Whether the Bears indeed are on a right track offensively with the preponderance of their offense running through Brandon Marshall will be a topic until its proven to be a winning formula. On the weekly visit with Danny and Matt on The McNeil and Spiegel Show on WSCR-AM 670 The Score, that was a major issue.
Spiegs pointed out that Marshall has been targeted 120-some times while the next highestEarl Bennetthas seen 40 come his way. Texters to the show noted that Bennett missed two games and Alshon Jeffery five with injuries. But if anyone supposes that would necessarily have made a huge swing in the distribution, consider that Bennett was there for Minnesota, caught every pass thrown to him, which was a total of four vs. the 17 thrown to Marshall.
But its really not as simple as are-the-Bears-going-to-Marshall-too-much? questions. Spiegs thought, and I agree completely, that despite all the upheaval on the offensive line vs. the Vikings, the Bears established an identity.
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The most notable part of that identity obviously was that they won. And they did it by running their backs 36 times for a total of 104 yards, less than 2.9 per carry. Jared Allen and the Minnesota rush never really was able to assault Cutler because they never managed to make the Bears one-dimensional.
The guys raised the matter of Matt Forte in all of this, and he is under-utilized compared with what was working for the Bears offensively last season. Jay Cutler said Fortes touches would decrease because of Marshalls presence. But my question here is whether Cutler is on course to being Dan Marino, someone who deep down saw his right arm as the key to the Promised Land of Roman numeral games, and it never was.
Wins, yes. Championships, no.