What can Brown do for you?
Apparently, a heckuva lot. Alex Brown and the Bears beat the Bucs today by a score of 13-10 in Tampa Bay. He was simply a monster today. Two sacks, five passes defended, four knockdowns, and one forced fumble that lead directly to the Bears only touchdown. If he's not Defensive player of the week, then I'm Mickey Mouse. He's looked like Bruce Smith in his prime these last two weeks. Simply remarkable. His buddy on the other side of the line, Ogunleye, ain't too shabby himself. Chalk up another two sacks for Wally, and give him eight on the year. Speaking of eight, the Bears record stands at 8-3, with seven wins in a row. Still only a two game lead in the division, thanks to Brad Johnson and the Vikings, but the playoffs are practically a given. Some notes:
- On offense, Orton did a decent job. No major mistakes, save the one pick. He made enough plays to not lose, and earned his third road win. Can't complain about that.
- Jones, Peterson, and the especially the line all had good games. I'm starting to wonder if Peterson should get more carries. Every time he touches the ball it seems he gains seven or more yards. Plus he's keeping Jones fresh. Whether he gets more carries or not, the depth is a beautiful thing.
- Moose has been strangely quiet lately. Yes, he's getting doubled every play, and his QB ain't the greatest, but you'd think you'd get more than four catches for 38 yards for 16 million dollars. In other news, Justin Gage proved last week was not a fluke.
- Bobby Wade, Punt Return duties: R.I.P. If the Bears receivers weren't so banged up, he'd probably be cut tomorrow.
- Chris Simms impressed me today. He lost the game of course, but he handled the Bears pass rush far better than Jake Delhomme did last week. I think he might end up being half as good as his old man, and that's actually a compliment.
- Tampa is a tough team. There were a number of plays in the second half where their big TEs and RBs took three or four hits to go down, and they consistently got that extra yard when needed. I won't be looking past them if we meet again in January.
- Urlacher and the linebackers have been rather quiet these last two weeks. I don't think it's because they're struggling or anything, just a matter of the defensive line aborting so many plays before they start.
Finally, no review of this game would be complete without mentioning THE critical play of the day. WIDE RIGHT! Matt Bryant missed a 29-yard chip shot in the closing minutes that would have tied up the game and sent it to overtime. Chucky's luck with kickers continues.
Green Bay next week. I know they're 2-9 and Brett Favre is struggling, but that don't mean Jack Squat. Expect a tough game. Till then.....BEAR DOWN, CHICAGO BEARS!!!!!!!!