Teams dont show much if anything of their schemes in preseason, especially not in first games, when the real point is player evaluation rather than game planning. So when Jason Campbell says that the Bears were vanilla and not rolling out (literally and figuratively) their offense, thats true.
The problem is, the Broncos were vanilla as well on defense. They werent scheming, utilizing blitz packages and so forth. So one disturbing conclusion is that the Bears vanilla is not in the same class as that of Denver, which also finished 8-8 in 2011.
What also is mildly concerning about Thursday is that Campbell started, as did Michael Bush at running back for Matt Forte, and the Bears were still crushed by the Denver defense. A major point of this offseason has been the upgrades behind starters like Jay Cutler and Matt Forte, meaning that the Bears should not have been shut out with those reserves in place.
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The idea was to get well beyond Caleb Hanie and Marion Barber as the No. 2s. The Bears didnt show on Thursday that they have that.