Smith confident Bears offense will soon blossom
By Larry Mayer
http://www.chicagobears.com
LAKE FOREST, Ill. – Awakening their offense from its early-season slumber will be a top priority when the Bears host the Dallas Cowboys Sunday night at Soldier Field. But coach Lovie Smith isn’t ready to panic after just two games.
“I don’t think you make any calls based on what you’ve done after two games,” Smith said. “You need to go into the first quarter [of the season] a little bit. We are taking steps. We just haven’t been able to see it all in our play right now.
"It’s still a little early to say, ‘This happened last year,’ and then start judging it based on what’s happened after two games right now. I’d say give us a little bit more time.”
In their first two games last season, the Bears beat the Packers 26-0 and the Lions 34-7 thanks in part to an offense that scored five TDs and committed two turnovers on 22 possessions.
In losing to the Chargers and defeating the Chiefs in their first two contests this year, the Chicago offense has scored just one TD and committed six turnovers on 24 possessions.
The Bears have mustered two or fewer first downs on 22 of those 24 drives. The only exceptions were back-to-back second-quarter possessions that resulted in a touchdown and a field goal in Sunday’s 20-10 win over Kansas City.
Always with his glass half full, Smith is optimistic that the offense will get back on track Sunday night against Dallas in the Bears’ only scheduled prime-time home game of the season.
“If I was a betting man, I’d say that we’ll take a big step, and we need to take a big step,” Smith said. “We’re not where we want to be as a football team. I can’t give you reasons why. That’s why we go to the practice field and we try to correct those things. That’s what we’ll do and hopefully we’ll make some more progress this week.”
While Cedric Benson rushed for 101 yards against the Chiefs, the passing game fizzled after a decent start. Rex Grossman completed 13 of 20 passes for 120 yards and 1 TD in the first half, but he connected on just 7 of 14 passes for 40 yards with two interceptions in the second half.
“I take full blame for those two turnovers,” Grossman said. “I didn’t feel it in the second half like we felt in the first half. We just need to put two halves together and it wouldn’t have been close.”
Grossman’s interceptions came after receiver Bernard Berrian had lost a fumble while fighting for extra yardage on the Bears’ second play from scrimmage.
“The turnovers on the offensive side are something that we have to eliminate,” Smith said. “It’s as simple as that. Passing-game-wise, we didn’t get a lot done [Sunday]. We have to eliminate the turnovers in order for us to go to the next step.”
In two games, Grossman has completed 32 of 57 passes for 305 yards with 1 TD and 3 interceptions. He ranks 32nd in the NFL with a 55.1 passer rating that is more than 18 points lower than the 73.9 he recorded last season.
While a majority of the criticism from media and fans is traditionally directed at the quarterback, the offense’s lack of productivity is certainly a group effort with the Bears.
“If you’re doing well pass-wise, it’s a combination of things,” Smith said. “It’s protection, it’s the quarterback throwing the ball to the receivers, pitching and catching. Right now, I’m going to say the entire operation, we’re just not there.
“We’ve had our moments where you could probably point to all the different areas. But we’ll just continue to work, and it’s still early in the year. We made progress offensively as I saw it this past week, getting our running game going. The next phase of it will be to bring the passing game along with it, too.”
One of the main reasons for the offense’s lack of success so far has been the inability to handle frequent blitzes. Grossman has been sacked six times in two games and has been forced to unload under duress on several more occasions.
“It’s a very complicated answer,” Smith said when asked to assess blame for the breakdowns. “Certain plays it could be the quarterback, it could be the line, it could be a combination of things. I’m just going to say we as an offense didn’t execute at the time and we have to do a better job with it.”
Smith doesn’t feel that Sunday’s lackluster second-half performance resulted from Chiefs defensive coordinator Gunther Cunningham outguessing Bears offensive coordinator Ron Turner.
“I wouldn’t say that that happened,” Smith said. “Since we won the football game, I’d say we probably guessed right the majority of the time. When you get a 17-0 lead on a team, sometimes you can relax a little bit and not play as well as you need to, and that’s what we did.
“I see our football team as a team that’s getting better. We made progress. We didn’t finish the game [Sunday], but we made some [strides] and hopefully we’ll take another step this week.”
http://www.chicagobears.com
LAKE FOREST, Ill. – Awakening their offense from its early-season slumber will be a top priority when the Bears host the Dallas Cowboys Sunday night at Soldier Field. But coach Lovie Smith isn’t ready to panic after just two games.
“I don’t think you make any calls based on what you’ve done after two games,” Smith said. “You need to go into the first quarter [of the season] a little bit. We are taking steps. We just haven’t been able to see it all in our play right now.
"It’s still a little early to say, ‘This happened last year,’ and then start judging it based on what’s happened after two games right now. I’d say give us a little bit more time.”
In their first two games last season, the Bears beat the Packers 26-0 and the Lions 34-7 thanks in part to an offense that scored five TDs and committed two turnovers on 22 possessions.
In losing to the Chargers and defeating the Chiefs in their first two contests this year, the Chicago offense has scored just one TD and committed six turnovers on 24 possessions.
The Bears have mustered two or fewer first downs on 22 of those 24 drives. The only exceptions were back-to-back second-quarter possessions that resulted in a touchdown and a field goal in Sunday’s 20-10 win over Kansas City.
Always with his glass half full, Smith is optimistic that the offense will get back on track Sunday night against Dallas in the Bears’ only scheduled prime-time home game of the season.
“If I was a betting man, I’d say that we’ll take a big step, and we need to take a big step,” Smith said. “We’re not where we want to be as a football team. I can’t give you reasons why. That’s why we go to the practice field and we try to correct those things. That’s what we’ll do and hopefully we’ll make some more progress this week.”
While Cedric Benson rushed for 101 yards against the Chiefs, the passing game fizzled after a decent start. Rex Grossman completed 13 of 20 passes for 120 yards and 1 TD in the first half, but he connected on just 7 of 14 passes for 40 yards with two interceptions in the second half.
“I take full blame for those two turnovers,” Grossman said. “I didn’t feel it in the second half like we felt in the first half. We just need to put two halves together and it wouldn’t have been close.”
Grossman’s interceptions came after receiver Bernard Berrian had lost a fumble while fighting for extra yardage on the Bears’ second play from scrimmage.
“The turnovers on the offensive side are something that we have to eliminate,” Smith said. “It’s as simple as that. Passing-game-wise, we didn’t get a lot done [Sunday]. We have to eliminate the turnovers in order for us to go to the next step.”
In two games, Grossman has completed 32 of 57 passes for 305 yards with 1 TD and 3 interceptions. He ranks 32nd in the NFL with a 55.1 passer rating that is more than 18 points lower than the 73.9 he recorded last season.
While a majority of the criticism from media and fans is traditionally directed at the quarterback, the offense’s lack of productivity is certainly a group effort with the Bears.
“If you’re doing well pass-wise, it’s a combination of things,” Smith said. “It’s protection, it’s the quarterback throwing the ball to the receivers, pitching and catching. Right now, I’m going to say the entire operation, we’re just not there.
“We’ve had our moments where you could probably point to all the different areas. But we’ll just continue to work, and it’s still early in the year. We made progress offensively as I saw it this past week, getting our running game going. The next phase of it will be to bring the passing game along with it, too.”
One of the main reasons for the offense’s lack of success so far has been the inability to handle frequent blitzes. Grossman has been sacked six times in two games and has been forced to unload under duress on several more occasions.
“It’s a very complicated answer,” Smith said when asked to assess blame for the breakdowns. “Certain plays it could be the quarterback, it could be the line, it could be a combination of things. I’m just going to say we as an offense didn’t execute at the time and we have to do a better job with it.”
Smith doesn’t feel that Sunday’s lackluster second-half performance resulted from Chiefs defensive coordinator Gunther Cunningham outguessing Bears offensive coordinator Ron Turner.
“I wouldn’t say that that happened,” Smith said. “Since we won the football game, I’d say we probably guessed right the majority of the time. When you get a 17-0 lead on a team, sometimes you can relax a little bit and not play as well as you need to, and that’s what we did.
“I see our football team as a team that’s getting better. We made progress. We didn’t finish the game [Sunday], but we made some [strides] and hopefully we’ll take another step this week.”
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