Chicago Bears vs. the New England Patriots Game Preview
Published by Bryan Dietzler on December 11, 2010
Article Source: Bleacher Report - Chicago Bears
The 9-3 Chicago Bears, coming off of a close 24-20 win over the Detroit Lions last Sunday, will host the 10-2 New England Patriots, who themselves are coming off of a big 45-3 win over the Jets on Monday Night Football. The Patriots are considered by many to be the best team in the NFL so the Bears will have their work cut out for them.
Chicago has a defense that can match up well against anyone, but they face a tough test going up against New England’s offense. The Patriots destroyed the Jets and their good defense Monday night and are clearly one the best offensive teams in the NFL right now but they can be beaten.
How can the Bears beat them? Do the Bears have a chance at winning this game?
Let’s find out in this in depth preview of the Bears versus the Patriots this Sunday at Soldier Field in Chicago.
When the Bears have the ball
So what makes the Bear’s offense so good or at least so good in the past five games? Ball control is the biggest factor and then it breaks on down from there. The Bears are holding onto the ball longer and not allowing opposing offenses to have the ball that long, which is working out very well for Chicago.
The Bears are using a mix of running and passing the ball very well and to their benefit. Quarterback Jay Cutler is making good decisions with the ball and avoids making some of the critical mistakes that he made during the first few games of the season. He is finding his receivers, getting the ball out quickly and running with the ball when he has to.
The Bears passing game is averaging 199 yards per game and that number has risen in recent weeks thanks to the accuracy of Cutler, his better decision making and the play of the wide receivers. New England has been allowing teams to get a whopping 276 yards per game through 12 games this season.
Why so many yards? It’s because teams have been forced to play catch up to the Patriots in many games this season and have to pass in order to score quickly and try to beat them.
Could the Bears get a lot of yards through the air in this game? It’s possible because it’s likely this game is going to turn into a shootout with both teams throwing it down the field often to score points and attempt to build a comfortable cushion against the other team. But that may not be the smart way to play on Sunday.
If the Bears can get the lead or keep the Patriots within striking distance, the best thing that they could do would be to prevent quarterback Tom Brady and the rest of New England’s offense from spending too much time on the field. How do they do this? The same way that they have been keeping other teams off the field and that’s mixing the pass with the run.
Chicago’s rushing attack has been averaging around 102 yards per game on the strength of running back Matt Forte’s outside running and Chester Taylors inside ground pounding. In using the running game with short passes mixed in, Chicago has been able to drive down the field and score on a regular basis. This definitely works to their advantage.
New England has allowed an average of 114 yards per game on the ground so the Bears need to run the ball against their defense. Mixing it up like they have been will work as well and will help them move the ball down the field.
When it comes to pass protection, every Bear’s fan knows the Bear’s problems there. Cutler has been sacked a league-high 45 times so far this season, showing us that the Bears offensive line has been doing a less than stellar job protecting their quarterback (although you can hang some of the sacks on Cutler himself).
The Patriots have tallied a total of 21 sacks this season which isn’t a strong total (an average of 1.75 per game) but could have a field day in Chicago if the offensive line isn’t doing their job. They have to protect Cutler and give him time to throw the ball or else Chicago will lose this game.
When the Patriots have the ball
Anyone who watches the NFL knows what the Patriots have on offense. It all starts out with quarterback Tom Brady, considered by many to be the finest quarterback of our time. He can make all the throws, he can move the offense down the field with perfection, and he knows how to win games. He is truly a special player.
So how do the Bears stop a guy like Brady?
The Patriots offense does play into the hands of the Bear’s defense fairly well. They don’t take a lot of deep shots down the field now that wide receiver Randy Moss is gone (their only real deep threat at the time) so they have resorted to throwing short passes underneath to guys like Wes Welker, his tight ends Aaron Hernandez and Rob Gronkowski and then over the top but short to Deion Branch.
The Bears play the kind defense that allows the kind of offense that the Patriots run (short passing game) to function except the Patriots (like some of the Bears players on offense) rely on the yards after the catch to get the ball down the field and score. Chicago is good enough to prevent that from happening thanks to their tackling ability (if you don’t count the breakdown that they suffered last week against the Lions).
If the Bears can keep the Patriots from gaining a lot of yards after the catch, New England’s offense will be that much less successful.
An important part of any defensive plan against Brady is to be sure to get pressure on him. This blueprint was laid down for the entire NFL when the Giants defeated the Patriots in the Super Bowl a few years ago and hasn’t been used as often as it should be. If you get pressure on Brady, get him down to the ground with some sacks; he gets shaken up and doesn’t do as well as he normally does.
The Bears front four has gotten pressure on opposing quarterbacks by themselves for the most part and they need to get pressure on Brady. If they don’t get enough, they could do what they did against the Lions and rush a linebacker and/or the nickel back D.J. Moore who has had some success rushing the quarterback in the past.
Pressure is the key and will be what helps the Bears win this game.
Statistically speaking, New England is averaging around 242 yards of passing per game while the Bears defense is allowing 215 yards per game through the air. The biggest reason for that is because teams have been forced to try to catch up to the Bears through the air because of the leads that Chicago has built on those teams.
When it comes to rushing the ball New England is averaging 111 yards per game on the ground while the Bear’s defense is allowing teams to gain an average of 84 yards on the ground. Chicago has been able to hold teams in the running game but has, on occasion, allowed runners to get some long runs due to poor tackling (see the Lions game last week). As long as they tackle well, Chicago should be able to hold the Patriots running game down to minimal yards.
Injury Report
The Bears and the Patriots list the following players on the injury reports as of Friday:
New England Patriots: LB-Brandon Spikes-Not Injury Related-Out; S-Patrick Chung-Not Injury Related-Questionable; DE-Myron Pryor-Back-Questionable; CB-Jonathan Wilhite-Hip-Doubtful; QB-Tom Brady-Questionable; DE-Mike Wright-Concussion-Doubtful
Chicago Bears: RB-Chester Taylor-Knee-Questionable; LB-Pisa Tinoisamoa-Knee-Doubtful; DT-Marcus Harrison-Illness-Questionable; LB-Nick Roach-Back-Questionable
The Bears will not play Tinoisamoa and but it looks like roach will play. If they both don’t play, Chicago will be forced to start linebacker Rod Wilson in their place. This might make things kind of interesting in defending against the run this Sunday.
Spikes is suspended for violating the NFL’s substance abuse policy and will not play in this game.
Special Teams
Forecasters are calling for some bad wintry conditions by game time. This could factor in big for the kickers and punters as they could be the guys that get give the other team bad field position or, in the case of the kickers, they could be the ones scoring some critical points. Return teams will also play an important role as field position will be huge in wintry weather conditions.
Analysis
The Bearshave played some great games this season but will need to give their best effort against the Patriots. New England has been winning consistently and has been playing well on both sides of the ball and will cause a lot of problems for the Bears, especially if they aren’t tackling well on defense and fail to move the ball well on offense.
Chicago has been playing very well on both sides of the ball using long controlled drives on offense to move and possess the ball while on defense they (at times) play the cover two perfectly in not allowing long passes and forcing teams to go on long drives where the opportunities for mistakes to grow.
The problem is the Patriots type of offense plays into the cover two real well. New England likes to go on long ball controlling drives that use a mix of short passes with some runs. They like to see their receivers break tackles for long gains and that helps make their offense work. So Chicago is going to have to make sure that they tackle well and keep offensive players from getting long gains after initial contact.
The Patriot’s rushing attack is not that bad and can be a threat so the Bears need to watch that and not allow Patriot’s rushers to get a lot of yards beyond the line of scrimmage. This means that Chicago’s defenders will have to make tackles quickly, wrap up and not allow the runner to get too far down the field.
On offense, Chicago needs to do control the ball and the clock using those long ball control drives that they are used to having. Using a good mix of running and passing would be very beneficial in keeping the ball in their possession while keeping it out of the hands of Brady and his fellow offensive players. Chicago can do this with the ball control offense that they have had success with in the past.
As mentioned, special teams can play a big role in this game and they will if the weather get’s bad. Both kickers could be called upon to make critical kicks and this means that kicker Robbie Gould will need to be spot on in case it comes down to a kick (that’s needed to win the game).
Prediction
The Bears will be up against two of the best football minds in the NFL, Patriot’s Head Coach Bill Belichick and Brady. These guys are masters at what they do and will keep the Bears players and the coaching staff on their toes throughout the entire game. This game could go either way, it could be a high scoring game or a low scoring grind it out affair but it will be close.
And the Patriots will have just enough to win.
New England 23 Chicago 20
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