Can the Bears Handle Seattle's Blitz?

Filed under: Chicago Bears, Seahawks, NFL Playoffs, FanHouse Previews, NFL Quarterbacks, NFL Analysis

Just like last week, Seattle doesn't have a chance. The Seahawks are a 10-point underdog, just like last week. They appear to be outmatched by a superior offense, just like last week. But we all know how last week turned out.

And unlike the Saints game, Seattle comes into this week's game with the knowledge that they have a game plan that can beat the Bears, since they already did it in Week 6. Chicago may be a better team than the one that lost to the Seahawks 23-20, but there are plenty of lessons that can be learned from that game.

	2009 Season	Week 6 -- First Half	Week 6 -- Second Half
Rush 3	8.4%	0.0%	0.0%
Rush 4	61.0%	63.6%	30.8%
Rush 5	21.0%	27.3%	57.7%
Rush 6+	9.6%	9.1%	11.5%
2009 stats compiled by Football Outsiders

In re-watching the game, the most apparent problem for the Bears was their inability to handle Seattle's blitz package. In the first half, Seattle played relatively conventionally. They normally rushed four, then mixed in some blitzes at opportune times.

But late in the first half, the Seahawks realized that Chicago was unable to block blitzes. From that point on, Seattle defensive coordinator Gus Bradley went blitz crazy.

In the second half, Seattle blitzed on nearly 70 percent of all passing plays. And it generally worked.

I know there has been a lot written about how the Bears' passing game took off once Mike Martz accepted that he needed to go to shorter drops, and leave more backs and tight ends in to help pick up blitzers.

There definitely is some truth to that -- Jay Cutler took a three-step drop (which gets the ball out quicker) on only three of his 47 called pass plays in that Week 6 game, and the Bears tried to pass protect with only five offensive lineman and no backs or tight ends on 21 of the 47 pass plays.

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