BREAKING NEWS: CHRIS WILLIAMS TO START AT LEFT GUARD SUNDAY.
The Bears looks to move to 5-1, touchdown favorites at home, against Pete Carroll’s up-and-down Seahawks from Coffee Country. Here’s my breakdown.
- Seattle’s most basic attribute is their home/away splits. They’re 2-0 at home and 0-2 on the road, having been blown out by both Denver and St. Louis.
- Their Week 3 victory over the San Diego Chargers revealed their most dynamic weapon: kick returner Leon Washington. Washington had two kick return touchdowns in a game where the ‘Hawks were outgained by about 300 yards. Dave Toub and Robbie Gould should not put a kickoff anywhere near his hands until the ‘Hawks offense shows an ability to move the ball down the field.
- This has been a bad run game, led by UFL-bound Justin Forsett. But the Seahawks acquired Marshawn Lynch, one of the most underrated backs in the game, and had the bye week to completely insert him into their offense. I’d be shocked if he had less than 25 carries Sunday.
- I don’t care what anyone says about Matt Hasselbeck being done because I’ve seen him dissect this defense with too many quick slants for third-down conversions (albeit several years ago). The difference here is I can’t remember him working with a group of receivers quite like this. Brandon Stokley, Golden Tate, Mike Williams, Deon Butler, Michael Robinson…etc? (This is a far cry from the Jackson, Branch and Engram combo of 2006.)
- Defensively they rank 31st against the pass (those numbers are inflated by Phil Rivers’ 455 against them) but they have gotten to the quarterback 11 times (the number that really means something to the Bears). Chris Clemons has a pair of sacks in his last two games and you better believe he’ll be looking at Soldier Field as the venue to pad his statistics.
- I also had no idea how good this rush defense has been this season and it hasn’t been for a lack of opponent’s trying to run. Each of their opponents has committed to the run and none of them have had the slightest bit of success. (Mostly between 17 and 25 carries.) I think the Bears will certainly try and continue last week’s success on the ground but they might be smarter to put the ball in the air quickly to soften the linebackers.
This team is not great. This is a game the Bears should win.
