Back to the future, forward to Carolina

By Os Davis  |   Thursday, September 11, 2008  |  Comments( 3 )

Chicago Bears
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We may only be going into Week 2, but things in the NFC North are already looking familiar, aligning how they should: The Green Bay Packers are a potential monster with a fearless quarterback; the Minnesota Vikings look like (if you squint a bit) the Purple People Eaters of lore; and the Detroit Lions are, well, the same. But in Indianapolis, it was though an entire team rediscovered its historical identity: That 29-13 was Chicago Bears football.

Can they keep it up?

Commentary: Offensively, the Bears have always been known as a running team. From Bronko Nagurski to Gale Sayers to Walter Payton and Neal Anderson, the ground has been their identity; and for the first time in years, a huge young lad in Matt Forte fits as a prototypical big Bear runner. On the other side, the Colts’ expected high-flying offense was stopped time and again by a classic Cover 2 bend-don’t-break defense with which the Bears have succeeded admirably through the Brian Urlacher era.

This week, these two fundamental elements will be put to the test – because at this point in the season, everything’s a test – at the Carolina Panthers. What success can be expected?

As far as the running game is concerned, Lovie Smith had the Chicago offense doing exactly what a squad with an, um, er, average quarterback must: Run early and often. Forte had more runs (23) than Kyle Orton had passing attempts (21) and, by nicely switching up Forte’s plow-forth-and-conquer style with the disregarded and elusive Kevin Jones, the ratio of run to pass in the Indy game was 2:1 for the Bears.

Not too much could be gleaned about Carolina’s run defense from the San Diego game, as last year’s 18th-best unit went up against LaDainian Tomlinson with predictable 4.6-yards per carry results. However, we do know that, aside from the addition of Tyler Brayton, the Carolina defense is essentially filled with guys who have been Panthers for at least a year or three: Julius Peppers, Jon Beason, Thomas Davis, Na’il Diggs, Ma’ake Kemoeatu, etcetera. Forte should see another 100-plus yards rushing in this game if Smith keeps his cool.

From the Stats May Be Deceiving Department comes the case of Jake Delhomme in Week 1. Delhomme threw 41 times against the Chargers, more attempts in a single game for the man – and thus an utter anomaly in Carolina – since 2004. Who knew that was coming? Certainly not the Chargers. On the other hand, unexpected game plan or no, Delhomme couldn’t manage a single TD strike until there was 0:00 left on the clock; the game-winner also represented the sole instance the Panthers' offense managed to score within the red zone in four attempts.

Urlarcher and the boys similarly stopped Peyton Manning, whose stats were slightly worse than Delhomme’s, and the Colts' offense, which couldn’t notch a TD from the red zone until late in the third quarter. No picks were recorded but the pass coverage was terrific and two well-timed sacks sped matters along.
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Fantasy football impact: Congratulations are in order, at least in the short term, to those fantasy owners who bucked conventional wisdom and grabbed the Chicago 'DST'. Within the next six games, the Bears get to face low-watt and/or high-turnover offenses like Carolina, Tampa Bay, Detroit, Atlanta and Minnesota. Start ‘em. As for Forte, one game does not necessarily a fantasy stud make, but this guy appears to have the right stuff early. Start him, too, unless you’ve got a Westbrook in front.

Fan pulse: Tom Shannon of ChicagoBearsFanForum.com congratulates Smith and his coaching staff for the swell job. Over at DaBearz.com, little trash talking precedes the Carolina game, with most echoing sentiments from a newswire story titled “Bears face tough road test.”

Prediction: Bears 17, Panthers 10.
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About Os Davis

Os Davis has taken a twisted route to get to RealFootball365.com in his nearly 17 years in professional writing, working in any number of capacities in the sportswriting, news reporting and film criticism worlds. In print media, Os has served as editor at a few publications, including Albuquerque's ...
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