Bears Woes Not Cutler's Fault

Written by Godfrey Logan, Tuesday October 20 2009 playerpress.com

Has anyone thought that maybe the reason the running game for the Bears is so bas is because Matt Forte is bad? They went out and drafted a Forte because they were looking for a bigger back like Justin Fargas of the Oakland Raiders after he had a solid running performance against the Bears a few years ago.
The Bears have not done well in recent years at drafting running backs but they always end up in a situation where it's better to keep that player than to let him go or trade him because he will most likely do well for another team. See Cedric Benson. Personally I was happy to see him go but am not happy to see him doing well for the Bengals. The Bears traded Thomas Jones to the Jets and once again I was happy to see him go because I thought he was soft. He couldn't move the pile. He had a career day Sunday in a loss to the Bills.

Matt Forte may one day turn out to be a solid back but right now he isn't showing that he can be that or that he can make defenses miss. Yes the offensive line is very porous so he never gets a chance to make plays but sometimes it would help if he were somewhat elusive so that it isn't so easy to tackle him.

And when are the Bears going to get rid of Ron Turner? Since he's been here he's made me scratch my head about his play calling. I think he has to take much of the blame for the fact the Bears cannot develop a quarterback. I know Rex Grossman was a terrible quarterback but part of the blame for his lack of success has to be attributed to Ron Turner. Now you have Kyle Orton in Denver doing what he should have been doing in Chicago. But the Bears are so focused on a qb managing the game that he never gets to show what he can do, throw the ball down the field. To be honest, with Cutler the Bears will be a 9-7 team this year. They were a 9-7 team last year with Orton so what exactly have they done to better this team? With Ron Turner calling the plays and Orton still at quarterback the Bears would be lucky to finish with a winning record. Enough with the prime time games already the Bears are not even on the level of the Minnesota Vikings right now.

Speaking of the the Vikings they are getting so much hype because of Brett Favre. The truth is that team would do well with or without Brett Favre. I could probably play for that team as long as all I have to do is hand off to Adrian Peterson or throw a short pass to Percy Harvin and watch him go.

Frankly Jay Cutler is who has kept the Bears respectable at this point. The defense is a strong defense as usual but I wish Lovie Smith would stop saying that, "we come off the bus running." That hasn't been the case for years. The Bears haven't had an NFL offensive line since Thomas Jones was here which in my opinion is why we lost the stinking Super Bowl in '07 besides Peyton Manning picking our defense apart. The Bears are what I thought they were the same old team but with a franchise quarterback. That's all you hear nowadays. We finally have a "Franchise Quarterback." The truth is we had one before but with our bad play calling he never got a chance to flourish. Also let's not jump on Cutler for his turnovers. If we had a decent running game we wouldn't have to rely on the pass so much. But until some personnel changes are made on the offensive side of the ball the offense will continue to be, well, offensive.