| 20 September 2009
Already two games into the season and Bears fans around various networks are starting to worry about Matt Forte's production. One thread I read even called it a sophomore slump. A couple other boards weren't criticizing Forte, rather pointing out the amount of yards old Bear Cedric Benson has had in Cincinatti for the Bungles. The subtle mentions of Benson and the out right panic over Matt Forte is more than a little absurd. Bears fans need to stop and not panic over two games in which Matt Forte has struggled and realize that teams are going to gang up on stopping Forte. Teams are going to sell out to stop Forte until someone else on the Bears' offense can prove that they are capable of beating them. This happened today with Jay Cutler spreading the ball around to six different receivers and both Greg Olsen and Johnny Knox making big catches while in single coverage.
Rightfully so teams are going to try to stop Forte as they feel he is the only weapon the Bears' offense has. This in turn leaves Bears receivers in single coverage and it's up to those receivers to make them pay. Kellen Davis did just that today while the Steelers were focusing on Forte and Greg Olsen. Davis caught his first career touchdown and made other catches for first downs that made the Steelers think twice about ganging up on Olsen.
The Bears' passing attack is just starting to find it's groove a mere two games into the season, and already it was able to ring up the longest scoring drive the vaunted Pittsburgh Steelers' defense has given up in three years. Three years the Steelers have been able to prevent teams going for long drawn out scoring drives, but the Bears did that today while being mostly one-dimensional.
Forte will come alive soon enough there is no reason to think he won't. Since 2004 a span of five seasons the Steelers have consistently been among the top three run stopping defense's in the league. They have finished no worse than third over that time span and only in 2003 did they rank 12th in the league in stopping the run. This defense prides itself on making teams complete passes in third and long situations why they bring all sorts of exotic blitzes to pressure the QB. The Bears today took exactly what the Steelers leave open and that is the short to intermediate passing attack with receivers in single coverage. By attacking with great efficiency Cutler was able to complete 72-percent of his passes.
Yes Forte was stopped, but as he showed in the pre-season his injury is fine and he will get his yards. Those yards will likely come next week against the Seattle Seahawks who were gashed by Frank Gore today for over 200-yards rushing and two touchdowns. If the Seahawks gang up on Forte it will keep the passing attack open and Cutler will make the Seahawks pay.
Forte is fine, he's healthy and this offense will benefit either from his lack of production (teams loading up the box to stop him) or he will be productive because teams will try to slow down the efficient passing attack that Cutler guides. The efficiency on offense was there last week against the Packers, and it was this week against the Steelers. The difference? Cutler made the right calls and made the Steelers pay.
The Bears won't be facing one of the best run defense's in the league on a week to week basis to expect Forte to pick up where he left off and start to punish teams who try to slow down the passing attack.
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