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So Bears fans, or in fact fans of the NFL in general, what can we take away from the 2015 NFL season?
It was a season that ended in a 6-10 record and last place in the NFC North.
Well first of all I’ll jump back a little further to the 2014 season under the Marc Trestman era.
A season that probably ranks as the worst I’ve seen as a Bears fan of more than 25 years. Such a disappointing year when you consider they were tipped to make the playoffs before it started. The defence was terrible, there was apparent locker room fighting and a head coach at the helm in Marc Trestman who was completely out of his depth in that position.
First of all I’ll start off on the positives.
Jay Cutler
Yes, the much maligned quarterback and apparent “coach killer” had probably his best season as a Chicago Bear. His completion percentage was the second best of his career at 64.4 per cent while throwing for 3,659 yards and 21 touchdowns in 15 games played. He also had a career high passer rating of 92.3. But perhaps most telling was his 11 interceptions which were the least he’s ever had when playing 15 or 16 games in a season.
Statistics aside, if you watched Cutler closely enough this season it was easy to see how comfortable and confident he was particularly on third down situations. Even when the Bears were down he showed he had belief in what he was trying to do. This was a credit to him when you consider his number one target, wide receiver Alshon Jeffery missed a lot of time due to various injuries throughout the year leaving Cutler to throw to the likes of Cameron Meredith and Josh Bellamy.
Jeremy Langford
The fourth round pick out of Michigan State had a nice rookie season and certainly surprised me. We never saw much of him in the first six games of the season as he took a firm backseat behind Matt Forte. But when he came in for an injured Forte in the Week 8 Monday Night Football match-up in San Diego versus the Chargers, we saw a breakout performance from Langford and his impressive form would continue until the end of the season.
Langford wasn’t only impressive as a runner but showed he can pass block and was also effective in the passing game despite a couple of glaring drops. Is Langford the future for the Bears at running back? It certainly looks like he could be and the big question that now remains is whether a soon-to-be out of contract Matt Forte is retained for next season.
The defence
In the 2014 season the Chicago Bears’ defence was terrible and there was no surprise to see previous defensive coordinator Mel Tucker fired. In comes Vic Fangio and what a difference he made. The Bears would finish 14th in the NFL in yards-per-game allowed with 345. Then fourth in the NFL in passing-yards-per-game with 224 but then a below average 2second against the run with 120.9 yards allowed per game.
Again I feel this is a great improvement especially as the Bears transitioned, for the first time in their history, from a 4-3 defence to a 3-4 defence and a lot of players Fangio had inherited were ‘4-3 guys’. Players like free-agent signing Pernell McPhee and rookie defensive tackle Eddie Goldman as well as another rookie, Safety Adrian Amos had solid years. Outside linebacker Willie Young also had a strong finish to the season with 5.5 sacks in the last seven weeks of the season.
So now onto the not-so-positives, and certainly areas the Bears need to improve of if they are to contend in 2016.
Special teams
The unit as a whole was disappointing in 2015. The Bears did not get one touchdown either by a kick-off return or punt return. Returner Marc Mariani was serviceable but never really threatened to break one for a long score.
Normally reliable kicker Robbie Gould was very up and down. Yes he kicked the game winner in week 4 versus the Oakland Raiders for the Bears’ first win of the season, but he would miss key field goals that would ultimately cost the Bears a win and there were even calls for him to be cut in the off-season, which I don’t personally endorse.
Slow starts
The Bears had a knack of starting off slowly in a lot of games in 2015, most noticeably on offense. This lead to the Bears playing a lot of catch-up football to crawl their way back into games, and while they showed they could come back and make a game of it they would still lose a lot of close games. This could have been avoided if they came out the blocks a little quicker to stamp their authority on a game from the get-go.
Consider this – five of their 10 loses came by four points or fewer. Imagine if they won say four of those? I’d be sitting here writing about a 10-6 Bears instead of a 6-10 one.
Pass-rush
Yes I did write that the Bears defence was a positive in 2015 but the pass-rush certainly was not. This was certainly the case from the start through to the middle of the season, with Pernell McPhee being the only player showing any kind of pass-rush during this time.
Towards the end of the season the sack totals improved with the help of Willie Young who finished with 6.5 sacks on the year and Lamarr Houston who finished on 8 sacks, which would lead the Bears. However the total sacks the defence generated came to 35, tied for 2second in the NFL in total sacks. This has to be better in 2016.
The 2015 Bears were much improved from 2014. The close loses the Bears experienced did hurt this team and at times the lack of talent was obvious to see, but credit to the coaches here. I felt John Fox did a decent job in his first year as head coach and the foundations are there to get better for next year and beyond.
It was also reported this week that quarterback coach Dowell Loggains has been promoted to offensive coordinator, replacing the departed Adam Gase who took the Miami Dolphins head coaching position.
I like this move and feel it can bring offensive continuity for the Bears and he also works well with Jay Cutler and seems to understand the system the Bears run on offense too. So let’s see how this plays out next season.
There are lots to consider for the 2016 Bears, but the 2015 Bears showed they are building something special. Get excited Chicago!
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