Grading the Bears halfway home
Tonight's game at San Francisco marks the start of the second half of the season, or as coach Lovie Smith would say, the first quarter of the third quarter of the season. Here's how I'd grade the first half:
Quarterback - C+
Jay Cutler has been good, but the thing is, he's supposed to be good. It's disappointing that his best game of the season was Sunday in a lopsided loss to Arizona, and his worst game was the primary reason the Bears lost a winnable game at Green Bay to open the season. Cutler gets docked a few points for not making the Bears better than they were without him and for not having a great impact with his leadership, but gets a few points added for having to play behind an awful offensive line and with a motley crew of receivers.
Running backs - C-
Matt Forte has been ineffective, and at least some of the blame for that has to go to him, no matter how poor the blocking in front of him has been. One long touchdown run notwithstanding, Garrett Wolfe has been ineffective, and Adrian Peterson has battled injuries. FB Jason McKie is among the most anonymous players on the team anyway, but his impact has been minimal this season.
Receivers - B
Devin Hester, Earl Bennett and Johnny Knox have all been better than anyone had hoped ... but Cutler has had something to do with that. If you watch closely, and have an astute analyst like NBC's Cris Collinsworth or even Troy Aikman of FOX pointing it out, they'll all run bad routes that make Cutler look bad from time to time. And Rashied Davis, Devin Aromashodu and Juaquin Iglesias have contributed nothing to the offense.
Tight ends - C
Greg Olsen's season was a huge letdown until he broke out with three touchdowns last week. Even if he catches 50 passes the rest of the way, it doesn't excuse his inability to block. Desmond Clark has clearly started to regress as he's aged, though he still brings something to the table. Kellen Davis has been a nice surprise near the goal line.
Offensive line - F
Cutler rarely has time to throw, and Forte rarely has room to run. Not sure how to summarize the poor job Orlando Pace, Frank Omiyale, Josh Beekman, Olin Kreutz, Roberto Garza and Chris Williams have done better than that. I thought line coach Harry Hiestand did a great job with a talent-lacking bunch in 2008, but his healtier and pricier group has bombed this season.
Defensive line - D+
Rod Marinelli's boys lived up to expectations for the first few games ... though it now looks like that was because they were facing the offensive lines of the Packers and the banged-up Seahawks than it was because they're effective. Tommie Harris was a huge disappointment before he was ejected last week for throwing a punch. Adewale Ogunleye and Alex Brown have been inconsistent if not ineffective. Mark Anderson, Gaines Adams and Marcus Harrison have been busts.
Linebackers - B-
This was supposed to be a big strength, and it's probably been the best part of the defense, but only by default. Still, the Bears do get something a pass for losing Brian Urlacher on opening night. Lance Briggs has played well but not otherworldly. Hunter Hillenmeyer has played much better than I'd have expected. As for Nick Roach, he has had his moments, but he was a disaster in the middle.
Secondary - D
Charles Tillman has played very well in the games during which he hasn't been matched up with Chad Ochocinco or Larry Fitzgerald. Danieal Manning hasn't played that badly at safety, and nor has Al Afalava for a rookie. Otherwise, the Bears have been bad as we feared they might be heading into the year. Zack Bowman has proven that he has no business being an NFL starter at cornerback, and the fact that Nathan Vasher and Corey Graham haven't been good enough to supplant him is telling. Kevin Payne has been brutal at safety.
Special teams - B
The kicking games have been, for the most part, solid as you'd expect, though Brad Maynard didn't have it in the Cardinals game. The return games were strong early but have been ineffective the past few weeks. Kick coverage has been decent overall, but spotty lately.
Coaching - D+
Lovie Smith has had some absolute disasters against both Cincinnati and Arizona. He did have the defense playing very well early - the Pittsburgh game comes to mind - but has had a poor season as a whole. Offensive coordinator Ron Turner deserves much of the blame for the Bears struggling offensively at the start of almost every game. The position coaches, Marinelli and Hiestand in particular, haven't gotten exceptional production out of their units.
