Chicago Bears 2011 regular season Review: A collapse of epic proportions – NFL Special Part I
The Chicago Bears 2011-12 season was a complete roller coaster ride with the franchise overseeing some brilliant highs to later fall down to devastating lows.
The Bears at one time looked favourites to make the playoff wildcard rounds as they navigated past every opponent early in the season to challenge the upstart Detroit Lions.
However, injuries in offence to quarterback Jay Cutler and running back Matt Forte decimated their passing and running games and they ended the season on a whimper with a poor 8-8 record.
General Manager Jerry Angelo faced the brunt of the fans ire as his replacements failed to perform when required most and Angelo was removed from his post after the end of the regular season.
Let us take a look back at Chicago’s season this year and recap how the team went from playoff surety to third in division mediocrity.
Against Atlanta
Chicago faced their first game against the defending National Football Conference (NFC) South division champions Atlanta Falcons and Jay Cutler turned the game into a rout to lift the Bears to their first victory of the season.
Cutler passed for 312-yards and sent two passing touchdowns to outscore the Falcons 30-12. The Bears offence was not the only one on song during the game.
The defence was impregnable as linebacker Brian Urlacher put in a brilliant performance intercepting Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan while also returning a fumble for 12-yards for a touchdown to setup a brilliant Bears victory.
The Falcons could only manage two field goals for most of the game and only scored a touchdown in the fourth quarter with Kroy Biermann intercepting Cutler for a 50-yard interception return.
At New Orleans
As good as the Bears defence was against the Falcons, it was equally as poor when faced with another NFC South team the New Orleans Saints.
Chicago was outperformed at every turn by a Drew Brees led Saints offence as the quarterback passed for three touchdowns to give the Bears their first loss of the season in a lopsided 30-13 match.
The Bears never looked comfortable as New Orleans matched their offence brilliantly with an equally gritty defence forcing turnovers and containing the Bears to just two field goals.
Quarterback Jay Cutler passed for 244-yards and managed just a single touchdown pass as the Bears were thoroughly outperformed.
The defeat showcased the problems of Chicago’s offence if their main players did not deliver and that Achilles heel will come back to haunt them later in the season.
Against Green Bay
After being comprehensively defeated by the Saints, Chicago Bears faced another tough night this time against Super Bowl Champions Green Bay Packers who were unbeaten since December of 2010.
The Bears and Packers have a history of being great rivals but the Packers had overtaken Chicago in recent matchups and it was no different this time as the Bears lost for the second time in a row.
The Packers were phenomenal and quarterback Aaron Rodgers three touchdown passes sealed the Bears fate.
Cutler on the other hand mustered two touchdown passes and was picked off twice during the game as Green Bay turned the s***w to win by 27-17.
Bears running back Matt Forte was uncharacteristically subdued by Green Bay’s defence as he mustered only two yards on nine attempts.
To be continued..
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