So the Cover-2 was designed to stop the spread-option zone-read, eh?

I normally don't bite on the Tebow-baiting that goes on in the media. If I did, I would be posting rants all the time. However, with that said, I'm going to bite right now.

Once in a while, you hear an argument so fallacious, so flawed, so egregious, so odious, so counter-factual, so conspicuously bad that you just can't let it pass. Such was the case this week. A number of commentators, including my own dear Marshall Faulk, seem to think the disciplined and deep Tampa-Two defense is designed to stop the Spread-Option Zone Read offense.

Say wahhhhh...??? WTF?!?!?

Specifically, several dudes including Merril Hodge and Marshall Faulk seem to think the Chicago Bear defense can thump Tim Tebow and the Broncos today. That is the specific context we're talking about today.

Folks, nothing in the world could be further from the truth. The Tampa-Two is essentially the same defensive philosophy the 1970's Pittsburgh Steelers played. It is a base 4-3 defense in which the MLB drops back deep in the zone on passing plays. The two safeties split left and right and cover the side-lines. If you have a linebacker as great as Jack Lambert, Derrick Brooks, or London Fetcher, it works very well... against the passing offense.

The entire notion of the scheme is to stop the deep pass. Chuck Noll invented the defense because his chief enemies on AFC side of the fence were the Oakland Raiders. The Raiders ran an aggressive Gillman-Coryell vertical passing attack. They threw towards the end zone, not the sideline. A slightly shorter version of this defense has been employed very effectively by Tony Dungy and Lovie Smith to thump the West Coast offense.

Now, I can assure you that Tom Landry never had the Zone-Read Spread Option (ZRSO) offense in mind when he invented the 4-3. I know for a fact he never saw this thing in his entire life. I can also assure you that Chuck Noll never had the ZRSO in mind when he tweaked Landry's 4-3 to produce the Steel-Curtain defense. I can further assure you that Tony Dungy didn't have the ZRSO in mind when he (slightly) modified it for use against the WCO. I can assure you Tony never taught Lovie how the Tampa-Two could be employed to stop the Urban Meyer ZRSO.

No folks, the ZRSO is almost nothing like the deep-strike Gillman-Coryell offense. Neither is it the West Coast Offense. It is a option running assault in which the QB is the prime ball carrier. He can also throw, but he is primarily a runner. I cannot comprehend how this disciplined pass defense, in which the MLB is dropping back into coverage, can automatically be employed to defeat a running QB. This makes no sense.

On the contrary, I see the ZRSO as putting incredible pressure--breaking pressure--on a disciplined cover-2. The MLB cannot drop deep and handle the middle. If he does, the QB goes up the middle. If the MLB comes up to stuff the running QB, he throws the football over his head, jump-pass style.

This offense was designed to piss Brian Urlacher off like no other offense Brian has ever faced before. I think he is going to be one hell of a frustrated man today.

Do you need evidence instead of reason? How about the game last week? You know and I know that the Vikings run the Tampa-Two. You do know that right? Most of commentators showed how the Viking safeties were biting on the inside routes rather than going to the side-lines against the Broncos last week. These 'mistakes' resulted in several of Tim Tebow's big passes to Demaryius Thomas.

Unfortunately, these were not mistakes. They were trap plays. The Broncos were over-loading the zone, sending receivers on matched-pairs of deep 8 and 9 routes. That is a bitch for the Safety. He has to bite on one of the routes. He can't let them both go. If the QB is good, which ever choice the safety makes, he will be wrong. The QB will go to the other receiver. I am sure the Viking Safeties were coached to take the shorter 8 route, as the DCs of this league don't think much of Tim's passing abilities. That's what they did. Tim busted them on the 9 route.

Anyway, I am getting far too specific. Understand this: The Tampa-Two was designed to stop high-flying passing attacks. It was never designed to stop QB-Option running attack. Those who say it is are absolutely and completely crazy. It just 'taint not so.

How 'bout da Bears?

The Bears mad a big splash in free agency this year acquiring the top two free agents on the board: Chester Taylor and Julius Peppers. The also got former Ram Brandon Manumaleuna. These were all good acquisition, but the most important acquisition this year is Mad Mike Martz, one of my favorite guys in the entire world. You know why. I don't need to explain that statement.

So what are the chances for the Bears this season. Regrettably, I don't think they are that good. Chicago is going to be caught in the middle of a prize fight between two heavy weights in the NFC: the Vikings and the Packers. Unfortunate, they still have big problems on the offense line. I truly believe that the Bear offensive line was Jay Cutler's downfall last season. You can't blame a QB who gets such dreadful protection.

There is another and more important issue. At the time Cutler was acquired by the Bears last season, former Bear QB Jim McMahon did an interview for Myers and Hartman. McMahon issued the disclaimer that he is no longer closely following NFL football, but he still has some savvy about the Bears. He said he loved Cutler's talent and skill, but he serious doubted that Cutler would continue to produce as he did in Denver.

You see Chicago has always been a run-first smash-mouth franchise, and there is a reason for that fact. The team plays in an open air stadium, on the shores of Lake Michigan. They have one of the worst facilities in the league, especially in the merry merry months of November and December, where the playoff shakeout always occurs. [San Francisco has the absolute worst facility in the League.] Given the cosmic wind that comes off lake Michigan and the outer-space cold the players endure, it is extremely difficult to throw the football well during November and December in Chicago. As an organization, the Bears have never trusted any QB to throw the football that much. They have always built and rebuilt themselves as a nasty smash-mouth running team.

Fans in Chicago could be heard beginning a discourse about getting a Domed stadium shortly thereafter.

Ergo, the two biggest factors militating against The Greatest Show on Turf in Chicago are:

1. The lack of offensive linemen
2. The dreadful cold wind coming off the shores of Lake Michigan.

You have to admit, both of these factors are going fuck with Mike Martz's vertical passing attack. I think Cutler is the most talented QB that Mike Martz has yet worked with; though we should have caution that there is a lot more to being NFL QB that pure physical talent, or even mechanical polish. If talent was all you needed, Brady Quinn would have made it in this league. You also have a natural turf field and a lack of wide receivers working against you. These are not the conditions under which you launch a Greatest Show on Turf attack.

I recently saw Jeff Joniak on NFL Total access, and he was quite sanguine about the Bears' offensive prospects. He felt they had a shot at scoring 30 points per game. I honestly doubt it. You need some linemen and some better receivers for that task. Mike only achieved this feat once in his career, and that was in St. Louis. Those were 'Perfect Storm' conditions also.

I wish you guys lot of luck. I want Mike and Lovie to be successful together again. I think you will win more than you did last year. As far as taking out both the Vikings and the Packers... I don't think so. Provided that the Lions have an excellent defensive draft, they will be more troublesome also.

Perhaps two more victories and a 9-7 record. I think the Bears will be a lot more competitive with top end teams. I think they will be a lot more threatening than last season, when they really struggled. I felt the Bears were fortunate to go 7-9 given the degree of their struggles last season. You guys struggled to beat my Rams. That was not impressive. Ergo, I think we can reasonably say that the 2009 Bear team finished with a soft 7-9 record. However, I just don't see a very soft 7-9 turning into more than a robust 9-7 this year.