Offensive line improvement? Bears offensive coordinator Mike Tice says he sees it despite QB Jay Cutler hitting the dirt five times against the Lions. (US Presswire)

Even with QB Jay Cutler being tossed around like a rag doll, Chicago Bears offensive line coach Mike Tice sees steady improvement in his offensive line. 

Not every lineman came out of the 13-7 win over Detroit on Monday with the same high marks, especially right tackle Gabe Carimi, but the overall trend, according to Tice, is moving upward despite five sacks allowed to the Lions and 19 given up for the year.

"I feel like the last two weeks, in the three years I've been here, it's the most physical that the offense has been," Tice said. "I didn't say it was the best, but the most physical."

The past two games Carimi has been besieged with penalty flags. Tice said Carimi's problem is technical and begins when he tries to go too much for the pancake-style block. It gets Carimi off balance, and it was the reason he drew a holding penalty while blocking Detroit DE Cliff Avril.

"So now he's got his head over here and his feet over here," Tice said of Carimi. "And it's like the Wizard of Oz with the scarecrow: His head is over here, his feet are over there. And so the guy (Avril) just does a little move and then (Carimi is) on his face and he grabs the guy and gets a holding call."

The scarecrow, aka Carimi, tries to watch for this problem, but said it's not always a curse
"I mean, yeah, I'm overaggressive, but I do a lot of good things when I'm overaggressive, too," he said. "So there are some times I need to just bring it back a little bit."

There's no denying the offensive line has been stellar opening holes. The Bears ran for 214 yards and 171 yards the past two weeks.

"So we're excited that the run game is getting going, but I'd like to see us be a little bit more efficient," Tice said. "We have seven plays that I counted that were blocked except for one guy."

When Tice evaluates film with players, he likes to refer to the player who fouls up a blocking scheme with one missed assignment as "the guy."

Even LG Chilo Raqual was "the guy" on a few plays last game, Tice said, although Raqual had a game so good that WR Brandon Marshall was raving about him on Wednesday.

"I mean, really, I was just finishing to the whistle and probably just a little bit more," Rachal said. "But I want to keep guys off my running backs and if I feel that a linebacker’s still trying to go after someone, so apparently the running back’s still running with the ball, I just want to keep him off my guy."

Tice said the re-commitment he made to run the ball after the Bears loss at Green Bay made a big difference. It let his linemen tee off and attack.

"Just go back and look at the game," Tice said. "There's a lot of (Detroit) guys on the ground and that's a good thing. That's a good thing for the Bears."

Follow Bears reporter Gene Chamberlain on Twitter @CBSBears.