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One of the most noticeable differences between the ’05 and ’06 Bears is the offense. Not only the fact that the Bears replaced the bearded rookie QB with a rookie-ish (in terms of experience) veteran and have become a more passing oriented offense, but last year’s strengths have seemingly become trouble areas this year.

One such example, last year the Bears O-line performed well and aided the running game. This year the running game still hasn’t gained any traction and it seems like the offensive line has missed a number of key blocks, as have the backs, most noticeable in the Monday night game vs. Arizona. Is the decline in the running game due to a need to protect Rex? Possibly, with all the injuries he’s had over the past few years I wouldn’t be surprised if the coaches are taking more measures to protect him, even if it means sacrificing some of the run game.

What worries me now is that opposing defenses may be picking up on this and are more actively attacking the Bears passing game. I don’t know that I will be able to validate (or disprove) this assumption during this weekend’s game against San Fran (they do have one of the worst, if not the worst defense in the league).

I’m expecting the offense to come out firing again with some early bombs to try to help Rex get back into his rhythm. The running game probably wont come into play too much until later in the game. Given the defense of their opposition I feel the Bears will want to make sure Rex gets right before going on to some tougher opponents.

I also think the defense will be fired up and ready to kick some ass after the way Arizona marched down the field on them early in the game, and then later at the end. After losing Mike Brown I’d expect to see a good deal of pressure from the front seven to try to prevent the run and keep Alex Smith uncomfortable. I’ll be interested to see how Todd Johnson performs. He’s had some big hits in the past when I’ve seen him, hopefully he isn’t looking for the big hit so much that he makes some mental mistakes.

Go Bears!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 24th, 2006 at 10:08 pm and is filed under Chicago, NFL. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.