Bears Blitz

Published by Dan Talintyre on December 9, 2011
Article Source: Bleacher Report - Chicago Bears

If you’ve missed the hype around Tim Tebow this year, there are only a few possible explanations as to why. First, you may have been living under a rock. Second, you may not have the Internet—which would in turn make it very difficult to read this article. And that’s where my reasons stop, because the fact of the matter is that Tebow has revolutionized the Denver Broncos and borders on cult-hero status.

Tebow has taken the 1-4 Denver Broncos to 7-5—first place in the AFC West and destined for the NFL playoffs. The style of his play, whilst unconventional and frustrating to watch, is winning games, and you know that down by four with two minutes to play in the final quarter, Denver is going to win.

Don’t believe me? Talk to the New York Jets. Mark Sanchez will more than happily explain.

Yet despite the euphoria around Tebow, we all know he is destined to have a bad game sooner or later. Running the football with an empty backfield works, but sooner or later, a defensive coordinator is going to figure out how to stop it, and the Chicago Bears look like they’ll give Tebow his hardest week in the NFL.

Chicago has the eighth=best run defense in the league. They’re allowing less than 100 yards per game, and have only given up seven rushing touchdowns all year. Whilst they may be allowing an average of 4.5 yards per carry, teams are only averaging 22.4 attempts per year against them—the third lowest in the NFL. You can thank Lovie Smith for that.

The lowest is, of course, San Francisco—a team you just don’t run on, so it’s clear why their numbers are so low. Green Bay is second, and when you consider teams are usually behind on the scoreboard, against their pass defense, it’s clear there why you wouldn’t bother running the football.

Teams must know something about the Chicago run defense that speaks louder than sitting eighth in the league, and it only takes an examination of their defense this year to see why.

Throughout the year, the Bears have played several run-orientated teams and limited them to minimal yardage and impact. Don’t believe me?

Week 2, they held dynamic New Orleans runner Mark Ingram to 51 rushing yards.

Week 4, they held Cam Newton to 35 yards. We’ll come back to this one.

Week 6 they held arguably the most explosive running back in the league, Adrian Peterson, to just 39 running yards.

Week 7 saw Tampa Bay walk away with 28 rushing yards for the entire game.

Week 9 saw LeSean McCoy chalk up 70 yards, and Michael Vick limited to just 34 yards.

Week 11, San Diego‘s Ryan Matthews with just 37 yards.

In Week 12, they held Oakland‘s multi-faceted running game to just 69 yards.

And last week, in a heartbreaking loss to Kansas City, they held Jackie Battle to just 15 yards from 11 carries, as the Chiefs ran for 37 times against the Bears for less than 100 yards.

The history of the Bears playing a strong run defense with mobile defenders capable of making tackles should hurt Tebow in this one. We saw against the New York Jets that Tebow was limited until the final few minutes, when the Jets’ big men were getting tired and Tebow was able to exploit the space around them. This won’t happen against Chicago.

Playing against Cam Newton—who leads the league in rushing touchdowns, something Tebow probably aspires to—the Chicago defense held him to just 35 yards, and didn’t compromise their secondary in doing so. He scored rushing touchdowns, but only after the passing game had dominated and moved down field easily. Tebow doesn’t have the passing game to complement his running game like Newton.

A similar thing happened when the Bears played the Eagles, where Vick was limited to 34 yards, and the fast, disciplined defense that dominated on both those occasions will prove more difficult than Tebow has seen before all year, simply because he does not have the passing game. The running gameof Tebow will have a more devastating effect (if that is possible) if he can get his passing game going, like we’ve seen in both Newton and Vick.

Without Jay Cutler and Matt Forte, Chicago will struggle on the road at times against the surging Broncos, but their defense will keep them in it the entire game. Tebow will be challenged to throw the ball more than he has in games gone by and as he’s shown, this is not a weapon that he carries in his arsenal.

Last week’s 200-plus yards shows that he has it in him, but the Chicago defense is a class above that of the Minnesota Vikings, and he will need to bring every power that he has if the Broncos are going to win this one.

It’s a tough one to call in this one, and I think Denver might just scrape home due to the lack of Forte and Cutler, but don’t write Chicago off. The have a strong replacement quarterback, a great pass rush and run defense, and if you can keep games with the Green Bay Packers close, then you’ll definitely be able to keep Tebow and his magical tricks under wraps too.

This stands as a game that either proves Tebow is truly a quality quarterback who belongs the NFL, or a game that encourages the doubters to doubt even more and gives their case some credibility. It is the toughest side the Broncos have played under Tebow, and with the many playoff implications it could have, it shapes as being one of the games of the round.

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