BY JIM LANG
sportsnet.ca
Tight end Greg Olsen had three catches for 29 yards and a touchdown as the Chicago Bears snapped their two game losing streak Sunday vs. the Buffalo Bills in Toronto.
After the game, I caught up with Olsen and he was brutally honest in his assessment of the Bears win over Buffalo. “We’re still a work in progress and by no means are we perfect but a win is a win. But there’s some things were going to have to improve on this week.”
Offensive lineman Roberto Garza echoed Olsen’s sentiments about the importance of the Bears finding a way to win: “We did a good job of doing what we had to do to win the football game. At the end of the day that’s what counts, winning the football game and moving forward.”
Despite their 5-3 record, the Bears offence has taken a lot of criticism this year. As Olsen explained, nobody is more aware of the issues facing the Bears than the players themselves. “Winning in this league is hard, playing perfect is hard so that’s obviously what were striving for but at the same time it is very difficult. So were very happy with the win but at the same time we’re not content that it's good enough and we have to continue to get better in order to win down this home stretch.”
As Garza explained, no one can take away the fact that the Bears are 5-3 after eight games: “In this league it is hard to win football games so when you do that you are obviously doing some things right.”
No player inspires more criticism from Bears fans than quarterback Jay Cutler. However in the Bears win over the Bills, Cutler made some nice throws and while he fumbled once, he didn’t throw a single interception. That was huge for the Bears because in their loss to the Redskins, Cutler tossed four of them. While Cutler takes a lot of heat from the fans and the media in Chicago, Olsen and the Bears receivers love him. “He does a lot of things that goes that kind of go under the radar keeping plays alive, running for first downs, buying time sliding around the pocket to give you some extra time to re-work your routes.”
After the game, Cutler gave the credit to the win to the Bears defence. "The defence is keeping us alive, keeping us in games, getting turnovers getting us good field position. As long as we can keep coming along offensively and catch up to the defence, I think we can be a really good team come December.”
For a team that went into the game ranked dead last in red zone offence, scoring three times on four trips inside the Bills 20-yard line was crucial. Another key factor in the game was the Bears commitment to running the football. In their loss to the Redskins, the Bears only ran the ball 16 times. In Sunday’s win over the Bills, the Bears ran the ball 31 times. Because offensive coordinator Mike Martz ran the ball so much, Jay Cutler only had to throw the ball 30 times, thus cutting down on the potential for turnovers.
Of the 50,746 fans in attendance, even the Bills conceded that it felt like Bears fans made up at least half the crowd. Now that their win over the Bills is out of the way, the Bears can concentrate on getting prepared to host Brett Favre and the Vikings in a crucial NFC North showdown next Sunday at Soldier Field.
