A little free advice

As soon as the Bears “go back to the drawing board,” and “look at themselves in the mirror,” and “refuse to quit,” and “watch the film to see what they can do better,” they should consider a few things.

First, they need to keep throwing screen passes. It seems the Bears have never been able to execute that play, but against the 49ers, Matt Forte had pickups of 37 and 31 yards on screen passes. Since the offensive line doesn’t appear capable of slowing down the pass rush, the Bears have to find alternatives.

A properly executed screen is an excellent counter move to an overaggressive pass rush, and any defense that has seen film of the Bears’ O-line is sure to be coming after Jay Cutler with everything it has. A draw play here and there might also slow down the pass rush.

Also, the Bears have talked about moving the pocket by having Cutler roll out to avoid the rush. That’s a good idea, but they need to do more than talk about it. Cutler is an effective threat as a runner, and if he’s rolling out, he can buy time for his receivers or keep it himself and avoid injury by having the option of running out of bounds before he’s hit.

Finally, keep going to Greg Olsen. He’s shown in the past two games how valuable he can be with 12 catches, 146 yards and 3 touchdowns. He’d be even more productive if he was allowed to stretch the field vertically, but that would require some pass protection.