By Adam Hoge
CHICAGO — The Bears had eight months to prepare for the Buffalo Bills.
They upgraded their defensive line, moved Shea McClellin to linebacker, signed four different veteran safeties and drafted another.
Sunday, they lost 23-20 to the Bills in overtime at Soldier Field.
How many times did the new-look defensive line — with over $30 million invested in the offseason — hit vulnerable Bills quarterback E.J. Manuel? Once. And that was with seventh round rookie Seantrel Henderson and former Bears bust Chris Williams starting on the Bills’ offensive line.
How many tackles did the four Bears’ linebackers accumulate? Eight. Lance Briggs had three. Jon Bostic had three. Shea McClellin had two. Amazingly, D.J. Williams did not appear on the stat sheet.
And the safeties? It’s wasn’t an hour after the game before the Chicago Tribune reported the Bears will sign rookie safety Ahmad Dixon off the Minnesota Vikings’ practice squad.
For a team that allowed a franchise-worst 2,583 rushing yards in 2013, this statistic will certainly frighten fans: After allowing a league-high 161.4 rushing yards per game last year, the Bears gave up 193 yards on the ground to the Bills Sunday.
Not exactly progress.
And yet, the defense only allowed 20 points in regulation, a number low enough to win the game.
“At the end of the day, if you keep them in the 17 or 20 point range, that should be enough for us to win,” head coach Marc Trestman said. “If we hang onto the football and take care of it, we should be in a good position to win.”
He’s right. Unfortunately, Trestman’s high-powered offense couldn’t finish drives and gave the ball away three times. That was the difference in the game.
427 yards of offense should be enough to win a football game when you only allow 20 points in regulation on the other end. But after scoring a touchdown in just four plays on their first drive of the game, the Bears only found the end zone once more the rest of the day.
And Jay Cutler’s two interceptions were a big reason why.
“Turnovers hurt us, penalties hurt us,” Cutler said after the game. “We just kept stubbing our toe on certain things throughout the game. Things we have to clean up.”
“Cleaning up” was what the offense was supposedly doing the entire offseason. Finish drives. Don’t commit penalties. Don’t throw the ball to the other team. Those were the points of emphasis.
“I should have just thrown it away,” Cutler admitted about his second interception, a crucial mistake with eight minutes left in regulation that stalled a potential go-ahead drive at the Bills’ 34-yard line.
On 3rd-and-1, Trestman called for a bootleg to the right, but no one was open. Cutler may have had enough room to run for the first down, but he improvised, urging one receiver to go deep before committing the cardinal sin of throwing back across the middle of the field in the direction of tight end Martellus Bennett.
“I don’t know what happened on that s***,” Bennett said. “The fat guy got the pick.”
The fat guy was 303-pound nose tackle Kyle Williams, who came down with the first interception of his nine-year career.
Asked if he thought about running for the first down, Cutler just said: “Obviously not.”
Mistakes like that have dogged Cutler throughout his career, and when asked if his quarterback should be past the point where he is making a poor decision like that late in the game, Trestman deferred to the temperature outside and chose not to answer the question.
“To be able to make those kinds of statements after being out in the heat, those are tough,” the head coach said. “There are a lot of reasons why these plays come up. I think I’m going to leave it at that.”
To be fair, Cutler threw for 349 yards and two touchdowns, posting a passer rating of 86.2 despite the two picks, the first of which Bennett took the blame for.
But the correct answer to the question posed is: Yes, Jay Cutler should be past the point where he is making a poor decision like that late in the fourth quarter in a tie ballgame. That pass can’t happen.
So is the sky falling in Chicago after one game?
“You guys are going to be as negative as possible,” Cutler said, confusing negativity with objectivity after a team with Super Bowl aspirations lost to the Buffalo Bills at home.
Does the quarterback understand why there would be negativity after Sunday’s performance?
“Yes, and no,” Cutler said. “No one knows exactly what we’re doing out there. I know you guys think you do know, but you don’t.”
If he’s talking about the second interception, he’s right. No one knows exactly what he was doing.
“I haven’t had a chance to talk to him about it,” Trestman said.
Just so no one is confusing objectivity with negativity, here’s the glass half full from Sunday: The offense put up 427 yards despite two offensive linemen (center Roberto Garza and left guard Matt Slauson) leaving the game with ankle injuries and Alshon Jeffery (hamstring) getting hurt too. Meanwhile, if you ignore two long runs that accounted for 85 rushing yards, the defense actually only allowed 3.27 yards per carry, which is at least a sign of hope.
Here’s the glass half empty: You can’t really ignore long runs of 38 and 47 yards. They count, and the wide open gaps looked way too similar to 2013. Meanwhile, the offensive efficiency appeared to regress and now injuries to key starters — Slauson and Garza will both have MRIs Monday, while Jeffery couldn’t finish the game — add further questions to a phase that has depth issues.
Sunday’s performance was far from a disaster. The Bears showed enough positives to indicate they won’t be an easy team to defeat this season. But is that good enough with road games against the 49ers and Jets looming before the Packers come to town in Week 4. Sunday’s game was one the Bears couldn’t afford to lose.
Sorry, Jay. That’s not negativity. That’s reality.
Adam Hoge covers the Bears for 87.7 The Game and TheGameChicago.com. Follow him on Twitter at @AdamHoge.