The end is (thankfully) near

One more game to go until that staggering, lumbering beast that is the Chicago Bears 2009 season is finally put out of its misery. After the year began on such a high note with the trade for Jay Cutler (which I would still make every time), to be where we are now, as an organization, is particularly disappointing. There was an article in the papers yesterday in which Alex Brown said that people just don't understand how devastating the loss of Brain Urlacher was to this team and he basically blamed the wasted year on that injury.

I put some credence into that, but I also believe you can't ever use injuries as an excuse. Injuries are part of the game and they happen to everyone. But I believe that Urlacher definitely helped to give that defense a personality and toughness that they seem to lack without him.

Other than Briggs, I don't think there are people on our defense that really instill fear in anyone. Urlacher, whatever you want to say about him losing a step or being overrated, brought the fear. He also brought an maybe held people more accountable than the other defensive leaders did. With Mike Brown run out of town and Urlacher suddenly out of the picture, there was definitely a lack of leadership and an identity crisis that went down on that side of the ball.

So you had a defense in the midst of an identity crisis. On the other side of the ball you had an offense equally confused about who they were supposed to be. You had three new starters on the offensive line. You had a new hotshot quarterback but not a single receiver with any meaningful experience in the league. You had Matt Forte regress and become not much of a factor. You claim you get off the bus running—you've always been that team—but suddenly you can't run. You want to throw but you're not set up to be a throwing team. You're built to run, except you just bought Orlando Pace who can't run block anymore, you have Chris Williams who you drafted to play left tackle playing right tackle, and you're new starting left guard, Frank Omiygale, has never played guard.

There were some good things about the win against Minnesota last week. Chris Williams looked like he can maybe be a left tackle in this league. Cutler reminded us why we like him. Devin Aromashodu looks like he may be a real receiver. On defense I think Zack Bowman continues to improve. Craig Steltz looked pretty good I thought. Tommie Harris had his best game of the year.

But we've still got more questions than answers at this point. And without picks in the first two rounds of the draft and the uncertainty of the salary cap situation looming, there aren't a lot of moves the Bears are going to be able to make to improve in the near term.