Jay Cutler agreed with Brian Urlacher’s frustrations regarding the team’s offense.
Matt Forte, not so much.
“We’ve got to do a lot of things. I’ve got to make
people miss, we’ve got to block people, we’ve got to do a lot of
things,” Forte told Brad Biggs of the Chicago Sun-Times. “It’s not one particular thing that is hampering the offense.
We’re hurting ourselves most of the time.”
Many football observers have called Chicago’s offensive line one of the worst run-blocking units in football. After gaining 1,238 yards on the ground last year, Forte is on pace for less than 800 this year.
While Cutler said Urlacher didn’t owe him an apology, there are fences to be mended with Forte. He wasn’t buying Urlacher’s weak clarifications.
“Urlacher has his own opinion. If I couldn’t make anybody miss, I probably wouldn’t be playing pro football,” Forte said. “It’s frustrating, but you can’t harp on being frustrated because it carries over into other games . . . When you don’t get rushing opportunities as a running back, you have to try to impact somewhere else.”
Forte isn’t gaining yardage on the ground, but he’s second among running backs in receiving yards behind Ray Rice. (As a fellow Tulane alum, I’m grasping for something positive to say here.)
And while Urlacher saved his criticism for his offensive teammates, the Bears defense is just as bad.
Fixing the Bears requires a lot more than changing back to their old “identity.”
Urlacher and Forte both need to shut up and just think about next season, the Bears are terrible on both sides of the ball. Special teams might have been the only bright spot if they hadn’t made Devin Hester into a wideout…sorry ATTEMPTED to make Devin Hester a wideout
Forte is having a terrible year, the only reason i care is b/c he was my second draft pick in fantasy.
What a disaster of a season.
Urlacher is white trash with money. Got ‘em several baby momma’s. The chances of him getting a lap dance in a recliner, tonight or any night, are huge.
Offensive line. The Bears should be dead last in rushing yards per carry if it weren’t for Bell’s 70 yard carry. They’re dead last in rushing first downs and in total rushing yards.
Forte is a good running back, but I’m not going to try and tell you that Forte is a better RB than Steven Jackson, or Frank Gore, or some of these other guys that have produced on bad/average teams with only an average O-line at best. Perhaps those two guys could do more behind Chi’s o-line than Forte has, as evidenced by their performance over the years in St Louis and San Fran, but I honesty believe that the Bears have one of the worst O-lines in the league. Kreutz and Garza are the only guys that would come close to garnering interest from other teams, and only those who have a weak C or RG, because Kreutz is over the hill and Garza was never meant to be a team’s 2nd best O-lineman, more like it’s 4th or 5th.
The old Bears’ identity was playing such great defense that other weaknesses went unnoticed. The problem was, they didn’t play such great defense in the superbowl (Addai and Rhodes combined had like 45 touches for 250 yards), and so the blatant weaknesses of Grossman and the O-line were exposed in an ugly way.
Chicago needs to be bigger and stronger on both lines. Lovie’s had success, and as good as Tommie Harris was, I remember the Bears being pretty good and forcing a buttload of turnovers with Ted Washington, Keith Traylor, Phillip Daniels and Bryan Robinson as their D-line, and that was as slow a defensive line as you’ll ever see. Nobody even touched Urlacher in those days.
Every one is throwing grenades, no one is willing to step up.
If there ever was a case of diseased leadership this would have to be it. That means Lovie, Cutler, Urlacher, and on down the list.
This is a proud franchise with some of the most knowledgeable and and faithful fans in football.
If only they could find the likes of Ditka, Singletary, & Payton (I’d mention a QB but we are talking Chicago here).
Sooner or later one of Urlacher’s teammates is going to point out that a certain linebacker on injured reserve isn’t contributing to the team’s success this season either.
It reads to me that the ‘frustration’ you type of is towards the offensive gameplan, not at Urlacher.
Why didn’t he say ”we have to stay healthy”? That would have been an easy one
Ha. Garrett Wolf, in limited carries this year, has made more people miss than Forte has. I don’t know if Forte is hiding some sort of injury this year or what, but it sure seems like he doesn’t run very hard, and when he does run, he just slams into the back of the line. It’s like shades of Lewis Tillman all over again.
Hey Forte, Just tell Urlacher to make it through an entire season without getting hurt like a giant vag. That ought to shut him up.
I don’t think Forte is getting any help from that offensive line. they are just terrible.
Urlacher needs to look in the mirror. He has become an average player at best when healthy and his defense doesn’t stop anybody. I have never seen a player with so much talent get neitralized by blocker so easily. Especailly FBs. All he can do is run down the middle of the field in coverage. To me that doesn’t not make you a great LB.
Forte numbers are down because the line sucks and he also has limited oppurtunities becaue the team is always playing from behind. I think I heard a stat that said that Cutler has only thrown some 50 passes when the team is not losing. That is all you need to know about this team. They are just BAD!!!!!
Love it….
Tulane? The bears need to bring in Bob Toledo…
Urlacher is a prime example of why big name players are sometimes allowed to “get away” from their teams in free agency. Then they take their big contract and ‘tude and go underperform somewhere else.
Didn’t Urlacher hurt himself on a pretty much borderline dirty play?
At least Urlacher got one thing right when he was flapping his jaws at the beginning of the season. He was definitely right about Jay Cutler being a pussy!
===”"Urlacher has his own opinion. If I couldn’t make anybody miss, I probably wouldn’t be playing pro football,” Forte said”====
Read between the lines. Forte doesn’t think much of Urlacher. This team seems to be divided between the young future building blocks of the team (Cutler, Forte, Knox, Olsen, Bennett, Hester) and the old farts who are overpaid underachieving whiners still trying to live in the glory of days gone by (Urlacher, Tommie Harris, Ogunleye, Kreutz). Only Briggs and Tillman have been stepping their game up among the veterans.
Forte, Cutler, Knox, Olsen – all these guys don’t really have much of a connection to the old guard of team leaders like Urlacher. They don’t owe them any kind of loyalty. None of those guys were here when Urlacher and Kreutz and Harris were leading them to wins. If anything, I see them rallying around Cutler now. They see the pounding he’s taking out there every week without complaining or pointing fingers.
They know that for better or worse he’s the guy that the organization is going to try to build around.
I sense that lines are being drawn on this team and there might be a purge of veterans coming this offseason, if only to just get a more unified locker room. Just keep Briggs and Tillman and Desmond Clark and dump all the other guys with 7+ years of service on this team and start over.
Forte’s pissed because Urlacher had the gonads (and perhaps the stupidity) to publicly state what everyone else has been saying all year, particularly the part about the RB’s lack of elusiveness.
Matte Forte has done N O T H I N G in this league except for one decent rookie campaign. I new he was overrated in fantasy leagues when all the so called experts wanted to pick him number one or two.
Make your mark in this league before you second guess legitimate stars that have paid their dues puppy.
CHILD PLEASE!!! Do something over a ten year span before you run your mouth.
Notorious V.I.C. did you just say Cutler doesn’t point fingers?????? I’m pretty sure that’s all he does. No matter what happens in a game, he’ll find someone to blame.
Anyone think it’s just a coincedence that teams Cutler plays on never do well? Make excuses for him all you want. “his defense sucked in Denver, he was always playing from behind.” “He’s not to blame for the terrible team in Chicago, their oline sucks.”
Meanwhile during this stretch Cutler has lead the NFL in INTs, hasn’t comeback from a game he was down by 10 points in, and has never posted a winning season.
Rosenthal, you went to Tulane?
That explains everything, you slack-jawed redneck hillbilly.
Maybe Forte isn’t elusive, but you don’t say it in the media. Schism, maybe. Notorius V makes a goos case.
….that’s good case.
whatthehellisgoingonoutthere says:
December 2, 2009 7:56 PM
At least Urlacher got one thing right when he was flapping his jaws at the beginning of the season. He was definitely right about Jay Cutler being a pussy!
===================================
This sounds like the old case”it takes one to know one” Do you ever quit spewing your crap douche? go away!
Both have a good point. Forte is having some issues. Still, if the D was dominating the way they used to, the offense wouldn’t have to be throwing in the fourth quarter to keep up or catch up. So, they could run the clock out like they used to and get the garbage yards they used to get. Oh, and running in the fourth quarter when you’ve had the ball most of the game means the big play is a good possibility. So, Forte certainly has reason to gripe with no line and a D that keeps every opponent in the game until the clock expires…
Forte has never been an elusive RB, I don’t know why people expect him to be. He has a couple (like, literally two) nifty moves, he has good vision, good hands, can block, and is a hard worker. That’s why he is who he is, because he works hard and does the little things right.
He’s no Chris Johnson. He’s no AP. He’s never going to be. But he his a good all-around back that can help out in the passing game, even if he’s not a world-beater on the ground.
The offensive line went into panic mode when St. Clair moved on (man he hustled the Browns with that contract) and Tait retired this off-season, and the solutions haven’t panned out at all. Fix that line, and everything gets better.
Also, if the defense could keep a team from converting on 3rd and long, the offense might get a better shot to get some rhythm going.
If Urlacher could find a way to play a whole season, then maybe he could talk…… But this are the Bears and they still Suck!!!!! I guess Cutler really did make a difference. Ha Ha.
If Urlacher would stop jerking off maybe his wrist would heal and he could actually add something positive to the team. What a useless piece of crap and a cancer on the team. Send the vagina packing, there’s nothing worst than a bitching old whore.
Hard to make anyone miss when your are running into a wall. O line is terrible and Forte hardly makes it pat the down linemen.
Urlacher played one half of one game of football this year.
# whatthehellisgoingonoutthere says: December 2, 2009 7:56 PM
At least Urlacher got one thing right when he was flapping his jaws at the beginning of the season. He was definitely right about Jay Cutler being a pussy!
—————————————————-
Yet Urlacher is the one with the limp wrist.
Shut the ll up Brian.
Your act grew old here about three years ago.
Hey Urlacher have you looked at the defenses stats lately they can’t stop my grandma with a rocker. They suck and your a overpaid whinny Pussy. I’d bet Jay would beat your ass. Just make sure he’s had his insulin before you pick a fight you pussy.
A well-known Chicago sportswriter wrote before the Bears-Bengals game that Cedric Benson was terrible because he only averaged 3.8 YPC as a Bear. Funny, but Forte’s YPC last year was 3.6 and its even worse this year. Forte blows and so do the Bears. They ran TWELVE PLAYS for TWO YARDS in the second half against the Vikings. Pathetic! Luckily the Bears’ expert GM/Head Coach braintrust pissed away next’s years 1st and 2nd round picks for Cutler and Gaines Adams. That’s not pathetic, that’s just sad. What a mess.
Signs of a lame duck coach – players speak their mind at will.
Its true though. I can’t make ANYBODY miss.
Yes Forte can make people miss.
He is making Bear fans miss Thomas Jones.
@bearsrule…
Uhhh, who doesn’t want a lapdance in a recliner? I sure do