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Bears need "D" to step up for playoff run

Posted by: THernes on August 10, 2009 at 2:40PM EST

I was at a White Sox game over the weekend, and had a talkative – but friendly – guy from Dayton, Ohio sitting a row behind me. Noticing the Bears shirt I was wearing, the conversation – which also included some other people sitting near us – turned to Chicago's football team.

There was the expected "you guys should be better with Cutler" comment, along with an anticipated remark about both the quality and quantity of wide receivers being a problem unless the prized quarterback makes them better with his golden arm.

But what I didn't expect to hear from the out-of-towner was the comment about the Bears having a "great" defense.

In reality, the Bears have not had a dominating defense since about the first 10 games of the Super Bowl season of 2006. It's probably more of reputation thing when names such as Brian Urlacher, Tommie Harris, Lance Briggs are mentioned.

Just go back to the final regular season game last year, and watching the Houston Texans carve up the Chicago defense for 455 yards in a 31-24 loss that eliminated the Bears from the playoffs. The Bears defense finished last season ranked No. 16 in the NFL in points allowed (350) and No. 21 in yards allowed (5,355), numbers that must improve for the team to win the NFC North this season.

The biggest question mark in training camp is the secondary. With starting cornerback Charles "Peanut" Tillman out for several more weeks as he recovers from back surgery, safety Mike Brown no longer on the team after many injury-plagued seasons, the opening day lineup in the defensive backfield could be a scary proposition.

Cornerback Nate Vasher has missed time with injuries in the past two seasons, and when he has been on the field, he has not performed as well as he did when he earned the nickname "The Interceptor" in his early years with the team.

Whether Danieal Manning fills the role of nickel defense back or starts at a safety position, he has been burned numerous times – remember the Reggie Wayne touchdown in the Super Bowl – despite having great speed.

Kevin Payne, Craig Steltz, Trumaine McBride, Corey Graham and Zack Bowman are all young guys who have yet to distinguish themselves, but at least a couple of these guys will be on the field quite a bit this season.

Of course, a solid pash rush from the front seven would be a great help to the secondary. Former Detroit Coach Rod Marinelli was brought in to whip the defensive line into shape. It's not a coincidence the Bears' defense has deteriorated since defensive tackle Harris started having injury problems late in the 2006 season. He has not been the same player since then, still having to sit out some of the preseason workouts.

The good news for Bears fans is Urlacher has looked sharp to this point, and he and Briggs need to make some big plays for the defense to excel.

Jay Cutler can also help out the defense somewhat by keeping the offense on the field for longer stretches and the defense off. My concern is how many games this season will Cutler have to lead the offense to score at least 28 points to win instead of maybe 21?

Then the guy proudly wearing his Ohio State shirt identified himself as a Cincinnati Bengals fan, I asked how do like having ex-Bear Cedric Benson on the team, a bunch of us had a good laugh, and the pro football talk came to an end.

- Tom

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