Bears Breakdown: Return to Glory

The Bears enter a pivotal home game against the Cleveland Browns as a .500 team. As much as it pains me to write that after a fast 3-1 start, the playoffs are looking like a hope at this point if the course isn't corrected in almost every facet.

The most glaring issue is the loss of Brian Urlacher for the season due to a wrist injury, and the perplexing choice to not start the best player available for the position.

Lance Briggs needs to be the starting middle linebacker. He challenged Urlacher for that position when Urlacher was on the field. In his absence, it makes sense to have your best linebacker in the middle. Briggs can stop the run, fly around the ball, and deliver a hit.

Starting Briggs at middle linebacker will bring stability to the position and the defense.

Wale's World

Respect the C on Adwale Ogunleye's jersey. He's a talent and thinker on the field, and a genuine good guy off the field.

I've personally witnessed his commitment to the community when he took time to speak at a local health fair last year. We should keep him around as long as he'd like to stay. When anybody plays that well to start a season, you give them a contract. It inspires hard work. You don't look to replace a guy because he's doing the best he can for your team, you reward him.

I believe this may have been Matt Millen's problem in Detroit, he sees potential more than hard work.

I hope Gaines Adams turns out to be a great addition to the Bears. But what we needed was an offensive lineman, not a fourth defensive end. And, to give a guy who is off to another Pro Bowl start a reason to not play his hardest is dumb coaching.

Dancer? Journeyman? Running back?

Ron Turner's style of play calling is what I would call gimmicky. To not throw on 3rd-and-long is giving up on the series, bottom line. It doesn't matter if the defense is expecting it. Sooner or later, the team needs to trust in the fact that on any given play, if both teams are executing at their best, we may still prevail. That is character.

Also, Matt Forte is not allowed a chance to journey for 100 yards.

The run game within the context of four quarters is a journey. You need to run the ball early and often. On first down you need to run the ball 95 percent of the time. It wears down the defense, it puts them back on their heels, it takes time off the clock, and it shows them that you are a ruthless team playing a ruthless game.

Getting bogged down in such an endeavor can prove counter-productive, and some teams in the NFL are using the wildcat, testing the theory of whether completely telegraphing run matters.

I believe that you still want to be able to throw the ball with the personnel on the field. But, I have never seen domination total and complete until I saw Miami in the wildcat eat the entire third quarter and smash the Indianapolis Colts with Ricky Williams and Ronnie Brown.

They eventually lost the game because of some Peyton Manning heroics, but for that seven minute-plus drive, the Miami Dolphins destroyed that defense.

Matt Forte is dancing in the backfield, running into piles that aren't moving forward, and not trying to hit a defender.

These are symptoms of not getting the ball. A running back getting the ball regularly will know where he can pick up four yards, and where he can look to break one. Getting a gash of yards inspires the offensive line and saves the quarterback a hit.

The play calling on offense is not creative. It is senseless at times.

I would like to see innovative inside hand-offs, and better utilization of a fullback in short yardage situations. Not passes short of first downs on third downs, and not the most pass happy first-down team in the league.

The Evolution of Defense

Lovie Smith in many ways revolutionized football defense. And, he did it with Brian Urlacher. A coach on the sidelines and a coach in the huddle made for a stifling defense that was feared around the league for a nightmarish ability to outmaneuver and outplay anybody not named Payton Manning.

One of the best scenes of the two teams meeting was Urlacher barking out orders and adjustments for every Manning audible. The chess game turned into a grudge match of intellectual warriors. It was football at its best.

Against the Atlanta Falcons and Cincinnati Bengals this season, the Bears defense looked pedestrian. Even the most casual viewer of the game could recognize that Matt Ryan was calling the same play throughout his drive. And, the Bears either failed to recognize it, or didn't know how to change their formation without a huddle.

This goes back to the first point about putting Briggs at the middle linebacker position. Everyone knows he has the talent for the position. What remains to be seen is whether he will be an effective chess player when he inevitably takes over the middle linebacker position.

Devin. Hester.

Devin Hester is unbelievable to watch. He can at will score touchdowns. Every time he touches the ball he is dangerous.

The only time he's not dangerous today though, is the source of his greatest potential, when he's running straight to the end zone looking for a pass.

Hester caught a pass last year from Brian Griese that looked so tantalizing because it was so perfect. Hester burnt the corner and the safety to a crisp, Griese put plenty of air under the ball, and Devin hauled it in as he crossed the goal line. It was perfect and elegant in its simplicity.

That catch inspired confidence that Hester could be the best receiver on the team, if not the league, and it also led to the Bears trading for Jay Cutler so that those throws would rain down all over the NFC North and Devin would get five TDs a game.

The process for that has been slower than our fantasy expectations, but Hester is emerging as a true receiver capable of moving the chains.

Why no deep balls? Because the O-Line can't give four seconds, because Turner won't open up the playbook, because Devin doesn't get open quick enough even though he would obviously win the footrace, and because Devin doesn't do jump balls well.

Despite all these reasons, what the Bears need to do is find a way to chuck it downfield for Hester to catch it.

That is why Brett Favre is the best quarterback in the NFL. Because he chucks it downfield and clearly knows it wins games and even Super Bowls. And, it's damn exciting to watch.

Coaches these days put the handcuffs on quarterbacks to their own detriment. Drew Brees, Manning,and Farve are all great talents. But, they are also allowed to air it out in a low-risk, high-reward manner.

A midzone rout means the quarterback is negotiating the pass rush, the linebackers, the corner and the safety. This is where Cutler gets picked an average of twice a game.

On an outside fly rout, it's just the receiver and the corner, together on an island. Plays designed to create these types of matchups will show once and for all if Hester is the No. 1 receiver, or just a good underneath slot option, in addition to being the best return man that ever played.

Hester will continue to improve in all aspects of his game. His play is a joy to watch.

Lights Out

The only way to describe the play of rising star Johnny Knox is "lights out."

He seems to be playing in a dream world, not waking up to the possibility of the fact that 11 guys on the other side of the ball don't want him in the end zone. His penchant for dropping the ball as he crosses the goal line is a subtle reminder that he knows he belongs in this league, and he's taken it to the house before.

On his kick return for a touchdown, he was moving so fast that his body was 45 degrees to the ground when he would swivel between would be tacklers.

His over the shoulder catches, which caught us by surprise in the preseason but now seem standard to expect from the padawan rookie, look absolutely effortless.

His speed is for sure his defining trait, but the caginess with which he throws blocks, and his desire to reach the end zone will make him a fearsome competitor for years.

Dueling deep threats Knox and Hester have already been used in some exciting formations, including as duel return men for possible special teams shenanigans. Include Daniel Manning in that mix and the Bears could have the most lethal return game in history.

Walter Payton's Play

The Bears have many question marks this season, but with some basic offensive line building, moving personnel around on defense, and picking up a hard nose fullback or big tailback to split time with Forte, the Bears will be a force to be reckoned with again.

But, this kind of organizational momentum needs support from everyone involved.

Football is a game of inches. And, execution can only happen when all the moving parts have trust and a common purpose.

Walter Payton leapt through the air with reckless abandon, because he trusted his teammates to throw vicious blocks, and they trusted him to make the struggle worth it.

As he is remembered at this week's game, his play inspires us to remember that confidence in yourself and your teammates makes champions, and that football is a game where you go out and hit somebody.

Bear down, Chicago Bears.