Lost in the fact that Jay Cutler turned into Rex Grossman on Sunday was the fact that Rod Marinelli turned into Buddy Ryan.
The Bears had not blitzed much this year, but a review of the tape shows Marinelli went wild against the Redskins. He dialed up a blitz on 44 percent of Donovan McNabb’s dropbacks.
Though the Redskins scored their only offensive touchdown on a five-man rush, the overall results were positive. The Bears also scored a touchdown on a blitz — D.J. Moore’s interception return.
What’s more, they had a sack and a forced fumble, seven quarterback hits and four other pressures on blitzes. McNabb was 8 of 14 for 92 yards with a 71.1 passer rating against the blitz. Interestingly, five of the eight completions were to tight end Chris Cooley.
The Bears’ primary blitzer was linebacker Pisa Tinoisamoa, who was sent after McNabb seven times. Moore blitzed four times.
Grading key: Grades are between 0 and 10 with 0 being complete failure and 10 being perfect.
Defensive line; Grade: 7
The only thing the linemen didn’t do well was get the quarterback on the ground. But they pestered him all game long.
Israel Idonije had the line’s only sack. He also had two pressures and a hit. He played a nice overall game with two tipped passes, a forced fumble and a tackle for a loss. He continues to come into his own.
Julius Peppers was a force even though the stat sheet might not reflect it. He had a quarterback hit and four other pressures and two tackles of plays that did not gain yards. The man who was blocking him was called for holding on another play that would have been a tackle for a loss.
Tommie Harris showed a pulse with a couple of pressures and a tackle for no gain.
Linebackers; Grade: 7
Tinoisamoa was very active. He was timing his blitzes well, as he hit McNabb twice and pressured him a third time. He also had a tackle for a loss and a forced fumble.
Brian Iwuh played most of the game after Lance Briggs came out with a flare-up of his ankle injury and was involved in some big plays. He had a sack/strip and two other tackles for a loss, including one on a third-and-1.
But he also missed a tackle on running back Ryan Torainat the line of scrimmage on second-and-9 with 1:53 remaining. Torain went 27 yards, allowing the Redskins to kill the clock on subsequent kneel-downs. Had Iwuh made the play, it’s possible the Bears would have gotten another possession.
Safeties; Grade: 7
Danieal Manning bit on a pump-fake and subsequently was late getting over to help on Santana Moss’ touchdown. But he made up for it with a spectacular interception.
Manning took some poor angles on some of Torain’s runs, but his speed came in handy. Chris Harris played physically as usual.
Cornerbacks; Grade: 9
Moore made big plays, and for the most part he made the little ones too.
Charles Tillman was a difference-maker with two forced fumbles, a fumble recovery, sturdy run support and generally solid coverage.
Offensive line; Grade: 3.5
This unit made a remarkable recovery at halftime, with help from some astute adjustments from Mike Tice and Mike Martz.
In the first half the line gave up a pressure or sack on 75 percent of Jay Cutler’s dropbacks, not including screen passes. In the second half, the line gave up a pressure or sack on 22 percent of Cutler’s dropbacks.
Guard Chris Williams had a really rough first half. He kept getting too high and giving up leverage to powerful Redskins pass rushers, and he also had a false start.
Center Olin Kreutz also had some struggles against the bigger Redskins. J’Marcus Webb gave up a sack on an edge rush and had a costly holding penalty in the fourth quarter.
Lance Louis did a decent job in place of Edwin Williams, but he got beat inside by Vonnie Holliday and gave up a pressure that contributed to Cutler’s last interception. Frank Omiyale played another solid game at left tackle.
Quarterback; Grade: 1
You can blame it on pressure, or on wide receivers if you want. But no one deserves more blame than No. 6.
Cutler was under pressure on 17 plays Sunday. Four of those were sacks. On the others, he was 6 of 13 for 48 yards, one touchdown and two interceptions. He responded very poorly to pressure.
Cutler was not under pressure for 27 plays Sunday, including for most of the second half. He completed 74 percent of his passes on those plays for 232 yards. But he threw two interceptions without any pressure on him.
Good decisions would have resulted in avoiding at least one of his sacks and all of the interceptions.
Wide receivers; Grade: 6
They looked better on tape than they did at the stadium. Neither Devin Hester nor Johnny Knox was in position to break up any of Cutler’s interceptions, as has been inferred. Knox ran his routes well. Aside from a fourth-quarter drop, Knox did what he was supposed to and had a nice game.
Earl Bennett contributed some nice yards after the catch.
Running backs; Grade: 6
Matt Forte and Chester Taylor picked up some steam in the second half and ran the ball very effectively. Between them, they averaged 4.7 yards per carry. Forte’s fumble was a killer though.
Tight ends; Grade: 4
This unit did not have much of an impact on the game, though Greg Olsen showed excellent concentration on a 23-yard catch that was contested by Rocky McIntosh.
Special teams; Grade: 4
This was a below-average performance considering the standards the Bears have set. Special teams players had two flags thrown against them, they missed an excellent opportunity to pick up a loose ball on the opening kickoff and three of Brad Maynard’s punts traveled fewer than 35 yards.
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