Bears vs Falcons: Keys to a Chicago Bears Victory

Don’t Be Ridiculous

You can bet that Devin Hester has had this date circled on his calendar since the day he signed his 3-year, $9 million deal to leave the Bears and join the Falcons.  The night he broke the return record, he took a shot at Jay Cutler and the Bears.  On Sunday, you know he’d like to take another shot.  There is no reason on God’s green Earth that the Bears should kick to Hester.  We’ve witnessed Devin eat bad special teams units and rookie punters for breakfast.  Guess what?  The Bears have a bad special teams unit and a rookie punter.  In case anyone’s forgotten how dangers Devin can be, here are the highlights:

But it’s not just Devin Hester: Return Threat that scares me.  It’s also Devin Hester: Offensive Weapon that scares me.  The Falcons have figured out not only how to get Devin involved on offense, but to excel on offense.

Mandatory Credit: Jim O

Ice Breakers

Matt Ryan’s nickname is Matty Ice because he’s supposedly cool under pressure but the fact is the more pressure that Ryan sees, the worse his results. Matt Ryan has a solid 66% completion percentage under normal circumstances, but when he’s under pressure, that percentage drops a tick below 50%.  Simply put, the Bears need to pressure Matt Ryan.  I talked about it in a separate post, but it bears repeating.  Ryan was pressured on 38.9 percent of his 95 dropbacks in his two worst games per ProFootballFocus.com, compared to just 31.6 percent in his other three games.

To complicate matters for Ryan, his offensive line is in shambles.  They could be down 4 week 1 starters.  How bad is it?  They’ll be starting Bears first round bust Gabe Carimi at RT.  If Lamarr Houston can’t record his first sack of the season this week, then Houston, we really do have a problem.