Ladies and gentlemen, PackerfaninCarolina has something to say to the naysayers and doubters of our defense and those that believe what happened in Chicago is some kind of bad omen. Ahem, a little perspective here.
Honestly we didn't play the Bears with a chip on our shoulder, and is it that hard to figure out why? We came off a season of dominating them 38-17 and then 55-14, some pretty big killer numbers there. You beat a team that bad, they go into rebuilding mode, gets a little harder to take them seriously don't you think? Beyond that Mike McCarthy, despite what some may think didn't help this team by saying that they were gonna go kick their you know what. I love MM, but that's not something that he's been known for doing, I know he's gotten a little more edgier since his brother passed away, maybe he's changing some tactics, but I just don't think that was smart. It gave our rivals a little bit of bulletin board material. I fully expect in this game, he's not going to go in overconfident, I think he's going to have this team focused on taking care of business and playing these guys like it's the superbowl.
Also, against the Bears we have always played them with pass defense as a priority over run defense. Given Cutler's interception history against us, the Bears having receivers like Alshon Jeffry and Martellus Bennett, our D has always played them as a pass team with some measure up front to watch out for Forte. Like I've also said, the Bears' o-line improved, maybe not Dallas Cowboy good but still with some attitude in them, good enough to spring some holes and give Cutler one or two extra seconds, and maybe a little surprising for our D. I think the narrative will be different against Seattle.
I fully expect against the Hawks that our D will commit to stopping the run first and do it like we did in the NFC championship game for all of 3 1/2 quarters and force Russell Wilson to win this game throwing the ball.
Here's My Keys To Beating The Hawks
1. Turnovers, I think we're going to generate them again. When our team forces them we gotta score TDs off of them and not settle for FGs in red zone trips. That's priority number 1.
2. We gotta win the battle of special teams. Just as he did against us the NFCCG and like he did attempting that onside kick last week, expect Pete Caroll to go to his bag of tricks in that department again and we gotta be ready. This is definitely a close second in priorities.
3. While I think it has been put to rest finally as to what happened last time, once again we gotta not be afraid to go after Richard Sherman. Sure he might come away with a pick, but he can get beat too. The other good news is Byron Maxwell is not on the other side, so don't be afraid to challenge their corners.
