Bears Blitz

Published by Bryan Dietzler on October 8, 2010
Article Source: Bleacher Report - Chicago Bears

The wounded Chicago Bears, coming off of a 17-3 loss in New York against the Giants on Sunday night, will travel to Carolina to take on the win-less Panthers who themselves are coming off of a loss, a 16-14 decision against the Saints in New Orleans.  At the time of this writing, quarterback Jay Cutler was not going to play against the Panthers as he is still suffering the effects of a concussion.  Second-string quarterback Todd Collins will get the start.  

The Bears need to get back to what they did well on offense and that was protect the quarterback (granted they didn’t do too well at that before the Giants game but they did better than they did in that game) as well as run the football (which they have been able to do successfully before this season) in order to win this or any other game.  Hopefully what happened to them in New York was only mere bump in the road on their way to winning many more games this season and quite possibly a trip to the playoffs.

The following is an in depth look at the Bear’s game against the Carolina Panthers this Sunday in Carolina.  There is some insight into how the players will match up, where potential problems and opportunities lie as well as a prediction as to who will win the game.

When the Bears have the ball

Right now, we know that Collins is going to start on Sunday.  The first thing that the Bears have to do is keep him protected.  The Panthers don’t have the same kind of defensive line that the Giants do and there aren’t any dangerous pass rushers like the Giants had.

Right now, the Panther’s leading pass rusher is Charles Johnson with two sacks.  The team as a whole has a total of four sacks this season.  Not that good (ironically though the Bears have the same number through four games).  Even though the Panther’s pass rush appears to be devoid of star power, the thinking last week was that without Giants sack specialist Mathias Kiwanuka in the lineup, the Bears wouldn’t have any problems against the Giants pass rush.  We all know what happened there.

So pass protection will be a huge part of winning this game for the Bears.  They need to find one combination of offensive linemen that they like and stick with it.  They need to get much more production (blocking) out of their tight ends, particularly Brandon Manumaleuna and the running backs as well.  Another thing that will help them is to have Collins take more shallow drops when he is passing (three step drops would be good) and get the receivers running shorter routes.

All of these things can help protect the quarterback and make the offense more productive. The leading tackler on the Panthers right now (on the defensive line) is defensive end Charles Johnson.  There isn’t a lot of great talent on the defensive line for Carolina (every since Julius Peppers left during free agency) but they are able to do some good things.  Right now, the Panthers are giving up a total of 220 yards passing per game so far this season and hopefully Chicago can take advantage of that.

In an effort to continually sound like a broken record each and every week, once again, it would behoove the Bears to get their rushing attack going especially now that they have Collins starting this week in place of Cutler.  A good running game will help take some of the pressure off of the quarterback and allow them to use play action passes much more often and that’s something that could really help them out in their passing game.  

Running back Matt Forte has been looking a little skittish running the ball back there and is starting to dance and move too much when he’s coming to the hole.  He just needs to run right through it and pick up some yards.  Chester Taylor on the other hand, who gets very limited opportunities to play, runs well when he’s given the opportunity and could be used much more often in the offense.  People say he is a disappointment but it’s hard to be a disappointment when you are not getting a lot of time on the field.

Carolina does have a pretty decent group of linebackers including Jon Beason and Dan Connor. Those guys can really play and the Bears will have their hands full blocking then on both passing and running downs but these guys are more adept at stopping the run than rushing the passer so if the Bears want to get their running game going they have to stop these linebackers.

Through four games this season, Carolina is allowing a total of 113 yards per game on average on the ground and this is pretty respectable.  The Bears need to do something to get their running game going and make things easy for Collins in his start on Sunday.

Hopefully the Bear’s wide receivers will be able to have a good game and catch some passes.  They will be going up against a secondary that features such talent as Charles Godfrey who has three interceptions and Captain Munnerlyn who has one interception.  Both players are all over the field making plays and covering the opposing receiver.  The Bears will have to keep an eye out for them when they are throwing the ball down the field and make sure that they aren’t around to take advantage of any opportunities that might come their way.  

Using tight end Greg Olsen in the passing game on Sunday will be a key part of the Bears attack. Olsen is a solid pass receiver but not a good blocker so the Bears need to put him out on routes, across the middle, slants or something short and give Collins an outlet to throw the ball too.  Short routes with three step drops may be the order of the day in this game.

When the Panthers have the Ball

The Bears defense has been playing very well against veteran quarterbacks like Aaron Rodgers, Tony Romo and Eli Manning and this week they will get to face rookie quarterback Jimmy Clausen.  This might help the defense out a lot.  Clausen has thrown for a total of 393 yards with 34 completions and a passer rating of 50.6 percent.  He has thrown two interceptions which is pretty decent for a rookie but then again he’s only had 34 completions.  

The Bears should be licking their chops in this matchup because of the rookie quarterback.  They should be able to take full advantage of Clausen’s inexperience.  Look for the Bears to blitz him as often as they can using Julius Peppers and Israel Idonije to crash the ends and come straight for Clausen.  There is an issue with this however.  

The Panthers have, quietly, one of the better offensive lines in the NFL but the skills players around them aren’t having that strong of a season so far.  This line has helped the Panthers running backs gain a total of 413 yards on the season with an average of 103 yards per game.  While this is not a spectacular number it is indicative of the fact that the Panthers have been behind in most of their games and have been forced to pass the ball often.

In order to stop the run the Bears need to get some help from their linebackers which has been easy because the Bears linebackers, Brian Urlacher, Lance Briggs and Pisa Tinoisamoa have been solid against the run so far this season.  Yes, they allowed almost 190 yards rushing playing the Giants on Sunday night but the defense was tired (they were on the field forever) and something had to give.

The Panthers will use the tandem of DeAngelo Williams and Jonathan Stewart to run the ball against the Bears and while these two have been good in the past, they are having a down year.  The Bears can key in on these two and hopefully stop the run forcing the Panthers to pass the ball.

Carolina will be going into this game with three rookie wide receivers starting.  The Panthers cut wide receiver Dwayne Jarrett earlier this week and their number one wide receiver, Steve Smith, is limited with an ankle injury and may not play.  With this, that leaves Clausen without a proven wide receiver to throw the ball too and this will play into the Bear’s advantage.

The leading receiver on the Panthers right now is Smith who has caught 13 passes for 174 yards and two touchdowns.  The next leading receiver Mike Goodson who has caught nine passes for 111 yards and no touchdowns.  It’s obvious to see that without Smith, the Panthers will suffer a serious drop-off in talent at the wide receiver position.

The Bears secondary hasn’t done too bad of a job coving the opposing team’s wide receivers so far this season so look for them to do have some success against this group on Sunday.  As long as the defensive line can get that much needed pass pressure the Bears defense should be able to stop the Panther’s passing game cold.

 

Special Teams

The Bears punted a lot in their game last week against the Giants and over all punter Brad Maynard did a nice job.  Their coverage teams were pretty solid and the return teams didn’t get too many chances but they did shake up the Giants punter enough to the point where he had problems punting the ball.
Devin Hester is sure to get some chances this Sunday against Carolina and it’s not out the question to think that he might be able to get some long returns.  The Bears will need good field position in this game as every opportunity to help Collins and the offense will be very important.

 

Injury Report

As of this writing, these are the injuries that each team is listing heading into this game:

 

Chicago Bears

OT-Chris Williams-Hamstring-Doubtful; G-Lance Louis-Knee-Probable; S-Major Wright-Hamstring-Doubtful; QB-Jay Cutler-Concussion-Out; QB-Todd Collins-Neck-Probable

 

Carolina Panthers

OT-Jeff Otah-Knee-Doubtful; WR-Steve Smith-Ankle-Doubtful; LB-Jamar Williams-Neck-Doubtful; S-Sherrod Martin-Concussion-Doubtful; RB-DeAngelo Williams-Illness-Probable

Collins injury won’t keep him out of action on Sunday.  The only players to miss Sunday’s game besides Cutler will be Williams and Wright.  

The Panthers will lose a lot of talent if both Smith and Otah aren’t able to play.  Keep an eye on their status through the weekend.

 

Analysis

You may be sitting there reading this wondering how the Bears are going to win without their top offensive weapon in the lineup.  Cutler means everything to this offense and without him it’s not going to work right?  Wrong.  While this isn’t something that is preferred it certainly isn’t the end of the world and may not lead to a Bear’s loss.  

If this had to happen, it happened at a pretty good time.  The Panthers haven’t won a game yet this season, their quarterback is a rookie and their top wide receiver and one of the best offensive linemen could be out for this game.  This is a perfect opportunity for the Bears.

Of course, last week against the Giants it was thought that the Bears wouldn’t have any problem beating them with some key players out of the lineup.  That wasn’t going to be the case and so in this game, the Bears have to take advantage of every opportunity that is given to them.  They have to play better on the offensive line and the defense needs to have a similar game as they had against the Giants.

The Bear’s offensive line has got to protect Collins in this game.  The Bears have to start out the game with the group of guys that they feel will give him the best protection and then stick with that group during the entire game (unless there is an injury).  It’s also important that this group be able to help run the football.  The Bears need to spend some time concentrating on running the ball and getting Matt Forte and Chester Taylor more involved in the offense.

If the Bears can pass the ball effectively look for them to run some shorter routes to help Collins get the ball out quicker and not leave him sitting back to get picked off.  Quick slants and some passes over the middle (to tight end Greg Olsen) should help get the ball out quicker and save Collins from getting a headache (literally).

 

If the Bears can get their running game going that will help to alleviate some of the pressure on Collins.  Even if they can use the running backs to catch passes out of the backfield that would certainly help.
On defense, Chicago needs to play the run tough because with a rookie quarterback and not too much talent at the wide receiver position, the Panthers are sure to run the ball in this game.  They just need to use the same formula that they used in their first three games, quick linebackers penetrating gaps and stopping the ball carrier in the backfield or on the edge, and they will be able to contain both Williams and Stewart.  The Bears really need Clausen to try to pass the ball more to take advantage of his inexperience and lack of receiving talent.

 

Prediction

This game could honestly go either way but it will go to the team that runs the ball the best and makes fewer mistakes.  Both teams have weakened passing games so running the ball makes a lot of sense.  The Bears do have the stronger defense and if the offense can keep them out of having to play with poor field position or not be able to sustain drives thus leaving the defense on the field for a long period of time and fully capable of getting worn out.  This is what happened in the Bear’s game against New York.

Ball control offense with the running game and short passes would work well to get Collins through this.  If Chicago can do that, they will have this game won.

Chicago 17, Carolina 10

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