelo so believes that a successful offensive line is less about talent and more about continuity and communication that he failed to properly address the team’s most glaring weakness during the offseason, resulting in Cutler being ground into paste against the New Orleans Saints last week and the third-lowest rushing total in franchise history against the Packers.
In other words, because of deficiencies up front, the Bears can’t protect the quarterback and they can’t run the ball, leaving Cutler precious few options.
Angelo so staunchly believes that quarterbacks make receivers and not vice versa that he failed to upgrade another obvious deficiency. In fact, considering offseason moves consisted of, in effect, trading Greg Olsen for Roy Williams and Dane Sanzenbacher, the Bears might be worse off in the pass-catching department than they were a year ago.
There’s no doubt Angelo would disagree with this assessment. However, after watching a historically inept offense perform as incompetently as ever for two weeks in a row, there are few other explanations. Players still learning Mike Martz’s complex offense is no longer an excuse, if it ever was. The offense either lacks talent or quality coaching. There are no other alternatives.
Cutler played one of his worst games against the Packers. He overthrew receivers. The improved fundamentals he brought into this season are a memory. The hands of the intuitive, internal clock all quarterbacks must have to know when to get rid of the ball are spinning crazily in opposite directions. He often holds the ball to long, although it’s difficult to blame him for trying to make a play while putting his health at risk. When he has time, he sometimes throws the ball too soon.
It was so bad at times against the Packers that a name that should make Bears fans shudder came to mind: Jim Everett. The former Purdue and Los Angeles Rams quarterback took such a ferocious beating for so many years that he lost his confidence and became ineffective.
Was that Everett’s fault? How many hits does a quarterback have to take before something as instinctual as self preservation kicks in?
The cold truth is the Packers and more talented, deeper and younger. Offensively, they are also better coached. With the exception of Matt Forte, is there one offensive player for the Bears who could start for the Packers? Or think of it this way: If the Packers and Bears swapped quarterbacks, the Cutler-led Packers would still have the superior offense.
Cutler isn’t failing the Bears. The Bears are failing Cutler. Angelo keeps insisting he’s right while the evidence is proving otherwise. Meanwhile, Cutler is regressing instead of progressing, the Packers and Detroit Lions are running away with the NFC North and Brian Urlacher, Lance Briggs and Julius Peppers aren’t getting any younger.
Martz is in the final year of his contract. If the offense doesn’t improve, he could be gone, and that would mean Cutler would be on his third offensive coordinator since joining the Bears.
Forte wants a new contract. When negotiations went nowhere during training camp, Angelo postponed talks until after the season. Given all that, Forte might consider moving on at season’s end. Given the state of the running game, which is coming off its lowest production since 1956, when gas cost 22 cents, who could blame him?
Don’t be surprised if while attempting to avoid slobbering defensive linemen while trying to complete passes to well-covered receivers, Cutler wonders if he might have been better off staying in Denver. From Chicago, the idea of playing in John Elway’s shadow probably seems less daunting
http://espn.go.com/chicago/nfl/story/_/id/...-accountability
Problem starts at the topBears regressed after Jerry Angelo's failure to improve O-line or receiving corpsEmailPrintComments173 By Michael Wilbon
ESPNChicago.com
Eight months ago, playing on the same field for bigger stakes, there wasn't much if anything separating the Chicago Bears and Green Bay Packers. Now, four games later, the Bears are somehow in the Packers' rearview mirror, soon to be lapped if the Bears don't improve enormously in the coming weeks. The new NFL mandates scoring, lots of it, preferably by prolific passing. It's something the Bears have considered a luxury through most of the franchise's history, but it's no longer optional. The days of beating a really good team, a championship team, like the Packers by a score like 17-13 ... those days are gone and buried.
The Bears' either-or offensive line protected Jay Cutler on Sunday but couldn't open holes for Matt Forte.The Bears looked at the schedule months ago and knew the first three games of the season -- Falcons at home, at New Orleans, Green Bay at home -- would be exactly the kind of difficult challenge that tells a team what it's made of. Well, 1-2 with a victory over the least of the three -- Atlanta -- ain't good news. The Bears look far from being a contender; they look like a team with a laundry list of inadequacies. And in a league that now absolutely demands teams with serious aspirations be built around offense, any analysis of the Bears' 27-17 loss to the Packers has to begin not with a defense that, yes, was exploited early Sunday, but with an offense that produced only 17 points. More specifically, a line that couldn't open a hole all day for one of the really productive players in the NFL, Matt Forte.
Last week the issue was whether Jay Cutler could survive more beatings like the one he took in New Orleans (doubtful). This week the issue is how Forte, one of the most productive run/catch players in the league, can gain only two yards on nine rushing attempts.
What's the common thread here? The line can't both protect and open holes, which is a prerequisite for any competent offense. Yes, the line allowed Green Bay to sack Cutler only three times, and he was grateful for the increased time to throw, which enabled him to pass for 302 yards, which used to be a big-deal number but is pedestrian stuff these days. But the line couldn't keep the Packers off Forte who on Sunday took the handoff and a Packers defender at roughly the same time. Protection and hole opening are responsibilities of the offensive line. Lovie Smith called the protection "adequate ... it's not like all was lost today ... it held up for the most part." As frank as the coach's assessment was, the larger point is "adequate" pass protection from the offensive line isn't what you aspire to have.
Last week GM Jerry Angelo said no team did more to improve its offensive line play than the Bears, which is very funny ... except Angelo appeared to be dead serious. Angelo backed that argument by pointing to the fact he brought in someone with NFL experience, but former Seahawks center Chris Spencer -- who was brought in to replace Olin Kreutz -- is starting at right guard because of Lance Louis' injury. The left tackle, J'Marcus Webb, played much of last year at right tackle. The center, Roberto Garza, is really a right guard. The right tackle, Gabe Carimi, is a rookie. This is not an upgrade from last season, which is what the Bears needed to stay in the hunt with the likes of the Patriots and Packers. Talking all week to former players, several of them Hall of Famers, and personnel scouts, I heard consistently that the Bears line simply isn't good, and it was dead wrong to suggest that most of the 11 sacks allowed coming into the Green Bay game were somehow Cutler's fault. They say that's junk. If you accept, as I do, that the Bears needed a personnel upgrade along the line and didn't get it, the players along the line deserve a lot less criticism than Angelo, who seems to have spent the free agency period operating under the impression there was still a lockout. How much he tried is a lot less important than what he actually accomplished.
And if you don't come up with the lineman (Willie Colon, we keep hearing) you targeted at least give your quarterback weapons to work with, a big-time go-to guy who's proven on third down and proven he can help beat blitzes. This isn't asking a lot; it's common sense to protect an investment as costly (in draft picks and salary) as Cutler. Baltimore's Ozzie Newsome, over the past two summers, went and got playmakers Anquan Boldin and Lee Evans for his young quarterback, Joe Flacco. Angelo got Roy Williams, who caught ZERO passes Sunday against the Packers, and two of the ones that were thrown his way were intercepted, which makes me wonder if Cutler was the one at fault (doubt it). Williams is a disaster. And Angelo's other big get, Marion Barber, hasn't yet played a down. By one unofficial count in Dallas, Barber broke a grand total of three tackles all of last season, so don't think he's going to set the world on fire if/when he gets on the field.
Look, Angelo did a great job putting together the team in 2006 when the Bears went to the Super Bowl. Angelo did a darn good job last year, piecing together a roster that was resourceful enough to reach the NFC Championship Game. He nailed it when he drafted Forte and when he signed Julius Peppers. But putting together a roster, like coaching and like playing, is a year-to-year proposition, and so far Angelo's 2011 performance, well, stinks. When your leading receiver for three straight weeks, by yards or by receptions, is a runner, you failed at your job. And you got rid of one of your best offensive weapons, your pass catching tight end, without plugging in a suitable replacement? GMs always want players to be accountable; wouldn't it be nice for Angelo to stop covering his rear end and simply say, "Fellas, I needed to have done better." Executives shouldn't be immune from accountability. It won't help this team get better, but it might take some of the pressure off guys who shouldn't be shouldering it in the first place.
Fortunately for Angelo, he's got a locker room full of guys who seem to be in touch with reality. Cutler, for one, offered a candid, insightful spot-on postgame analysis of the loss and the offensive woes. Without being needlessly critical of anyone, Cutler talked about the need for a running game of consequence and eliminating stupid mistakes such as false starts and holding penalties that sabotaged any momentum the offense might have built.
Angelo (and this is to his credit) also has a room full of stand-up defensive players who despite today's rules operating to eliminate defense and have every game end 35-31, believe they can hold teams down so that the offense doesn't have to generate, say, 30 points to win. I asked Peppers if it's realistic, with offenses increasingly throwing for 350 yards or more, to hold teams to 17 or fewer points. Peppers thought long and hard before saying, "I think it is. We have to force two or three turnovers a game to do it, and until we do that we're not coming up with the plays we need to come up with to help the team. Is that a lot of pressure to put on the defense? Yes, maybe so. But Brian [urlacher] and Lance [briggs] and I think it's possible. Look, we haven't played well the last two weeks but it's not like we're getting dominated. There are spurts where we've played well. The way we played when we forced the Packers into [several] three-and-outs … that's the way we have to play the first drive. We can't spot a team as good as the Packers 14 points, even 10 points."
Peppers spoke specifically to the old-fashioned virtue of getting better, something Lovie Smith preaches calmly and consistently. Urlacher said the same thing. They're all very convincing when you stand before them. And we've seen the Bears, last year for example, get better by simply working through problem areas. It can be done. But it's not automatic, and it is fair after watching the Bears lose their past two games by an average score of 29-15 to ask whether they have the raw material on hand to get appreciably better. That's not a margin of one score per game folks, it's two touchdowns per game.
Jerry Angelo needed to improve his offensive line or land a big-time receiver, but neither goal was met.The Packers didn't look like world-beaters in their first two games of the season; they won but allowed a ton of points and more than 400 passing yards to SuperRook Cam Newton. But the Packers did upgrade in the offseason, even if most of it came from getting back healthy players such as running back Ryan Grant (17 rushes, 92 yards) and tight end Jermichael Finley, who caught seven passes for 85 yards and three touchdowns Sunday. The Packers, in Aaron Rodgers, have perhaps the equal to Tom Brady, if not statistically then in impact. As Urlacher said afterward, "Rodgers makes them go."
But the first thing Rodgers has is time to throw to a posse of playmakers, and that time seems to increase exponentially because Rodgers has some Houdini in him. The Packers, with their championship in pocket, have all the confidence of a team that knows exactly what it can do, even on the road against their No. 1 rival. But look at the graph; the Bears beat Green Bay last year in the first game, narrowly lost a thriller the final week of the season to let the Packers into the playoffs, then a pretty even game in the NFC Championship game. ... Now this. OK, if the Packers didn't dominate the Bears on Sunday the champs certainly were in control. And it's now up to the Bears to do something about it. ... If they can
