Bears Blitz

Published by SPORTSorGTFO.com on September 28, 2010
Article Source: Bleacher Report - Chicago Bears

Here we are three weeks into the season and the Chicago Bears are the lone NFC team with a perfect record. If you asked nearly every sports writer in America, outside of Chicago, to predict the Bears record after the first three weeks of the season, you would probably hear, 1-2, 99 percent of the time.

Of course, they were supposed to beat the Lions, but games against the Cowboys and Packers, two strong possibilities to be Super Bowl-bound teams, weren’t games the Bears were supposed to win.

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The Bears didn’t look too good in Week 1 against the Lions and they nearly lost the game if it wasn’t for a rules SNAFU. Their defense held the Lions to just 148 yards, but the offense couldn’t put points on the board.

Matt Forte single-handedly bailed them out. Nonetheless, they made it through that game, but not much was expected from them over the next two weeks.

Next up, a trip to “Jerry World” and a meeting with the Dallas Cowboys. The Cowboys were coming off of a gut-wrenching loss to the Redskins and definitely didn’t want to fall to 0-2 in their home debut.

Dallas did nearly everything they needed to, out-gaining the Bears by over 100 yards. The Bears were a dismal 1-11 on third downs. However, they didn’t turn the ball over and Jay Cutler was 21-for-29 for 277 yards and three TDs.

The defense, while allowing Tony Romo to throw at will, forced three turnovers and gave the their offense chances to win the game. The Bears pulled out another tough win and moved to 2-0 with a Monday Night Football matchup with the Green Bay Packers looming.

So here comes Monday night and still most of America wasn’t believing the Bears would take down the Packers and start 3-0. For most of the game, it looked like Green Bay was in control and should win the game.

The Bears only scored one offensive touchdown and that shouldn’t be enough to beat the Packers. However, there was a Devin Hester siting as he had his first punt return for a touchdown in nearly three years. Add a couple field goals and Chicago walks away with the win on a last second field goal.

Credit the defense for stopping a Packers drive by forcing a fumble to win the game.

At this point, teams need to start taking notice of the Bears with Mike Martz’ new system thriving a little more each week. The Bears have the defense to be a great team. Their pass defense is suspect, but they’re first in the league at stopping the run and that forces teams to be one-dimensional.

Cutler has had his moments so far this year, but he did throw some poor balls on Monday night. Luckily, the Packers bailed him out multiple times with their slew of penalties. If he can limit turnovers and get the ball to his playmakers, the Bears will keep winning. Most teams aren’t going to score more than 14-17 points on this defense, so just a few scores will do the trick on most weeks.

No matter how good and bad they have looked at certain moments, the Chicago Bears stand alone atop the NFC at 3-0. They’re very similar to the Chiefs in the aspect that they’re wins haven’t been convincing, but they’ve found ways to win with help from the defense and special teams.

Here’s the Bears next five opponents: New York Giants, Carolina Panthers, Seattle Seahawks, Washington Redskins, and Buffalo Bills. Their combined record: 2-10. I’m not saying the Bears will be 8-0 after Week 9, but that’s the schedule you would want to get there.

Don’t keep sleeping on the Bears, they deserve to be where they’re at right now.

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