Total Review of the Bears Against the Steelers

The short version came yesterday, now here's what I thought about the Bears win over the Pittsburgh Steelers from Sunday night. It was a night that saw a lot of good and a lot of bad as well. The worst being the torn ACL of Henry Melton that will have him out for the rest of the season. However, the Bears still finished the game with a win, and that third win is one that cannot be taken away from them.

The good? I'm going to go with the running game. The totals were not totally eye popping. The Bears had a total of 107 rush yards for the game, but they did it on 28 attempts. That's at least solid. However, the bigger thing to look at is that the main running back, Matt Forte, had 87 of those yards on only 16 attempts. That's an average of 5.4 yards per carry for Forte, and he had a few big plays throughout the game. It wasn't perfect, but averaging over 5 yards against a defense like the Steelers is pretty good.

The Bad is that the Bears lost Henry Melton for the year. Sure, he was still shaking off the rust after missing the entire preseason, and you'd think that by the third game the rust would be off, but either way, we know that he's a talented player and there's no doubt in my mind that by the end of the season we'd be used to him doing what he did last season. However, this is a great opportunity for Nate Collins and Zach Minter, Minter being directly behind Melton on the depth chart, and Collins should surely get more snaps as well. We'll see if they step up, but they're getting their chance now.

The Ugly is the Bears defense. They often got the job done, but looked terrible at times doing it. After holding Pittsburgh early, Ben Roethlisberger caught fire and the defense didn't stop it. Roethlisberger would often have his way throwing the ball as the game went on, but in the end the defense forced 5 turnovers (the Bears offense didn't give the ball up once). That helped the Bears to get the job done and allow the offense to have an easier time putting points on the board.

Passing Offense

Skill Positions - B+

Nobody had eye-popping numbers, but the receivers caught most of the catchable balls, Cutler threw catchable ball, Matt Forte had a very good game running (which is irrelevant here) and threw in another 24 yards in the passing game. Everyone did well and came up the biggest when it mattered the most.

Blocking - B

Cutler did feel some pressure, but as a whole it wasn't so much that he wasn't able to do anything. There were also some very good blocks on short passes that helped open the Bears up to larger gains. Kyle Long and Jordan Mills continue to look good on the right side of that line.

Running Offense

 Skill Positions - B

Matt Forte gets an A here for his effort, but Michael Bush had a tough game, running for 9 yards on 8 carries. However, I will say that those numbers are skewed a bit from having 2 touchdowns taken away from him on a single drive.

Blocking - B

There was one especially good job they did on that big Forte run, and it was run over and over again. While Forte averaged well over 5 yards per carry, they were not able to generate enough push up front for him to be able to regularly get those 3-4 yard runs, and Michael Bush was really having trouble getting just a yard or two, something he's never had any problem with doing throughout his career.

Passing Defense

Secondary - C-

They were letting Big Ben march up and down the field at will on them, allowing Antonio Brown to gain almost 200 yards on them in the air. For the majority of the plays they looked absolutely terrible. However, Major Wright and a pick 6 and later forced a fumble (although that was on a run, Wright is part of the secondary, so I'll at least give that mention here). Lastly, Chris Conte was able to get an interception late that was sort of the final nail in the almost entirely closed coffin.

QB Pressure - C

It got better, I'll say that much. They also were running a lot of blitzes, which always helps, but the front four was at least occasionally able to generate pressure. They're still not where we, as fans, would want them to be or what Bears fans are used to, but it did get a little bit better this past week. Extra points for getting Roethlisberger to fumble the ball twice.

Running Defense

B-

While the Steelers averaged about 3.8 yards per carry, Felix Jones, the main running back for the Steelers, carried the ball 12 times for 39 yards, and the Steelers were not able to run the ball in at any point for a touchdown. While the passing defense was having all sorts of trouble, the run defense, while not perfect, was able to remain solid for the game.

Special Teams

C

There were good things and bad things. Devin Hester did not follow up his big performance against the Vikings with a great performance against the Steelers. He had 2 returns for about 26 yards. Joe Anderson had 2 returns for 32 yards, and Eric Weems had a return for 15 yards. None of those are anything special, or really very good at all. The Bears were not able to return either of Mesko's 2 punts either. On the other hand, Adam Podlesh had a very nice night, and Robbie Gould had a solid night despite missing only his second PAT in his entire career (first since his rookie season) when it was blocked after the game was well in hand late.

Things could have been much better throughout the game, but in the end, a win is a win. Having Melton out for the rest of the season is going to hurt pretty bad, but as Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau always says, next guy up. As for the Bears, the Detroit Lions (2-1) are the next team up.