Odds and end zones: Aftermath of 49ers debacle

November 20, 2012, 9:14 pm

	JOHN "MOON" MULLIN Archive
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Exactly how significant or revealing the Bears’ 32-7 nightmare against the San Francisco 49ers was won’t truly be evident until at least next Sunday against the Minnesota Vikings and the on successive Sundays against Seattle, the Vikings again and Green Bay. By then the season and the questions will quite possibly have been settled.
 
But the aftershocks from a game like reach potentially beyond the immediate game situations of 2012:
 
2013 draft plans
 
Simply concluding that Aldon Smith established that the Bears will address offensive line, chiefly tackle, with anywhere from two to four picks in next year’s draft may be how matters play out. The performances of Gabe Carimi and J’Marcus Webb were collectively as poor as any in recent Bears history.
 
But there is a cycle to drafting that makes it a deadly proposition to be forced into addressing the same position repeatedly in a short time frame. That draws away picks that should have been addressing other needs coming in the normal replacement cycle. The Bears know from experience.
 
Sometimes it can work. They used No. 1 picks on tackles in 1981 (Keith Van Horne) and again in 1983 (Jim Covert). That was necessitated by injuries taking Dennis Lick (1976) and Ted Albrecht (1977), both No. 1’s themselves.
 
The Bears overcame that with stellar drafting, including nearly the entire 1983 class plus a succession of hits on high picks on Hall of Famers (Dan Hampton, Mike Singletary, Richard Dent) and high hits like Jim McMahon, Otis Wilson, Wilber Marshall, Tom Thayer and others into a team with a Walter Payton base.
 
But more common are the disasters on the line after Covert suffered a career-ending back injury. The Bears were forced to use their 1991 No. 1 on Stan Thomas and 1992 No. 2 on Troy Auzenne, both major disappointments in search of replacements for Covert and Van Horne.
 
The Bears were able to overcome the 2002 No 1 used for Marc Columbo, whose Chicago career was over before it started because of knee injuries. But it took heavy spending in free agency for Fred Miller and John Tait. The Bears cannot count on that kind of success in a time of a diminishing talent pool on the offensive line and a shrinking salary cap.
 
If Carimi, Webb and now-gone Chris Williams are all draft misses ultimately, the Bears can ill afford to spend multiple picks on the offensive line at the expense of needs on the other side of the ball.
 
Worth noting?
 
A division-leading team giving up six sacks in a 20+-point blowout loss after cleaning up on doormats. That would be the San Francisco 49ers, stomping the New York Jets and Buffalo Bills in succession by a combined 79-3 score, then being drubbed 26-3 (giving up the 26 without answering) by the New York Giants. At home.

Lovie “watch”
 
A debacle like the one Monday in Candlestick Park will start the Lovie Smith haters eagerly anticipating a death spiral that will end with the Bears out of the playoffs and the Bears’ coach out of a job.
 
Anything is possible. Mike Tice could be one-and-done as offensive coordinator as well, definitely if the offensive bumbling continues. Jeremy Bates, too.
 
If someone wants the Bears to collapse just to see Smith be fired, that suggests other issues in play there.
 
But the Bears had back-to-back nightmares in 2010, losing to Seattle (six sacks of Jay Cutler) and Washington (four sacks four interceptions) in miserable performances -- at home --  and recovered to reach the NFC Championship game.
 
The 2011 season was “over” after the two-game embarrassments vs. Green Bay and New Orleans for a 1-2 start, and “over” again when an unraveling in Detroit (three sacks, six false-start penalties) left the Bears at 2-3. When Cutler went down with his thumb injury, they had recovered to 7-3 with five straight wins.
 
That’s not likely this year, even with a Cutler return, given the difficulty factor of the next four games.
 
But the Giants were 6-4 at the 10-game mark last season. The Green Bay Packers were 7-3 at this point of the 2010 season and even lost three of their last six. Their seasons didn’t end badly.

The Bears' will if the offense continues to score one or zero touchdowns per game,which it has in four of the last five games, the only exception being the laugher in Tennessee. Still, best to let the whole thing play out before firing coaches, players and anyone else.

Tags: nfl, Football, NFC North, Hall of Fame, NFC, NFC championship, Chicago, Buffalo Bills, San Francisco 49ers, Jay Cutler, Mike Singletary, new york jets, Seattle Seahawks, Chicago Bears, Candlestick Park, Minnesota Vikings, New York Giants, Washington Redskins, Lovie Smith, Green Bay Packers, Chris Williams, Walter Payton, Jeremy Bates, Super Bowl, Detroit Lions, Mike Tice, New Orleans, Richard Dent, J'Marcus Webb, tennesee titans, Jim McMahon, Jim Covert, Wilber Marshall, John 'Moon' Mullin, Dan Hampton, Gabe Carimi, Otis Wilson, Aldon Smith, Keith Van Horne, Dennis Lick, Tom Thayer, Marc Columbo, John Tait , Ted Albrecht, Stan Thomas, Troy Auzenne, Fred Miller