The Bears Preseason: What do these games mean?

This is a question that is being asked by many a fan this offseason as the Bears make their drive towards the regular season. We have seen the Bears lose consistently this preseason and lose for the same reasons that they lost in 2009. They cannot protect their quarterback and they can’t keep teams from converting long third down opportunities. This is a huge problem.

So can the Bears get things put together before they open the regular season against the Detroit Lions? What do they need to be better?

A lot of people take stock in what happens in the preseason and feel that what they see there is an indication of what they will see in the preseason. This is not always the case. The Bears, back in 1985, didn’t win a single game in the preseason before going on to be 15-1 and win the Super Bowl. The Colts recently had a 0-5 preseason and went on to go 14-2 in the regular season. So you can’t put a lot of weight in these games.

However, there are clues to how a team may play during the regular season in this preseason games. For one, we saw a lot of confusion on offense for the Bears when they attempted to run what is one of the more complicated schemes in the NFL. They had problems protecting the quarterback and the quarterback (most often Jay Cutler) had problems avoiding the rush or would make poor decisions when thinking that the rush was there and he was about to get sacked.

The thing that can help keep Cutler confident and not feeling like he has to run every time he drops back from center is solid play from his offensive line. Cutler needs to know that he’s not going to get blasted every time he drops back and until he develops confidence in his offensive line (and once they show that they can block) he’s going to feel rushed and feel that he has to do something (like run the ball or force a throw) every time he drops back.

The Bears need to be sure that their offensive line is up to the task and right now, without any real game regular season experience it may be tough to evaluate what they are capable of. We know that most of the starters have some regular game experience but they don’t have that much experience. Olin Kreutz has the most experience on the line and Roberto Garza (at guard) has the second most but after that, there is a serious drop off in talent.

Frank Omiyale, the Bear’s right guard, hasn’t played that much in the NFL and has struggled when he has been on the field. Left tackle Chris Williams has starting experience at both the right and left tackle but has suffered in the past and really suffered during the preseason. Can he pick things up and play better during the regular season? We will soon find out.

Guard Lance Louis, despite the fact he’s a second year player in the NFL, has never started an NFL game leaving many to wonder why the Bears would take such a risk at the guard position. Why would they put someone with no experience in such an important position on the offensive line? We will find out if they made a big mistake as the season progresses but the Bears must know something that we don’t or they wouldn’t have made the switch.

Let’s see how well the Bears changes help them win games this season. For the first time in a while the Bears (and their fans) are stepping into the unknown. A team that was once primarily a defensive team is starting over as an offensive team and there are bound to be some growing pains. Let’s just hope that those growing pains don’t last long and that the Bears will eventually adapt to the new offense and have a lot of success.