Worst Case Scenario
“Going to Houston after Chicago was night and day. They’re obviously a young franchise, but to go to Houston from Chicago, it almost didn’t feel like the NFL. Washington is a lot more like Chicago. This is a very similar setup.”
Grossman’s career in Chicago is one of the strangest in the history of the organization. He was both hero and heel, and often both at the same time. He was the perfect Lovie Smith quarterback.
Other than the victory against the Panthers, which was a near split, the Bears’ offense has lost the time-of-possession battle in four of their last five games. For the season, the Bears are 27th in the NFL with an average time of possession of 27:57.
”It doesn’t matter how much they play,” Jennings said. ”We’ve just got to keep [opponents] out of the end zone.”
The issue I always have with this argument is that it’s always seemed that Lovie Smith has embraced his defense spending extended time on the field. The bend-don’t-break approach is all the Lovie-Deuce can lean on without an interior-busting defensive tackle (a la Warren Sapp) or a punishing player at the safety position (John Lynch, Bob Sanders…etc.). The offense clearly needs to improve, increase drive length, and cut down on thirty-yard throws when only three are required for a first down. But I’m tired of the defense trying to have it both ways.
The Redskins’ line has allowed only 14 sacks for a loss of 96 yards as opposed to the Bears’ 27 sacks for minus-168 yards.
The Bears’ offense has dipped to a season-low 29th ranking in the 32-team league. They have not only allowed the most sacks in the league, but they’ve allowed seven more than the next-closest team.
I don’t think the Redskins are better than the Bears, however, and Vegas agrees with me this week. I guess we’ll see what the records of the two clubs are after Sunday afternoon.
Blog Poll Question
Giving me a full explanation why (“I hate the Packers” doesn’t count), who are you rooting for in the Sunday night game – Minnesota or Green Bay? I literally can’t decide.
