Dec. 03--Welcome back to "The Blitz Package," your weekly destination for notable news, nuggets and intriguing Chicago Bears storylines. This week's topic: the road ahead for the Bears in what could be a long December.
The Bears were out of answers. That much was clear in the visitor's locker room at Ford Field on Thanksgiving. The Lions had spent the afternoon flinging them around like a pit bull wrestling a chew toy. And with their seventh loss of the season all but opening the trap door beneath their playoff hopes, the Bears had little left to say.
A flurry of familiar questions came flying. Why had the pass defense been so punchless and vulnerable against an offense that entered the day ranked 21stin the NFL in total offense yet finished the game with a yardage count 141 higher than their per-game season average?
Why had Jay Cutler seemed so out of rhythm and out of whack on his fourth-quarter interception?
Why had an early 14-3 lead disintegrated so quickly?
Why was there no answer to slow down Calvin Johnson?
Why had the offense been unable to sustain its early momentum, managing only three points on its final nine drives of the day?
Tight end Martellus Bennett couldn't quite put his finger on another afternoon's worth of struggles. He had no answers for why an offense that entered the season with such high expectations had sputtered so often.
"Our offense is what our offense is," Bennett said. "It's nothing more, nothing less. We are who we are. And right now we're a struggling offense."
A struggling team, too.
The month of December may now have a death march feel to it, with the Bears needing to dig deep to summon energy and motivation for the remaining schedule. And while the results of the final four games will have little meaning beyond the team's movement up or down the 2015 draft board, there are several under-the-radar storylines to key in on as the Bears play out the string.
For those out there who will remain glued to the TV for the season's final month, here are three plotlines to keep a watch on -- one each on offense, defense and special teams.
The run defense
A year ago at this time, the Bears' defense was in the middle of a full-blown implosion, on the way to allowing more yards in a single season than any other team in franchise history.
The Bears finished 2013 as the NFL's worst rushing defense by a wide margin, their 161.4 yards per game average giving them significant distance from the league's 31st-place finisher in the category -- the Falcons at 135.8 yards per game.
In December alone, the Bears allowed 986 rushing yards on a demoralizing skid that left them out of the postseason yet again.
So while this season's rise to 10th in the league in rushing yards allowed should not be mistaken as impressive or landmark, it can be quantified as progress.
So now what? On Thursday night, the Bears' run D will get its biggest challenge of the season. The Cowboys rank third in the NFL in rushing (145.3 yards per game) and have the league's top rusher in DeMarco Murray.
Heightening the degree of difficulty, the Bears will be without weakside linebacker Lance Briggs for the rest of the season. Which means the starters in their base defense will be Jon Bostic, D.J. Williams and Shea McClellin with Bostic and Christian Jones on the field together in nickel situations.
This will be a good stage to monitor the development of both Bostic and Jones, who need to prove they have the combination of talent, smarts and discipline to become major pieces in the defense for the future.
This week, defensive coordinator Mel Tucker acknowledged Bostic's instincts, speed and strength at the point of attack. And with Jones, an undrafted rookie out of Florida State, the Bears are not only impressed with the 23-year-old's combination of size and speed, they've fallen for his unwavering enthusiasm and dedication to getting better.
"You just look at the guy and watch him and say 'This guy has got some really good athletic ability,'" Tucker said. "But he has a very strong work ethic. And it's day in and day out. It's not just every now and then. It's every single day. When you get a guy like who that is willing to work at it, every day, he's got the talent and he wants to be good. A guy like that has a chance to develop."
Kyle Long's consistency
It's been a bit of a rough season for the Bears' offensive line as a whole with injuries taking a toll throughout the year.
The quick log:
--Right tackle Jordan Mills: three games missed due to foot and ribs injuries.
--Center Roberto Garza: four games missed due to a high ankle sprain
--Left guard Matt Slauson: out from Weeks 2-5 with a high ankle sprain and placed on injured reserve in Week 9 with a torn pectoral muscle.
--Left tackle Jermon Bushrod: two games missed to a knee/ankle injury
--Reserve Eben Britton: four games missed after an emergency appendectomy
--Reserve Brian de la Puente: placed on I.R. last week with a season-ending ankle injury.
The constant shuffling up front certainly has hindered the Bears at times. They've allowed 30 sacks in 12 games, equaling the total they allowed all of last season. The team's per-carry average in the run game also has dipped from 4.5 yards per attempt in 2013 to 4.0 this year.
But through it all, second-year right guard Kyle Long has continued his ascension. He's been durable, he's been aggressive, he's been eager for all challenges.
It hasn't been a perfect season for Long. (His Week 5 performance in a loss to Carolina stands out as one of his shakier outings.) But the past two weeks, Long has gone nose-to-nose with two of the league's most ferocious defensive tackles -- Tampa Bay's Gerald McCoy and Detroit's Ndamukong Suh -- and held his own.
"That was a really long five days," Long admitted this week. "I didn't get a lot of sleep."
That said, Long's enthusiasm to take on those challenges has been impressive.
"I really like competing against the best," he said. "I enjoy it. And so I'm looking forward to another test."
Long fully understands that Bears offensive coordinator Aaron Kromer and offensive line coach Pat Meyer have fortified their protection plans to help his cause. But Kromer also has taken note of just how much growth Long has shown as he's continued to develop. His ability to play aggressively and under control against McCoy and Suh made an impression.
"He's seeing the game better, understanding what defenses are doing and slowing the game down for himself," Kromer said. "That is the biggest difference. Like any young player, the game can seem fast and you (may) try to play faster than you need to play and you get yourself out of position. When (Kyle) does play with the correct tempo -- and that is what he has done more often this year -- it helps our offense."
The return game
General manager Phil Emery's decision to let Bears legendary return specialist Devin Hester walk away in free agency last March was neither a surprise nor a major misstep. But Emery's inability to find a return man who could adequately replace Hester needs to be pointed out.
Neither Eric Weems nor Micheal Spurlock did enough during the preseason to stick around. Undrafted rookie Senorise Perry struggled to get going in the team's first two games. The Bears then turned to Rashad Ross, whose time of service was as follows: signed Sept. 1, waived Sept. 30, five kickoff returns for 106 yards. And Chris Williams, plucked off the Saints' practice squad late last season, has battled injuries and questionable decision-making during his in-season auditions for the role.
Oh, and veteran receiver Santonio Holmes, who handled punt return duties for the season's first nine games, was let go in November.
So, yeah, the Bears' struggles in the return game can be traced back to a number of Emery personnel decisions that just didn't work out.
But now, in two games, Marc Mariani seems to have flashed more than any of his predecessors in the return game. Against the Bucs, Mariani ripped off a 30-yard kickoff return out to the Bears 45. In Detroit, his lone return on seven Lions kickoffs covered 24 yards.
For a guy who hadn't played a regular-season game since 2011, derailed by leg and shoulder injuries, Mariani appears to have staying power.
With a limited sample size, he has shown an ability to be aggressive yet smart.
Said special teams coordinator Joe DeCamillis: "That's a fair assessment. That was the same thing we saw on film."
The hope is that Mariani continues to build on an encouraging start in Chicago. Don't forget, he made his Bears debut Nov. 23, just four days after participating in his first practice at Halas Hall. That left DeCamillis with a small window of time to get comfortable turning his new returner loose.
But so far so good.
"He's been very good with his return mechanics, which is what we talked about when we signed him," DeCamillis said. "I think he's been very decisive and he's shown a little bit of juice. He's got probably a little bit more juice than probably he had at the end of preseason. His legs are a little fresher. We'll see. Hopefully it keeps going the way it is right now. Hopefully we can get some open space for him."
