This is what I’ve been afraid of. The Bears defense has not only showed signs of faltering, Sunday, they nearly let the lowly Buccaneers back into a game where they were ahead 24-3 in the third quarter. This is not ok if the Bears hope to progress deep into the playoffs. Todays narrow overtime victory, coupled with New Orleans unlikely loss to the Redskins, secures the Bears homefield advantage throughout the playoffs.

The Bears defense was definitely not playing at full strength. The Bears were without their starting defensive tackles for 2 very different reasons. Tommie Harris is out for the remainder of the season with a torn hamstring, while Tank Johnson had some legal problems this week followed up with the death of his friend/bodyguard outside of a club late Friday night. That didn’t hurt their run defense though, they ended up only surrendering only 57 yards on the ground. It was through the air where the Bears felt the pain. Tampa Bay backup QB Tim Rattay passed for 268 yards and 3 touchdowns. The hole in the lineup left by Nathan Vasher, who was inactive for Sunday’s game, definitely was felt by the secondary. Touchdown passes to Joey Galloway (64 yards) and Ike Hilliard (44 yards) exposed the Bears pass defense. If the front seven of the defense can’t pressure the quarterback, Ron Rivera is forced to send guys from the secondary in on blitzes. Sunday, Ricky Manning Jr. was able to sack the QB twice and force a fumble. When the defensive backs have to blitz, it leaves the rest of the secondary exposed. Even when the opposing quarterback is Tim Rattay.

Rattay’s counterpart, Rex Grossman had another solid performance (29/44 for 339 yards and 2 TDs). The completions and yards were both career highs for Grossman. I think it’s too soon for me to jump back on the bandwagon. I need to see Grossman close out the year continuing to improve and build upon what he’s learned this year. One game against a sub par defense won’t convince me that Rex is back to his early season form. Of course, I like that he’s not throwing picks, and seems to be making the right decisions. I’m still skeptical of Grossman and his decision making abilities, but I think that going into the playoffs with confidence and in a rhythm can really be something that takes a team from good to great, and possibly Super Bowl Champions.

This entry was posted on Monday, December 18th, 2006 at 2:01 am and is filed under Chicago Bears, Football, 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.