| 26 September 2009
Just about any radio show or NFL website I heard or read from this week all have the Bears winning. Mind you they're not supposed to win by a little, but they're supposed to win by a lot, they're supposed to flex their muscles this week against a team that should struggle to make the playoffs in an improving NFC West divison.
ESPN, CNNSI, and more importantly, perhaps emphatically the local Bears shows have the Bears winning and winning big. The Bears should go into Seattle and pretty much dominate the game according to the prognosticators. From Tom Thayer to Dan Hampton, the honest expectations for our Chicago Bears is complete domination in all facets of this game.
So why is it the Bears should dominate this game? Start with Jay Cutler and end with the Bears' pass rushers who are performing at a much higher level than last year. The Bears' defense should be up to the task of stopping a Seattle defense that will be starting back up QB Seneca Wallace. While Wallace has nice stats for a back up, his win loss record is 5-9 while at the starting controls of the Seahawk offense. Moreover the Seahawks have yet to establish anyone as a solid rusher to help take the heat off of the passing game. With this being the case they will likely have trouble scoring against what is becoming a strong Bears defense by the week.
While the Bears have room for improvement, the fact of the matter is right now they currently rank fifth in the league in total defense after playing two teams that both have playoff caliber offenses. While Alex Brown is not 100-percent for this game, he is expected to make his start this weekend and if he isn't playing well Mark Anderson has thus far proven he's ready to step up his level of production. If Brown can be the run stopper and Anderson the pass rusher the Bears should be able to attack a Seahawk offense that hasn't faced a team with a dynamic pass rusher as of yet.
On offense the Bears will likely look to get the running game going and given this game is being played on artificial field turf, the perfect playing surface for Forte's speed and cuts Forte should be raring to go. The Seahawks' starting defense has also been decimated by injuries with two of three starting linebackers out and one of their startin DTs out as well. The Bears will attack hard with Forte to take the pressure off the passing game and to give other teams throughout the league something to worry about on film other than Cutler. I suspect the Bears will give the Seahawks a pretty heavy dose of Forte early given what Frank Gore was able to do versus the same defense last week. This could be a game in which the Bears lean on Forte just to get his legs under him and to help prove how dangerous Cutler can be with the support of a strong running game.
One of the most overlooked aspects of this game maybe the playing surface and how it will benefit the Bears' defense and skill players on offense. This team is built on speed from Devin Hester, Danieal Manning, Lance Briggs, Tommie Harris and of course the blazing rookie Johnny Knox. After starting the season on long slow grass at both Lambeau and Soldier Fields the Bears should find the field to be very accommodating to their speed play. The fact of the matter is this isn't your father's typical smash mouth Chicago Bears team, this team has a lot of speed at important positions.
The biggest surprise for the Bears maybe the benefit of Tommie Harris playing on this field. The spongy soft surface coupled with more grip should benefit Harris. Add to the fact that Harris feels a bit of motivation going into this game to prove he can still play at a high level and produce in the same way O-Gun and Brown have in the first two games and we may see some surprising production from Harris. Harris has faced some double teams this year and has shown some burst, but hasn't come up to play at the level that is demanded of him by the fans. He has been competent though and I think this could be a game that quiets a lot of his critics.
Elsewhere in this match up receiver T.J. Houshmandzadeh has been running his mouth all week against not only the Bears' front office for not making an attempt to sign him, but also against the Bears' secondary. Oddly he was not known to be the big talker on the Bengals, that role belonged to Chad Johnson. In this case though Houshmandzadeh has decided to stir up a hornet's nest in the Chicago locker room. While the Bears are not publicly the type of players to get in a war of words, rest assured the type of bulletin board material Houshmandzadeh has provided will be used in this game in a big way. Charles Tillman is one more week removed from his off-season back surgery and recovery seems to be fine and he played at a high level last week against the Steelers. The Bears feed off of this type of no respect motivation and I suspect that Lovie Smith will be more than happy to game plan for the only real weapon on the Seahawks' offense this week.
The biggest factor though is Jay Cutler who has already gone out and proven that he is the best of both Kyle Orton and Rex Grossman combined. Meaning he can play within himself, and lead this offense down the field on a 97-yard scoring drive against the Pittsburgh Steeler defense, or he can throw the ball down field for completions of more than 20-yards, more than any Bears QB did all of last year. With the emergence of Johnny Knox and the Greg Olsen starting to find his groove the Bears may open it up via the play-action pass against a very young Seahawks defense. If the Bears are able to come out with all of the cylinders in this offensive engine firing at the same time they could very well put up an offensive point total that Bears fans haven't seen since 2006.
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