Many of us wanted to see more of Jay Cutler last Saturday against the San Diego Chargers, but he only played one series. Fans were hoping to see more of the Mike Martz offense, but Ron Rivera made sure to blitz the Chicago Bears into submission. The white flag was waved.

While it would have been easy to call out Lovie Smith on this one, it really wasn’t in the best interest of the team to lose its franchise quarterback over bitterness from Rivera towards Smith. Remember that Smith fired Rivera after losing in Super Bowl XLI. Plus, it was only the first preseaon game and Matt Forte proved he had no idea how to block.

Three other factors should be noted here…Cutler and current Chargers quarterback Philip Rivers have a longstanding rivalry…or let’s face it…they pretty much hate each other. Perhaps this had to do with Cutler’s playing days with the Denver Broncos.  Or…was Norv Turner doing his brother and former offensive coordinator Ron a favor by raining on the parade of Martz?

Last Saturday’s game served more as the Chargers revenge opportunity and less about football. Norv Turner is classless along with his franchise. It’s the preseason and frankly, while its football, this is the time for players to get better and not get killed. Maybe the Chargers should focus on actually winning a playoff game or two and not treating the preseason like a Mel Gibson phone call.

Now this next game will hopefully not be as brutal and the Oakland Raiders will take this as an opportunity to get better and kick the crap out of the Chargers for us in the regular season.

I don’t know about the rest of you, but I am so glad that the days of Jason McKie are over. I was so sick and tired of watching him not gain yards or drop short passes. Now that Ron Turner is gone, so are the days of the boring fullback that does little but take up space. To this day, I am trying to understand exactly what McKie brought to the table, and I am still not quite sure. He really never seemed to block anyone and when he would actually catch a pass, it would be for very little yardage. This was one of many things that Turner seemed to do well…have eligable receivers that teams knew darn well were not getting the football. Or if that player did, bad things would probably happen.

Now let’s welcome Mike Martz. Martz’s offense specifically requires each eligable player to do a specific task on every play. Working within a cohesive unit, each receiver’s responsibilities opens up opportunities for a teammate.

One of the key’s to his offense is the use of the H-Back. What is an H-Back you might ask? Well an H-Back traditionally serves as a player with the combined skills of a fullback and tight end. The H-Back will line up in the backfield in a spot similar to where the fullback would line up or in support or on the line of scrimmage. The H-Back may also go in motion to the desired location. So the player is not exactly a fullback but can play that roll…he is also not a traditional tight end but can play that roll as well.

Don Coryell, who is considered by many to be the father of the modern passing game, in one of his many innovations identified that the tight end could be used as more than just a blocker. While Martz has varied this approach a little bit, it still comes from this general concept. In fairness to Ron Turner, he tried some of these things too, but seemed to favor McKie over more athletic type players that Martz has had a tendency to favor in this roll.

During the St. Louis Rams great runs, Ernie Conwell was that type of player. He would line up in the backfield and find his way into the short-to-immediate passing zone and create an option for Kurt Warner. This would open everything up for the “Greatest Show on Turf” to work its way downfield.

[picappgallerysingle id="3838048"]Based on this, the Chicago Bears have two great candidates for this type of player…Greg Olsen and Desmond Clark. Both are guys that have shown some receiving skills and in the case of Clark, a guy that can block when he has to do so. Brandon Manumaleuna will play the roll of tight end (that is known for blocking first in the Martz offense), but the other two guys will fill the roll nicely at H-Back.

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One of the team’s two Devins, Aromashodu came on in the last few games of the season and proved to be a very valuable member of the team. He caught some big passes including an overtime one against the Vikings on Monday Night Football. Devin Aromashodu has good size for a receiver and deceptive speed.

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What took so long…

For whatever reason, last season’s offensive coordinator Ron Turner had to be begged by quarterback Jay Cutler to give Aromashodu a chance to play. It was not like the Bears had great receivers to begin with, so his playing time should not have been a problem. Perhaps this was the final nail in Turner’s coffin last season, but new offensive coordinator Mike Martz likes his group of receivers and Aromishadu has is one of those guys. Now that he has an offensive coordinator with a clue and a full season to prove his skills, the Bears may have found something.

The Verdict…

Look,  I would love for this to be a great story for the Bears. It would be nice if the Bears found this guy and he develops into a good NFL receiver. But I am not quite ready to predict that…but I think he has proven he can play in this league and maybe with the right system in place, the Chicago Bears will have something going here. Let’s hope!!!

The feedback from Jay Cutler and other Bears was quite positive. “Mike (Martz) does a great job of mixing things up and keeping the defense off balance, putting guys in match-ups where they can win.” Cutler said. “It’s exciting. It’s changing. It’s always different.”

It should be noted that Cutler was picked off twice Friday by Brian Urlacher and Zach Bowman, but he also completed some passes to several players including Greg Olsen. I mention this because it has been reported that the Bears were shopping Olsen in the off-season and Martz has not liked tight ends that do not block well in his past positions.

Much has been made about issues of a working relationship between Martz and Cutler. According the coach Lovie Smith, the relationship is solid. “What I hope to see is exactly how it’s been from Day 1,” Smith said. “They have mutual respect for each other. Of course being in the middle, I knew both of the guys, knew that it would be a good fit.”

I know two things for sure. Jay Cutler is a talented quarterback and Mike Martz is a talented coach. If both can work together, this will be an exciting offense. Both guys have bad reputations, so the opportunity for both to prove critics wrong may be strong motivation. Look, going from Ron Turner to Mike Martz is like going from a ham sandwich to a filet mignon. This will only help the Bear’s offense.

Your thoughts please!!!

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After three weeks, rookie running back Matt Forte leads all NFL running backs in carries with 73 touches. Forte has carried the load for Chicago early in the season, which should cause teams to bring more men into the box opening up the passing game. Forte’s 304 rushing yards ranks him fourth in the league, and he ranks second in yards from scrimmage behind Frank Gore with 405 total yards. And Lovie Smith says his work load isn’t going to decrease anytime soon, “He’s young right now with a lot of energy. Whenever Matt isn’t on the field, it isn’t really good for us.”

First round draft pick Chris Williams returned to practice for the first time Wednesday since his surgery. Williams put the pads on and everything, but was limited to individual and conditioning drills. No time table is set for Williams return, and Run Turner believes it will take a while for the rookie to get into full team practice as he had no training camp or pre-season.

In other news around the division, the Detroit Lions have finally let go of general manager Matt Millen. During Millen’s tenure with the Lions, the team finished has more loses than any other team.