Here is a VERY quality report from a Seahawk fan named KingdomeKarleesimo on Scout.com. Amazingly non-homer and very well researched. I think it'll be a very close game and am nervous of the Hass-attack as a Bears fan.
http://mb33.scout.com/fbearsfansfrm1.showM...cID=17880.topic
The hype of the Bears-Seahawks game reminds me of the hype behind the 1987 Giants - Bears match-up that Bears fans may remember. Those teams were the class of the NFL at the time. At Soldier Field, it was a battle for NFC bragging rights on a season opener on Monday Night Football. The 1986 World Champion Giants had taken center stage and had stolen the show from the celebrated Monsters of the Midway, so the Bears had something to prove that night. Chicago made its statement to the world by defeating the Giants on National Television, 34 to 19, that they were the best NFC team, despite never shuffling back to the Super Bowl since their glorious ’85 season.
For the Bears and Seahawks both, a return to the Super Bowl remains to be unfinished business.
The reigning NFC Champion Seattle Seahawks hardly carry the prominence of the 86-87 Giants, but have never-the-less kept the respect of NFL analysts who are admittedly surprised that Seattle has avoided the “Super Bowl Losers Curse.” Maintaining a 3 and 0 record and coming off a remarkable defeat of the New York Giants the Hawks, like the Bears, hope to extend it to 4 and 0. Their hosts have also captured the attention and respect of several commentators and expert prognosticators as of late, setting the Bears as high as the #1 team in the NFL in some raking systems.
John Madden and Al Michaels are gearing up with NBC for what promises to be a classic contest for the season and for prime-time. Regardless of how these teams are perceived, there is something significant at stake in the outcome of this game. Both teams have relatively easy schedules and must compete for home field advantage for playoff purposes.
After win-loss record, head-to-head competition is the tie breaker in the likely event that each team clinches their respective division titles. While Seattle seeks to uphold its status as the defending NFC Champion, the Bears are seeking to unseat Seattle as the favorite to return to the Super Bowl. Achieving this before a national audience and working toward home field advantage is the very stage where Chicago Bears Football legends are made.
Both teams have a great deal in common. Both are peaking at a time when the window of championship is open wide. Both teams have demonstrated stout defenses while adapting innovative offensive fire power. Ironically, both teams began the season with common objectives of running the football and neither has come close to establishing any kind of running game.
Instead, the Bears and Seahawks have found ways to win by prolific passing strategies, albeit by way of very different systems. Both, in turn, are dealing with injuries at the TE position and are making due by utilizing back-up, relatively unknown players at that position. A key difference and slight advantage for the Bears lies in the excellence of its special teams. Seattle as taken considerable steps to improve special teams play; but in the end, the Bears superior marks in this category will very likely prove be the difference in this game.
In order for Seattle to win, the Seahawks must commit 0 turnovers and play mistake-free football. Teams who visit Qwest Field know that here is little margin for error in going up against a great defense. Seattle must be patient and take what little opportunity the Bears will give them. Seattle will run much of its offensive series with a 4 wide-out set (commonly known as an “eagle” formation). It will force the Bears defense to cover four highly competent receivers--Darrell Jackson, Bobby Engram, Deion Branch and Nate Burleson--at once. This is not a gimmick, but a viable passing scheme, to be used to stretch the defense and force the Bears to commit to a smaller “stack” on the line of scrimmage.
On certain plays, the Bears could likely counter with stunt blitzes and other surprises, utilizing the talents of Tommy Harris, Brian Urlacher and Mike Brown on special packages. Defensively, the Bears will be looking to take advantage of a weakened offensive line by attempting to break it down at the interior and collapsing the pocket for penetration purposes.
Seattle’s Chris Spencer held his own against the Giants (a formidable defensive front in their own right) but will have to pick things up a notch in order to hold off the Bears menacing power, athleticism and relative speed in their pass rush. Michael Strahan of the Giants commented that it takes Matt Hasselbeck 2.5 seconds to release his pass. While Hasselbeck will have little time to tip toe around the pocket to find his open receivers, the Bears will have little time to get to Hasselbeck before the veteran QB finds one of his four wideouts.
Seattle will be more interested in a ball-control passing game. Critics of this call it a dink-and-dunk system, but that is a mischaracterization. The receivers of relatively short passes are looking for the YAC factor (Yards after Catch). Because the Bears employ very tight and carefully covered zone system, Seattle will be hard pressed to find yards after the catch. This means that Hasselbeck will have to manage the offense with patience and make creative use of his underneath routes, outlets, swing passes and the like. Screen passes and bootlegs will likely fail, as the Bears defense will not be fooled by such tactics.
Opponents tend to underestimate Hasselbeck’s mobility and skills to throw on the run. Hasselbeck is no Steve Young or Joe Montana, but can turn a play into a significant gain on the ground in cases where the Bears commit Urlacher and extra defenders to coverage instead of saying “at home.”
Shaun Alexander was the very nail in the coffin for the Bears the last time they met up in 2003. That year, Alexander provided Seattle’s winning score late in the 4th quarter after Chris Chandler tied up the score. Alexander hit a 26 yard break-out run on a play where the Bears were committed to a pass.
My, how things are different now. Without Alexander, Seattle does not have that viable go-to weapon, nor does Seattle have the offensive line power to compliment Alexander’s running abilities. In this sense, the Vikings had some offensive advantages last week than the Seahawks, in that the Vikings were somewhat successful at running the ball against the Bears. In case you are wondering, Seattle is a different team without Steve Hutchinson. Starter Maurice Morris is a serviceable all around tailback with a good burst, but little power. He can set-up a decent block but will not be much of a protection factor in a single back set. He is a better receiver, however, than Shaun Alexander, and can offer a wider variety of talents as an all around player.
Veteran Fullback Mack Strong has been Seattle’s third down specialist in recent games. Although an excellent receiver and blocker by trade, Strong is not known for his game-breaking speed. He can be very effective, however, running draw plays in a blitz situation.
Seattle will have to pass, pass, pass in order to earn the right to run, and the Bears know this from their film study of Seattle’s first three games. When defenses get overwhelming, sometimes Mike Holmgren will commit to a max-protect, conservative offense that moves very methodically in order to avoid mistakes and turnovers. Should the game remain close and low-scoring where both teams are punting after repeated 3 and outs, this may be a tactic Holmgren employs until the game opens up in its later stages. Knowing that the Seahawk offense is capable of so much more, this strategy will drive Seahawks fans nuts.
In all likelihood, the Bears defense will take their opportunity to limit Seattle’s passing attack. Hasselbeck has very good vision of the field and knows Holmgren’s West Coast Offense very well, but Lovie Smith has years of experience in designing defenses to defeat the West Coast Offense. One match-up that Seattle may want to challenge is Danieal Manning. As a rookie, Manning is turning out to be a play-maker. He became the first Bears player since 1995 to intercept a pass in his pro debut when he picked off Brett Favre in a 26-0 season-opening win at Green Bay.
Manning replaced second year pro, Chris Harris at free safety on the nickel defense was able to break-up passes in the last couple of games. All Manning lacks is experience, so needless to say that while going up against the likes of Nate Burleson or Bobby Engram out of the slots, the young safety will have his hands full. Scouts from the Chicago area are pleased with Manning’s progress, but noticed that Manning tends to play too deep to keep from getting burned by the deep routes. This may prove to be an interesting possibility for Holmgren, either by way of creating room in the seams or in the “underbelly” of the zones for Seattle’s Tight Ends or crossing patterns for receivers.
Still, as a young player, Manning has good range and tackling skills, and promises to be a key to this game, given Seattle’s preferences for the passing game.
Bears defensive tackle Tommie Harris, NFC Defensive Player of the Week following his game against the Lions will also pose great challenges for Seattle’s interior line. Second year player Chris Spencer, listed as a center but will start at Guard for the injured Floyd Womack. The Pro Bowler Harris should be a factor in preventing Hasselbeck from getting set for passes in the likely event that Seattle’s interior line breaks down due to the pressure that the Bears look to bring.
Defensive Ends Adewale Ogunleye and Alex Brown bring persistent pressure from the outsides in a line achored by Ian Scott and Harris. Walter Jones and Sean Locklear will be providing good protection from the exterior. The Bears showcase arguably the NFL’s finest front 7 to challenge the high powered Seattle offense. On paper, the match-up between the Bears defensive lineman and Seattle’s limping offensive line reveals significant concerns for Seattle who otherwise hope to see the Hawks move the ball down the field with the same ease as against the Giants. But the difference lies in the Bears overall defensive personnel and competence, which is far superior to the Giants struggling unit.
For the past few years, Bears fans have been blowing the Rex Grossman trumpet, and very few outside the Chicago Bears fan base would listen. All of that has changed. After achieving the status of the NFL’s highest rated passer following their victory over the Lions, more and more people are starting to listen. When healthy (indeed the burning question of the year), Grossman brings quickness in his reads, a fast trigger and accurate completions to the field. Ron Turner’s system is a play action pass program that still allows the run to feed off of passing success and vice-versa. Beating the Minnesota Vikings on the road was a great confidence builder for Grossman. How he beat the Vikings was even more impressive, completing a late 4th quarter pass for a TD as the Bears came back to defeat the Vikings in dramatic fashion.
Now that Grossman is making good use of the tight end, defenders must keep up with a variety of receivers including the ever-reliable Muhsin Muhammad who gave Seattle a great deal of trouble in 2004, when the Carolina Panthers visited Seattle. That year, Muhammad was catching just about everything thrown his way and then some. After an off year last year, Muhammad is back to his game, making clutch catch after catch. Muhammad was instrumental in the victory over the Vikings, forcing defenders to cover “Moose,” while slot man Rashied Davis made is way to the end zone for the game-winning score. Grossman also has a special relationship with the fleet footed Bernard Berrian, who scored two TDs on deep go routes in each of the first two games. Look for the Bears to answer the Seahawks passing attack with a passing attack of their own, stretching the Seahawks defense with their underestimated, but effective corps of receivers.
An interesting match-up will be Seattle’s smallish CBs, Marcus Trufant, Kelly Herndon and Nickel back Kelly Jennings against Muhammad. Grossman will go to “Moose” early and often to move the sticks while challenging Seattle to cover his routes. Muhammad is known for his route accuracy and ability to bring down the ball over smaller defensive backs.
It has taken awhile for fans outside of Chicago to think of the Bears as an offense oriented team that has become so pass-oriented that Lovie Smith sounds like he’s spouting pure fluff when he states that “the Chicago Bears are a running football team.” Even Smith is starting to admit that games are won on the passing side of the equation and Bears fans are welcoming this change. More than ever, opposing teams must gear-up for a more complete offensive attack by the Bears.
Likewise, the words, “Seahawks” and “defense” would not likely appear in the same sentence under the pen of any Chicago sportswriter. As hard as this is for Bears fans to believe, Seattle is winning by playing genuine, black-and-blue defense. For Seattle, that is “gun metal blue” making other teams green with envy. Suffice it to say, that Seattle’s new GM Tim Ruskell, formerly of the Tampa Bay Bucs organization, has made significant personnel changes to secure defensive talent via the draft and free-agency.
For the most part, Seattle is a “no-name” defense, but you can’t help but notice players like Safety Ken Hamlin who had two interceptions against the Giants last week, and linebackers Julian Peterson and Lofa Tatupu. Tatupu went to the Pro Bowl as an alternate to Brian Urlacher while Leroy Hill led all rookie linebackers in sacks.
Speed, rather than size, is the name of the Seattle’s defensive game. Seattle defenders will swarm to the ball to stop the run and bring constant pressure on Rex Grossman. In its best game, the Seattle defense would love to force Grossman to make errant throws that can be intercepted. Given the kind of risks that Grossman takes now and then, Seattle feels it can pick one or two off as do the Bears for Hasselbeck.
The Bears O-line has demonstrated very good protection against its NFC North nemeses. Sunday, the Bears are about to face-off with a higher level pass rushing team in the Seahawks who led the NFL in sacks last year. Once again, however, if Bernard Berrian can get deep and Grossman has time to throw, the Bears have the tools to take it to the house with a vertical game against Seattle. Safeties Michael Boulware and Ken Hamlin are hard hitting tacklers and have the quickness and speed to take the deep ball challenge in their respective areas of responsibility, but the Seattle corners could be the odd man out in a jump-ball situation.
Still, Seattle is a strong defensive unit overall, grading out in the upper-echelon in most of the power ranking systems. Remember that this is the same defense that practically shut-down the Carolina Panthers after those Panthers beat the Bears on the previous week’s playoff game. While I enjoy talking Bears defense with Bears fans, I find it difficult to convince a few Bears fans that Seattle can play defense in their own right. This game should prove to be … shall we say … “educational”... for those who insist that Seattle is more of a pretender than contender in this area.
Special Teams is the key to a Bears victory, Sunday. Robbie Gould has emerged to become one of the NFL’s leading field goal kickers. Devin Hester is an exiting punt return man with the ability to take it the distance. Brad Maynard is getting very good results on his punting and in terms of coverage, the Bears are relatively penalty and mistake-free. Seattle’s special teams, once a hallmark, have improved from a below average rating to average. Improvements in all phases of the game are evident, despite some changes in personnel that have become a distraction, if not a liability. Seattle has a new long snapper and rookie holder. Kicker Josh Brown is competent, but has had problems getting a good foot under the ball, due to holder issues. Furthermore, Seattle has had many FG’s blocked. The Seahawks special teams are victims of not-so-special snafus that threaten their ability to bring closure to a game winning situation. The Bears have a considerable edge in this department.
Every NFC North opponent now knows that the Bears thrive on turnovers. These are not luck bounces, but deliberately planned, successful techniques for stripping the ball and maintaining advantageous field position. One of the reasons the Bears have been so powerful offensively is that they have played a relatively short field. I mentioned this in last week’s report on the Vikings. The secret to the Bears success is to get their turnovers from teams while deep in their own territory. This makes for a short trip to the end zone for the Bears offense once they recover the ball.
Seahawks, beware. If you come to Soldier Field and don’t maintain a firm handle on the ball, it will get ripped off and the Bears will capitalize. Mike Holmgren is very likely pounding this into the minds and awareness level of every Seahawk player. Some might say, “that’s nothing new, of course every team tries to strip the ball.” Right, but few teams succeed so consistently that they count on the turnover as their strategy for winning games. Once again, for Seattle to win this game, they must proceed without the giveaways. Just ask the three previous teams who have already faced the Bears opportunistic defense.
Another common perception about the Seahawks is their relative lack of success on the road. Since last year, Seattle is 6-3 on the road for the regular season and very likely, the correct ratio would be 7-2 if Seattle had played their starters for the entire game against the Pack after securing the Number 1 seed for NFC playoff purposes. However, upon closer inspection, not all road games are created equal. It is one thing to defeat the Arizona Cardinals (no small feat, to be sure), and it is another to defeat the Pittsburgh Steelers on the road (as the Bears and Seahawks both know all too well). The point is this. Seattle’s two losses were to very good teams, to whit, the Jacksonville Jaguars and the Washington Redskins.
The year before, Seattle lost to the Rams, the Patriots and the Jets (all better teams that year than they are now). It might be more accurate to suggest that Seattle has a history of losing to good or comparable teams on the road. Their last significant road victory to a team of equal or greater competence was at Tampa in 2004, unless you consider last year’s defeat of the division rival the St. Louis Rams a significant road win. Knowing that the Rams were a much better team at the outset of their season before an onslaught of injuries, Seattle fans see that game as a breakthrough to the road win issues. However, this does not pose a very convincing case to the rest of the NFL fan base.
There’s no question that this proves to be a very, very difficult challenge for Seattle on the road without their MVP Shaun Alexander. His loss brings Seattle into a level of adversity that they were not planning on for this particular game. Right now, the Bears have the advantage with home field privileges as a favorite to win this game.
Unless Seattle finds a way to compensate for points of vulnerability in the Bears’ House, many things point in favor of a Bears victory. In New Orleans, we learned that the power of emotion can impact the outcome of a game. On paper, Atlanta was the favored team or at least as good as New Orleans. As the game progressed with support of a passionate crowd, a statement was made that the Saints are marching in and the Falcons were the unfortunate sacrifice on that altar.
The Seahawks, likewise, head into a city whose fans are passionate about their team and, in the face of let-downs by their local professional baseball teams, are looking to the Bears to become a uniting factor as a long standing tradition for Chicago area sports. You can just hear the oft used line in the highlight film of this game. “The Chicago Bears have waited since 1995 for a championship team to re-emerge, and there was no way the Seattle Seahawks were going to spoil it.”
As a die-hard Seahawks fan from day one, it pains me to write this and be as honest and as objective as I can. I simply cannot lie about what is in my gut here. Without the aid of Shaun Alexander, and due to the present condition of Seattle’s offensive line (with all due respect to back-ups Marice Morris and Chris Spencer) the Seahawk offense will be ill-equipped to win this game.
Given what is at stake; given the Bears’ superior defense and special teams, the emergence of Rex Grossman the emotion of Soldier Field and the Bears’ competence in generating turnovers, Seattle’s valiant attempt to go 4 and 0 will fall way short of the Bears determination to take this game.
Bears 26 (2 TDs four Robbie Gould FGs),
Seattle 13 (1 TD and 2 Field Goals).
IMO, they are forced into the ideal situation this week and that's having to throw the ball. The only way to dominate the Bears D is through the air. If they can protect Hasselbeck and he can deliver, its going to be a long night for teh Bear DTo counter that, I expect the Bears to really focus on the running game Sunday Night. If they get any kind of lead, look for TJ to get a heavy workload and try to eat up time.
