Bears Blitz

Published by Flockaball on January 14, 2011
Article Source: Bleacher Report - Chicago Bears

By now, you’ve probably already seen the Packers-Falcons preview. Flockaball regular contributor Ryan Thomas and I are picking winners from each individual playoff game this weekend.

Last week, the Seattle Seahawks shocked the Saints, the NFL and probably the Pacific Northwest with a 41-36 win over the defending champs in the game of the weekend. Meanwhile, the Bears rested up after a hard-earned bye week.

On Sunday, the Seahawks will put their crystal slippers on once again and head to Soldier Field for a highly anticipated matchup.

Now, to the picks.

Seattle Seahawks at Chicago Bears (Sunday @ 1 p.m. EST, FOX)

Ryan’s Pick: Seattle Seahawks

Worst playoff team record-wise ever? Pfft…oh sure, they’ll finish the Wild Card Round, especially against Sports Illustrated’s Man of the Year Drew Brees and the defending Super Bowl champs, with a win.

If you believed that before January 8th, there’s also this bridge you might be interested in. But at Qwest Field last weekend—a notoriously loud venue, so loud an earthquake occurred, actually—the Seahawks rode quarterback Matt Hasselbeck, their 12th man and Buffalo Bills throwaway Marshawn Lynch to a 41-36 victory over the Saints.

Now the ‘Hawks head into expectedly frigid Soldier Field to play a 1:00 tilt Sunday, a spry 35-year-old quarterback with galactic confidence in tow, to prove that drubbing of the Saints eight days prior was a trend and not an anomaly.

Hasselbeck jumped in the Way Back Machine and put up his best performance of the season against the fourth-ranked pass defense (193.9 yards) in the NFL. He threw a first quarter interception but wound up tossing four straight touchdown passes after, completing 22 of 35 passes en route to 272 yards and a 113.0 passer rating.

Since the Seahawks already beat Chicago in Week 6 at Soldier Field, the NFL’s top bird of prey already has a blueprint for success once the pigskin flies Sunday and it’s 20 degrees outside. It was below freezing in October too when Boston College product Hasselbeck threw for 242 yards, one score and no picks.

Any team whose fanbase causes an earthquake during a game-sealing, long-distance touchdown run has to be taken seriously, regardless of venue.

~ Ryan Thomas

Charlie’s Pick: Chicago Bears

Enough is enough, America. I get it.

“The Seahawks are a fun story because no believed in them and now they’re shocking the world by beating the defending Super Bowl champs and Pete Carroll is such a fun guy (when he isn’t hightailing it up the I-5 freeway away from the recruiting carnage that is USC) and Qwest Field is the epicenter of fandom and earthquakes and Marshawn Lynch CANNOT BE STOPPED!”

Okay. Do you have it out of your system? Good. Let’s get down with reality now.

The Seahawks went 7-9 in the regular season in a rancid division. Now after 60 minutes of football against New Orleans (which looked like the 2009 Saints on offense and the 1980 Aint’s on defense) we’re supposed to believe that they can go into Soldier Field (which, by the way, is not in Seattle) and defeat a 10.5-point favorite?

You won’t get an argument (even inside a Seattle bar Starbucks) that Chicago has a better quarterback, a better running game, better receivers, a better tight end, a better defensive line, better linebackers, a better secondary and a more reliable kicking game. Any other questions?

Last week’s victory over New Orleans was fantastic for a million reasons. But the Seahawks needed a career game from Matt Hasselbeck, a career-defining run by Lynch and a thunderous Qwest Field. None of those three things will happen this weekend.

So how are the ‘Hawks going to pull the rabbit out of their hat this weekend? They’re running out of ways to win ball games. And don’t tell me they’re hot after winning two straight—check out their late-season defensive effort. The ‘Hawks gave up over 37 points per game in a three-game stretch from Weeks 12-14, including letting San Francisco hang 40 on them.

Meanwhile, the Bears’ defense won’t allow Hasselbeck, Lynch and Mike Williams (whichever one plays for Seattle) to run amok like New Orleans did. Brian Urlacher, Lance Briggs and Julius Peppers are going to remind America why the Seahawks backed into the playoffs.

ESPN’s Bill Simmons wrote, “Seattle [is] reviving the ‘Nobody Believed In Us’ theory so emphatically that it’s hard to figure out how it isn’t the Super Bowl favorite right now.” His reasons? Pete Carroll and Lawyer Milloy led a REALLY good postgame chant. Awesome.

Bears by two touchdowns.

~ Charlie Peters

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