Week 5 brought the Bears their fourth victory of the season, as they manhandled the Carolina Panthers on the defensive side of the ball. I decided not to do a preview of this week's game after I was so far off in last week's game against the Giants (I predicted a 31-14 victory for the Bears over the Giants. We all know what happened). So I figured I'd take a week off from making a game prediction.
I was extremely pleased with the Bears running game today. They scored 2 rushing touchdowns in the first quarter (including a 68 yard beauty by Matt Forte). Overall, the Bears running game clicked to the tune of 218 yards on around 40 carries. Matt Forte rushed for a career high 166 yards on 22 carries. He was dynamic early on, and remained consistent throughout the game. The Bears very nearly had a third rushing touchdown later in the first quarter when Chester Taylor ran 9 yards down to the goal line. After initially signaling for a touchdown, the refs overruled the call, and the Bears proceeded to throw a red-zone interception. It was great to see the Bears get back to the downhill running game that they used so well when they were a winning football team. Hopefully they continue to make more of a commitment to the running game the rest of the season.
Part of the reason the Bears made a strong commitment to the run this week was because backup QB Todd Collins took the start in place of Jay Cutler, who was ruled out with a concussion. Todd Collins showed exactly why he's been a career backup. He was 6-16, for 32 yards and 4 interceptions. If Jay Cutler played today the Bears would have easily put up 40 points. Collins had time to throw, and had receivers running wide open, and just could not hit his own guys. He overthrew Greg Olsen on two plays where Olsen was wide open and could have run for extra yards. He also overthrew Johnny Knox on a deep out that was intercepted. His interceptions were all his fault. It was good for the Bears that they were playing a totally inept Carolina Panthers offense. I didn't think I would see a worse offensive performance than the Bears put up last week, but the Panthers came close.
The Bears defense finally had a great pressure game. A week after releasing Mark Anderson due to lack of production, the Bears plugged Israel Idonije in at Defensive End. He had three sacks in his first start of the season. I would say that is outstanding production opposite Julius Peppers. Peppers is going to see double teams every week. The Bears need to have somebody step up and win one on one match ups to get to the quarterback. Maybe Idonije can be that guy. He definitely was today. Urlacher had an interception, Briggs had a sack, and was unbelievable in the running game again, and Peppers had an extremely athletic interception in the opening quarter. The defense looks extremely strong, and they have to continue to play that way. Hopefully the late game injury to Lance Briggs isn't anything too serious. They can't afford to lose him for any length of time.
On top of the Bears' victory over the Panthers, the Packers lost their second game of the season, 16-13 in OT to the Washington Redskins. With the loss, the Packers fell to 3-2, making the Bears the sole owners of first place in the division through week 5. I know that two of the Bears wins have come with less than stellar performances, but a win is a win. The Bears have 3 straight winnable games coming up (vs. Seattle, vs. Washington, bye, at Buffalo). The game against Washington will be tough, but the other two games are must win games for the Bears if they want to be a playoff team. The last 4 games for the Bears are against the Patriots at home, the Vikings on the road, the Jets at home, and the Packers on the road. That is a brutal stretch to end the season. If it is going to take 10 wins to make the playoffs, the Bears might want to have a 10-2 record going into their last 4 games.
There are several surprises so far this NFL season. The Cowboys, who many picked to go to the Super Bowl this season, are now 1-3 after falling to the Titans this afternoon. The NFL had billed next week's Cowboys/Vikings game to be a critical match up in the NFC playoff race, but if the Vikings lose on the road to the Jets this week, both teams will be 1-3 heading into that match up. The Chiefs have been a pleasant surprise, starting their season at 3-1. The 49ers have been a huge disappointment. Almost everybody was picking the 49ers to win the NFC West, and make the playoffs this season. They haven't handled the expectations well at all, starting the season 0-4 (it could be 0-5; they are currently losing 17-10 to the Eagles).
It is still way to early to be talking about the playoffs, but clearly there are teams separating themselves in both conferences as contenders. The Baltimore Ravens might be the best team in the league with their power running game and stout defense. The Jets have gotten outstanding play from Mark Sanchez at QB, and a rejuvenated Ladanian Tomlinson at RB makes them a dangerous team offensively. Their defense is great, as a Rex Ryan defense should be. I also think the Patriots will be in the discussion, and possibly the Steelers as well. In the NFC there are a bunch of teams packed together. The best records belong to the Bears and the Falcons for the moment, but I have a feeling some teams who aren't playing well at the moment will pick it up. The Giants seem to have recovered from a poor start (3-2). The Redskins, Saints, and Packers are all 3-2. The Buccaneers are 3-1, which is a surprise, but they haven't beaten anybody good (wins against the Panthers, Browns and Bengals). I wouldn't expect the Bucs to continue their winning ways, although they might still play well.
Clearly the Bears have positioned themselves well to make a run at the playoffs. Jay Cutler needs to be a leader now. Winning quarterbacks lead their teams into the playoffs by making plays, not letting their defense do all of the work. Hopefully Cutler begins to reign his team in this week against Seattle.
I liked the way the young lineman blocked.Jmarcus Webb and Edwin Williams...Hopefully we will see some more of them...Manumaleuna decided to finally figure out how to block. He can run block but not pass block so well. Why not have Des Clark active and him and run some jumbo sets. Olsen cannot block, but he is our best patch catching end, but clark is no slouch, I think Cutler would benefit more with him in. I came to the conclusion that if Cutler goes down for an extended period of time Bears are done. Todd Collins and Hainey stink. Sure Hainey may have more upside, but it's like trading apples for oranges. Your still stuck with the fruit. The way this season has been going you never know what could happen. If we go to 7-1 going into the toughest part of our schedule and minnesota and green bay lose again, your looking at 3 games back, for both of them That would be HUGE. Rodgers injury was a gift from the football gods, so lets make sure we take advantage while we can.
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