Joe's Gameday Recap: Bears 30, Falcons 12

It was a complete victory at Soldier Field Sunday afternoon as the Bears dominated the visiting Atlanta Falcons 30 to 12. In a game where the Bears were underdogs, they sent an early message to the rest of the NFC, intimating that they will not be overlooked. Chicago took the NFC’s best team in 2010 and made them look sloppy and unpracticed.

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Aside from a late pick-six (an excellent play from Kroy Biermann), Jay Cutler had an outstanding day in front of the Chicago crowd, going for 312 yards and two touchdowns. He was knocked around quite a bit though, getting sacked three times, which caused the offense to settle for field goals in the early-going. (And gave me my only heart attack when Cutler was woozy getting up in his own end zone.) Screen passes to Matt Forte and Devin Hester worked to perfection, with the first scoring directly and the second leading to a Matt Spaeth score on the next play. Forte got better as the game drew on, despite some early rushing woes. He finished with 68 yards on the ground and five catches for 90 yards to lead the team in both receiving categories. Even Roy Williams had an impressive debut, catching three passes for first downs (complete with annoying signals) before leaving the game with a groin injury.

Defensively, everything fell right into place for Lovie Smith. Julius Peppers and Brian Urlacher made Matt Ryan’s life a living hell. Peppers racked up two sacks (plus an uncounted third on a failed two-point try) and a forced fumble off of Ryan. Mr. Urlacher picked off Ryan once and recovered the Peppers force for a touchdown. Henry Melton stepped up with two sacks on Ryan and Amobi Okoye contributed one of his own, adding up to five of the six put-downs of the Falcons QB. Charles Tillman had a great game after a couple rough plays early on, deflecting key passes and pulling out the ball-punch to cause Chicago’s first fumble. They were gashed at times on the ground, but the score got too out of hand too early for Atlanta to stick with Michael Turner.  Lovie Smith’s defense made Mike Smith’s offense one-dimensional, playing into the strengths of the cover-two.

More surprising than anything else was how little Matt Ryan tried to stretch the field with any downfield throws. I understand “taking what the defense gives you,” but Matt Ryan is at the point in his career where he needs to be aggressive, taking what his team needs. Chicago’s defense loves it when you dink-and-dunk, because eventually you’ll make a mistake and they’ll make you pay for it, which is exactly what happened. But if teams want to play like that, I’ll take it all season.

I’ll caution already hyped Bears fans. This was game ONE of sixteen. It’s not the Super Bowl. It was a great-looking win and freaking entertaining, but we have a lot more work to do. We still had some protection issues which need to get shored up so Jay can keep playing like he did today. However, we’re 1-0 and on our way. Bear Down and Happy Jay Cutler Day!