Bears Blitz

Published by Bryan Dietzler on January 11, 2011
Article Source: Bleacher Report - Chicago Bears

You can hardly find anyone who thought that the Seahawks would advance to the second round of the playoffs. After all, they were playing the New Orleans Saints, the same team that had won the Super Bowl just last year. The Saints had the better record and appeared to be the better team on Saturday, but they weren’t, and they were eliminated.

The Bears did get beaten by the Seahawks earlier this season, but that was a different Bears team.  They are better now, and have been playing very well in the latter half of the season. Still, there are some important things that the Bears can learn from their first game against Seattle in order to shore up those areas that cost them in that first game and help ensure a victory this coming Sunday.

I have identified three key things that the Bears need to do in this game that they failed to do in their first game against the Seahawks to ensure that they win this game.  

Let’s find out how the Bears can avoid a loss against the Seahawks.

1.  Control Seattle’s Pass Rush—If you remember what happened during the first time these two teams played, Seattle successfully used players from its secondary to rush quarterback Jay Cutler.  The secondary not only got pressure on Cutler, but it also ended up sacking him and throwing the Bears’ passing game off balance.

Incidentally, two other teams have used this to good success against the Bears (those two teams being the New York Giants and the Green Bay Packers in their game a couple of weeks ago), and it’s being used against them because the Bears have problems blocking players from the opponents secondary. Why has this been such a problem for Chicago?

There are two reasons. One is that the Bears don’t have the guys to stop these smaller and quicker players from coming in from the outside. They have matched tight end Brandon Manumaleuna to the outside to try and block these guys, but he has been beaten just about every time. 

The second reason is that the tackles don’t have the quickness to move to the outside to take on these extra rushers, or, because they are tied up with the interior defensive linemen, they aren’t able to free themselves up to take care of those outside rushers from the secondary.

So what can the Bears do? For one, they can bring tight end Desmond Clark back in off of the inactive list and put him in the lineup and have him help block some of these guys coming off of the edge. Clark is a better blocker, he moves around much easier and doesn’t appear as “confused” as Manumaleuna appears at times.  

The Bears need to keep these guys from wreaking havoc on Cutler, so look for the Bears’ offensive coaching staff to come up with some creative ways to stop those blitzes from the secondary and give Cutler time to throw the ball.

2.  Run the Ball—The Bear’s rushing attack was not nearly as effective back in Week 6 as it is now.  Running back Matt Forte is having a great second half of the season, and is a dangerous threat running and catching the ball.  He has been a big part of the Bears successful ball control offense that they used during their five-game winning streak.

If the Bears can get that ball control offense going again, then they will have a lot of success against the Seahawks this Sunday. Controlling the ball and the clock will be important in their effort to beat the Seahawks on Sunday. If they can keep the ball out of the hands of the Seahawks offense as much as possible, the Bears will win this game.

3.  Get to the Quarterback—In their first game, the Bears didn’t get a single sack on Hasselbeck.  This allowed him to throw the ball down the field, complete passes and beat the Bears through the air.  Chicago’s front four needs to get some pressure on the quarterback and not allow him to pass his way down the field.

This would be a nice time for the Bears to get pressure with just their front four in this game, allowing their linebackers and safeties to drop back into coverage and take away those passing lanes.

Not allowing the Seahawks to pass their way down the field is a must if the Bears want to win this game, so look for Chicago to do everything that it can to shut down the Seahawks’ passing game and ensure that they don’t win through the air.

This is a very winnable game for the Bears as long as they don’t let history repeat itself and lose the game in the manner that they lost to the Seahawks the first time. 

Remember that this is a much better Bears team than we saw when they played Seattle in week six, so as long as the Bears can do the things outlined here, as well as limit their mistakes, they should be able to win this game.

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