While preseason games are virtually meaningless as far as final score goes, there's a lot that can be looked at throughout the game that is very meaningful. Keep in mind though that a lot of the guys I'm going to talk about did not play against first string guys. However, they are still guys that are currently on an NFL roster, so it's not like they played against a bunch of guys from the team's local Y or anything like that.
The first thing that always must be talked about is the team as a whole. It was clear that this team will be picking up where it left off after last season on defense. The defense did a magnificent job, especially the first 2 strings, of holding the Panthers offense down and creating turnovers. A lot of people thought that the turnovers the Bears forced last season were nothing more than luck, but I won't sugarcoat it, those people were wrong. The Bears have been a team that has created turnovers at a high rate for most of the last 12 years. One year out of 10 would be luck, most of 12 years means that there has been good coaching and players who have taken to that good coaching. When you have guys like Peanut Tillman, that coaching goes beyond the coaches and comes through the players as well. Tillman spreads the coaching to other players, those players pick it up, and so on.
The offense was an entirely different story. Right out of the gate there was an interception thrown by Jay Cutler on a miscommunication between him and Alshon Jeffery. After that Jay did play well though, going 6-7 for 56 yards. It was still clear that there are problems though. J'Marcus Webb played the part of the turnstile, ushering in a sack in one of the series, and most of the playcalling seemed to be a bit conservative for what is supposed to be a much faster paced offense. This would sound bad if this wasn't an entirely new offense that the team was trying to get used to. It will take time for them to get everything down. Even by the time the preseason is over there will still be some kinks to smooth out, but at that point things should at least be functional. At this point things are not functional throughout any of the offensive teams. I will say that Matt Blanchard did not look terrible though. He, as well as the rest of the offense did look absolutely brutal during that final drive though, taking their time getting back to the line to run plays when they had to get all the way down the field in 3 minutes. I think a whopping 1 player actually got out of bounds during that drive. That much was not good. Still, as far as the backups go, the Bears didn't have a whole lot to be discouraged by. I'd actually move Blanchard up above McCown in the depth chart myself, but that's just based on the 1 preseason game I've been able to see and nothing more.
Now, at this point of the season, and only at this point of the season, individual accomplishments overshadow the team accomplishments. Due to that, this game was actually something to be excited about. The first thing I'll mention is injuries. Henry Melton and Patrick Mannelly are two first stringers who suffered injuries during the game. Neither of them seems to be too serious. Mannelly hurt his ribs and Melton suffered a concussion (I know, that's pretty serious, but I'm talking more about missed time). Both of those guys have been around for a while and don't need the preseason too much, and both will likely be ready for the start of the season, so I'm not too worried.
I'll go through a bullet point type of presentation for the rest of the players. These are mainly draft picks, but also other rookies. Also, there will be players that most fans just were not sure what to expect from.
- Kyle Long looked every bit of what was expected. He has some work to do with his hands, but other than that he was clearly physically dominant over any defensive lineman he lined up against. Every replay that showed the offensive line showed Long just completely stonewalling someone. It's great to see an interior lineman that looks like he can have his way with anyone who lines up against him.
- Jon Bostic had to be the newcomer of the night. On every defensive play he was in there for he seemed to be right there at the end of the play. He did have one hiccup on coverage early that allowed a touchdown, but he responded to that with a touchdown of his own on a pick-6. Bostic pretty much had me asking Brian who? Okay, I won't go that far, but with Briggs calling the plays, Bostic is a clear upgrade over what the Bears had as far as skill goes with Urlacher last year. Bostic showed great tackling technique and speed, two things Urlacher did not show last season. I could sit here and praise him for hours, but the bottom line is a better way to state things, he looked great last night.
- Khaseem Greene didn't quite look like Bostic out there, but he was also clearly no slouch either. He was right there on most plays. He seems to have a great nose for the ball, as you could watch him sniff out plays over and over. His technique also seemed to be sound, nothing great, but good. I don't know if he's ready to start yet (luckily he doesn't have to be), but he's not far off. With a little bit of growth he can become a very good linebacker himself.
- Of all of the draft picks I guess one had to be worse than the rest, and it was probably Mills. Funny, because he actually did a pretty solid job. He did get beat a few times, but it wasn't often, and it wasn't in J-Webb Nation style either. In fact, when he did get beat he still did well enough to not allow it to be anything catastrophic. He clearly still has work to do on his feet, but he's another guy who didn't look like he was too far off last night.
- Cornelius Washington looked like he was jealous of all of the attention Bostic was getting, because when he got in there he made a lot happen himself. He still looks like he has work to do as far as shedding blockers goes, but at the same time he displayed a lot of his freakish athletic ability throughout the game, getting into the backfield on many plays, and on plays that didn't go his way you could watch him and see him make all the right moves to get to where the play was going. If someone else doesn't make the tackles on those plays, he was right there to clean it up.
- Marquess Wilson looked very good as well. He had 4 catches for 82 yards, and if it wasn't for a slight misstep, he would have had a touchdown as well. He displayed good hands and good speed as well as solid route running throughout the game. There's not too much to say, he just played a very solid game. I'd love to see him, in the next game, get some reps with the second team to see how he does against second string defenses.
- As for the undrafted rookies, the ones that stood out to me were Josh Lenz on a couple of solid returns, Michael Ford, who rand for the only touchdown of the night, and had a couple of other nice carries, PJ Lonergan, who did make a couple of mistakes, but still looked pretty solid on the offensive line, and Zach Minter, who made plenty happen on that interior defensive line. All of those guys still have a long way to go to even make the team, but they've started off on the right foot.
- Devin Hester didn't break any crazy returns or anything, but at the same time, when he did get his chance to show what he could do he looked faster than he had at any point last season. I'm thinking the rest he's getting is good for his legs and will help him add a few years onto his career as an elite returner.
- JT Thomas was another guy who Bears fans haven't seen a lot of. The 2011 6th round pick made some very good plays and looked especially good on the blitz, causing Carolina QB Jimmy Clausen, on more than one occasion, to rush a pass and make a bad throw.
- Brandon Hardin was solid. He didn't make any great plays, but at the same time he made the tackles he had to make (I guess that really should be singular), and didn't make any horrible mistakes either. Last year he just looked bad before he got hurt, this year, so far, he doesn't look bad, but he doesn't look especially good either. I'm going to have to wait and see more out of him before making any sort of real judgement.
- Isaiah Frey was someone that had a lot of attention on him before the game. He's been a star of training camp, and didn't look bad at all when coming in to play the nickel last night either. He didn't make any great plays, but he did come very close when a potential interception went right off his hands. That's something that hopefully turns into an interception in the future. Still, he was encouraging throughout his time in the game. Bears fans have nothing to worry about with Hayden out for the season, Frey looks like he'll be able to fill that spot just fine.
Another thing that this game shows me is that maybe Emery actually is the draft genius we all expected him to be. His first year can be excused, but at the same time that draft brought us Alshon Jeffery, who looks like he can be a very good wide receiver, and Shea McClellin, who looked solid last night as well, getting into the backfield several times and making one great hit. Hardin didn't look especially good or bad, Rodriguez is in Miami now, Isaiah Frey looked good, and McCoy is gone as well. Any draft where half of the players drafted wind up being solid to good players is a great draft in the NFL, and a clear step above what Angelo was doing. It looks like at least 3 players, of the 6 drafted, will be good players. There's a chance, with how they played last night, that all 6 picks can wind up being solid players from the 2013 draft (although that likely won't be the case, they all played well last night). This is great news for any Bears fan.
The overall take from last night's game is that the Bears are in good shape. They're in the right hands, and while there are things that need to be ironed out by the start of the season, they're on the right path. The guys that matter have looked very good, and things, as a whole, are looking up.
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