Sat: Eagles-Bears Preview – Bears Offense versus Eagles Defense
On paper, The Philadelphia Eagles defense should match up quite well against The Chicago Bears offense. The Bears passing game is suspect. The Bears have no stand out, “have to stop receiver”. The Bears starting QB, Kyle Orton has not been known to be a top, quality QB so far into his career. Orton is inexperienced and inconsistent but can manage a game with short and accurate passes. However, there are portions of the Bears offense that the Eagles need to be mindful of, or last year’s upset loss to the Bears could be repeated again this Sunday night.
Assuming dangerous return man/WR Devin Hester is still out with an injury as he is listed as Questionable at the time of this post, the Eagles should focus on shutting down two aspects of the Bears offense. The first piece is to make sure they are not hurt continuously by rookie RB Matt Forte. Forte has been a dangerous runner and receiver so far this season and could be the kind of back that gives the Eagles defense trouble. There have been many successful rookie running backs so far into the NFL season, and Forte leads them all in production. The Eagles so far have been extremely successful at shutting down the opposing team’s running backs and will need to keep Forte’s total damage at a minimum. Doing so will put the Bears in a disadvantage, forcing them to have to attempt to pass, leaving them vulnerable to sacks, potential turnovers, and costly mistakes.
The second portion of what the Eagles Defense should prepare for is the athletic ability of Bears Tight End Greg Olsen. So far this season, arguably the Eagles biggest issue defensively has been attempting to shut down the other team’s Tight End. Dallas Cowboys Tight End Jason Witten absolutely owned the Eagles during week 2’s game. Last week, Steelers Tight End Heath Miller was the only success in the Steelers’ passing game. It is crucial for the Eagles to get better at stopping opposing Tight Ends or more and more teams will game plan to pick on this chink in the Eagles defense’s armor.
The Eagles have great Cornerbacks in Lito Sheppard, Asante Samuel, and Sheldon Brown. Add in a ball hawking Safety in Brian Dawkins and an improving Safety in Quintin Mikell and I am quite confident that the Bears receiving core will not be much of a threat despite the fact that WR Brandon Lloyd (questionable) has started being more productive.
With that said, the Eagles would be wise to keep up their aggressive style of blitzing and be in the Orton’s face all day. The Eagles should put as many men as possible up in the box, contain Forte, and bring the heat on Orton, forcing him to try to make the big play. More times than not, the Eagles defense should be on the right side of things, helping our Birds go to 3-1.
With that said, “E-A-G-L-E-S!! EAGLES!!”
