Bears Preseason Game #2

All Bears fans can rejoice tonight in the fact that preseason games do not count.  Sure, the score was brutal, but it's more important that the team learns from preseason games than wins them. 

Here are a few things we learned about the 2011 Chicago Bears:

1) They need Brian Urlacher and Lance Briggs on the field together for the defense to be at its best. No Briggs Monday meant more space for the Giants running backs. Briggs is an excellent tackler, and sorely needed to stop any running game.  Briggs missed two games last year against Seattle and Washington. Both resulted in losses to teams they had no business losing to.

2) The offensive line has a pulse. OK, well at least enough of a pulse to stop what was pretty much a straight 4-man pass rush from the Giants defensive starters. I only noticed one blitz from the starters, but that play was blown dead because of a false start. After Jay Cutler was thrown around like a rag doll and left concussed by the Giants last year most people were fearful of this game. Last year the Bears line could not stop a 4-man rush, so it is an improvement, but they will have to continue to get better because it won't be that simple once the regular season starts.

3) Jay Cutler made good throws when he had time, and he was efficient at getting rid of the ball and not turning it over when he did not have time. He threw two nice, deep balls. The one to Hester on their third possession should have gone for more if Hester would have tried to make a play after the catch.

4) The Bears offensive red zone struggles Monday, I think are a bit misleading, and will be addressed. They had their backup offensive line in for most of the goal line rushing attempts. Their starting line is a good line to run behind, and will look even better with Marion Barber taking the short yardage plays. That is one reason I think the struggles are misleading. As for passing in the redzone, they may struggle a bit until Cutler finds his go-to guy. In the past it had been Greg Olsen. I would look for Kellen Davis to be a big target in the end zone for Cutler. He has the size to be successful there. 

5) Roy Williams can't catch. OK maybe we already knew that. It will be interesting to see how many passes get thrown his way early in the season.

Those are just a few of my observations from Monday. Let me know what you learned from this game. Hopefully the Bears learned a lot so we don't see any regular season scores like that.