Week 11: Packers 37 Bears 3

Wow - with their backs to the wall, the Packer offensive line and RBs really took it to the Bears defense. Almost 200 yards rushing. What could explain this sudden outburst?

a. Anything can happen in a Bears - Packers game?
b. Anything can happen in the NFL?
c. The O-line knew jobs were on the line?
d. Ryan Grant finally is healthy?
e. Timing & assignments have been improving the last few weeks and it finally jelled?
f. Early success on the ground made play-action passes deadly again?
g. The Bears suck? (Two completions to WR?!?)

I guess you could say some of everything. The quality of NFL teams is measured on long averages - not single games. But it was performances like this one that gave us hope last season.

Here in Chicago the Bears secondary has been taking alot of heat and so has Devin Hester. The pass successfully defended by Al Harris shows why Hester should be a kick return specialist. He's not big, he's not strong, and he doesn't have the instinct to fight for the ball first and go down field second. And his reverse field attempt that led to the Packer FG at the end of the first half shows why he needs to focus on doing THAT well.

As an O-line skeptic, I have to give the Packer O-line a standing-O and hope that they can keep it up. Not only did they get push and execute some nice blocking schemes, but they also managed to cut down on those drive killing penalties - finally! Yes - it CAN be done.

A lot went on in the trenches this game. I can only tell a zone blocking play from a power play some of the time. I'll be sure to read the analysis in the J/S and report the mix. I'm guessing they did some of both. Some of those early Ryan Grant runs looked zone blocked because of his cut-back lanes. Those are good plays to watch on tape with a finger on the pause or slow-motion button. But it was striking that guys in Green were winning physical battles like on Grants TD run to the right.