Now we know what the Titans felt like two weeks ago. If there are degrees of defeat, this is probably next to worst. While watching the last excruciating quarter of the Bears/49ers game, I came up with five factors with which to judge humiliating losses; general ineffectiveness, unforced errors, embarrassing plays, point differential, and physicality. On a scale of ten, the Bears probably score near ten in most of these categories, but save a little face on point differential and unforced errors.
General ineffectiveness is what we saw in the first quarter; a defense which looked helpless against a quarterback in his first start and an offense which couldn't muster 20 yards in the first half. General ineffectiveness is playing without too many mistake, but just not being equal to the team on the other side of the field. It was mystifying to see Colin Kaepernick pick apart the Bears defense. It was more concerning when Kendall Hunter and Frank Gore began to find creases in the defense for big yards. But the offense didn't give the defense anytime to sit on the bench as a majority of the Bears drives ended up with negative yardage. The Bears score a solid ten here. I'm reminded of the Patriots/Bears game two years ago in a snowy Soldier Field for a good example of good butt kicking when the Patriots scored to close the half to make the score 33-0.
Unforced errors is where the Bears could have looked worse. Unforced mistakes are careless turnovers and pre/post penalties. There were only 6 penalties and there weren't any false starts that I can remember; however, the Bears did call a couple timeouts when they couldn't get the right personnel on the field. The worst unforced mistake was at the end of the game when JT Thomas jumped across the line denying the Bears the chance to at least attempt a touchdown return or morale's sake. It was the final insult. An example of this kind of loss is Charles Tillman's personal foul penalty overtime against Tampa Bay in 2008 which gave the Bucs a first down on third down and helped themI'll give them a four here.
Embarrassing plays is where the Bears should have scored a fifteen on a ten point scale. These are plays that make professionals look like amateurs. I thought it was embarrassing in the second quarter when a Bears drive consisted of: Forte tackled for no gain by unblocked defender, Forte tackled for no gain by unblocked defender, then Forte tackled for no gain on the saddest looking screen play I've ever seen. I didn't know what would await me in the 2nd half. Devin Hester returned a punt for minus nine officially, but it looked like minus twenty. J'Marcus Webb and Gabe Carimi getting pushed into Jason Campbell multiple times. On one play Webb look like he was guarding Aldon Smith's shadow as he moved outside but Smith went inside. Carimi didn't fare much better getting bull rushed too many times to count. On his worst play, he gave up the sack and was still falling backwards for about ten yards as Campbell was getting annihilated. The absolute worst play was the safety which we had to agonizingly watch over and over as it was reviewed. First of all, the pocket absolutely collapsed and Campbell had no chance. It turned to ridiculous (and no the the Devin Hester-type) when the ball squirted out and landed at Chilo Rachal's feet. Rachal looked like he didn't know what he found as he momentarily stared at it. He picked it up, lumbered forward, and guess it was ruled he forward passed it. Whatever it was it was a mess, he gave the ball some type of forward movement. The refs had a hard time classifying what had just happened. The Bears earn a most definite ten in this category defined which can be defined by the infamous Bears/Giants game a couple years ago when many of the same linemen gave up 9 sacks in one half. That game established and defined for a national audience the poor reputation the Bears O-Line has had ever since.
Point differential is a category that while bad could have been a lot worse. I remember at half thinking they are lucky to be down twenty to nothing right now. Point differential is pretty self explanatory, any time a team runs up the score. We'll again compare it to the Patriots game from a couple years ago or the 45-10 loss at the hands of a Carson Palmer led Bengals team in 2009. Yes, a 32 to 7 loss is bad, but it could have been a lot worse. The final point total wasn't has humiliating as the game. Eight out of ten here.
Physicality is a category I would not have considered until watching the Bears destruction by the 49ers. The 49ers just physically beat up on the Bears all game on both sides of the field. Whether it was the Smiths bull rushing over the offensive line or Bowman and Willis thrashing down Forte or Bush, it was reminiscent of some Lions games of the past couple years. The Bears defense was not exempt either as there were a number of broken tackles and huge clear out blocks in the run game. Eight out of ten here as well.
So if you add it up that's 40 out of 50 for my ranking of next to worst, although right now I'm hard to imagine what a 50 out of 50 would look like.
Physicality is a category I would not have considered until watching the Bears destruction by the 49ers. The 49ers just physically beat up on the Bears all game on both sides of the field. Whether it was the Smiths bull rushing over the offensive line or Bowman and Willis thrashing down Forte or Bush, it was reminiscent of some Lions games of the past couple years. The Bears defense was not exempt either as there were a number of broken tackles and huge clear out blocks in the run game. Eight out of ten here as well.
So if you add it up that's 40 out of 50 for my ranking of next to worst, although right now I'm hard to imagine what a 50 out of 50 would look like.
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