by Ben Muth

Last Sunday night the Bears came back from double digits to beat San Francisco on the road. It was a big win for Chicago, which needed a win after dropping the opener at home to Buffalo and got a memorable performance from Brandon Marshall. But of course, we're here to talk about what happened up front for Chicago.

Overall, I felt the Bears' offensive line played all right. The best thing the Bears' front did was protect Jay Cutler. The 49ers pass rush got home a couple of times, but overall the Chicago line kept their quarterback upright. It was particularly encouraging because of the way the game played out. The Bears fell behind early and were in a situation where they really had to air it out. That meant the 49ers were able to pin their ears back more than they usually would be able to, but Chicago was able to hold them off anyway. As a result, Cutler was comfortable enough to sit back in the pocket and lead a comeback. If the Bears' line had given up too many pressures early, I don't think that would have been the case.

The biggest issue Chicago had in pass protection was the result of San Francisco's twisting up front, particularly on the left side where Michael Ola was filling in for Matt Slauson at guard. Ola was one of two Bears linemen who played poorly, and his struggles were most pronounced when dealing with line stunts. He just constantly seemed to be at a different level of depth than Jermon Bushrod and Brian De La Puente, and as a result he was always getting picked or getting his neighbors picked. It's to be somewhat expected that passing off stunts would be one area where a fill-in struggles, but you'd like Ola to be better than he was.

Another area of concern for Chicago was the running game. The way the game went, with Chicago falling behind so early, the Bears were never going to go to a ground-and-pound style, but you would hope they could do something with Matt Forte when they did hand it off. Chicago had a hard time moving San Francisco's defensive front off the line of scrimmage. When you add that to the fact that Patrick Willis wasn't blocked all night, you begin to see how one of the best runners in the game finished with a line of 12 carries for 21 yards.

As far as individual players go, I thought Kyle Long and Jermon Bushrod both played very well, Brian De La Puente played fine, and Jordan Mills and Ola were below average. In a game where the Bears line generally couldn't run block, Long himself was pretty good in that phase. When you couple that with a strong night of pass protection (Bushrod was also very good in pass pro), I think it's safe to say that Long was the Bears lineman who played the best. The great thing about watching Long so far has been the one or two plays a game he makes that make you forget you're watching an NFL game.

Even the best linemen in the NFL are not the bulldozers they are often portrayed to be. They are not knocking guys 5 yards off the ball and dumping them on their backs. You'll see the odd play like that, but they are very few and far in between. What an actual dominant offensive lineman looks like is a guard hooking a three technique off the snap, forcing him to lose his gap, and driving him 1 or 2 yards off the ball as the running back hits a nice little lane in the B gap. It's not an offensive tackle crumpling some guy with a massive punch in pass protection; it's staying between your man and the quarterback for all 40 pass attempts. This isn't high school. Being dominant in the NFL means just doing your job consistently and relentlessly for four quarters of a game.

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Actually, forget everything I just said. Did you just see that trap block?! That's Justin Smith playing the Brad Pitt to Kyle Long's bus in the first five minutes of Meet Joe Black (can you spoil something that happens in the first five minutes of a movie?). That's not supposed to happen on a trap play in the NFL. That's what happens when Alabama plays Savannah State. Sure, Kyle Long's technique is very sound here (he takes a great first step, makes contact with his backfield shoulder, and rolls his hips like nobody's business), but talking about technique on a play like that just takes the magic out of it. Just enjoy Kyle Long turning an NFL game into one of those absurd, physic-defying scenes you in a football movie like Varsity Blues.

But as I said, those kind of over-the-top blocks are few and far between. Far more common is an offensive lineman having shoddy technique and getting beat in the most predictable way imaginable. For examples of this, we go to Jordan Mills' pass blocking from the second quarter.

Mills' pass set never looks particularly fluid, but it looks downright clunky whenever he has to kick to a very wide rusher. There isn't much to like with this pass set, but the biggest issues are that he turns his shoulders to the sideline too soon (opening the gate for the rusher to bend the edge to the quarterback), and he's shuffling his feet too close together. Then to top it all off, he doesn't punch at the top of his set. Instead, he bends over at the waste and catches the rusher, not altering the defensive end's course at all, forcing Mills to hold and Jay Cutler to step up into Justin Smith (who kicked Ola's butt with a bull rush).

Contrast Mills' punch with Bushrod's. Bushrod isn't exactly throwing a haymaker, but he throws it straight and extends his arms to keep some distance. Plus, he has good body posture, with his shoulders and head back. Also, Bushrod's base is much better throughout the set. Notice how his feet never get too close together. Mills looks nothing like that, and the biggest concern is that this is a recurring problem with Mills when kicking out to wide rushers.

With his clunky and shuffling set, Mills then turns his shoulders too quickly, followed by bending at the waist and catching on the top of his pass set. It's a different play, but the same script. One of the downsides of playing offensive tackle is that you often have to kick out to wide rushers. It's kind of a big part of the job. It's something Mills has to get better at. Otherwise the Bears are going to once again lead the league in 6OL sets so they can put an extra offensive tackle outside of Mills to help protect him in pass protection. That, obviously, is less than ideal.

Before we go, I did want to finish with a tip of the cap to the 49ers' front seven and Justin Smith in particular. One of the big reasons Chicago's running game was so unimpressive is that the 49ers are still really good at playing run defense. San Francisco plays with sound discipline (everyone knows where their gap is) and has some terrific players on top of it.

Here, the 49ers are in a one-gap scheme. You'll notice Willis actually has two gaps to cover, and that's because of math. Without cheating someone into the box, one defensive player will always have to cover two gaps, and it's almost always the middle linebacker who does this in single-gap schemes. The Bears end up running a simple inside zone scheme and the 49ers (or more specifically Justin Smith) absolutely smother it.

That's a big boy play by Smith right there. He gets into his B gap and then just collapses every gap to his inside (this is another rough one for Ola). This is how you make a play for no gain three gaps over from your assignment without ever losing your own gap. It's like folding time and space onto itself, allowing Justin Smith to be in the backside B gap and the front side C (and all gaps in between) simultaneously, which I'm pretty sure was a plot point of an episode of Star Trek.