Give the Bears this: Though the St. Louis Rams’ offense may be called “the Greatest Show on Turf” and the Bears may be 2-7 and suffering through one of their worst seasons on defense, they still want to see what these Rams have.
Marshall Faulk? “He’s so fast and there’s always a hole there for him,” said middle linebacker Brian Urlacher, who then said that even though Faulk is questionable with a foot injury, “I hope he plays. I am looking forward to playing against him. I have never played against him.”
Not many in the NFL look forward to playing against Faulk or the rest of the Rams offense. They rank No. 2 in the NFL in yardage gained.
Without two-time MVP quarterback Kurt Warner and with Faulk hurting, the Rams have averaged 30 points a game in winning their last four after a surprising 0-5 start for the Super Bowl runners-up.
Defensive coordinator Greg Blache has not downplayed any aspect of an offense that last season scored at least a field goal 91 percent of the time it got inside the opponents’ 20-yard line. He told players Wednesday that the Rams will make big plays. What the Bears do after those will be critical.
“I pulled out film after film and even games they lose, they’re going to hit some plays and you can’t get discombobulated when they hit a play because they’re going to hit some plays,” Blache said.
“What we’ve got to do is make plays when we have an opportunity. We’ve got to create fumbles, we’ve got to create sacks and we’ve got to bat some balls down. They’re going to make certain plays. We just have to be able to handle the storm and ride the tide and when we get our opportunity, drop the hammer on them.”
The Bears are the fifth straight low-ranked defense going against the Rams. The last four have lost. But the Bears have a plan.
No. 1: Be physical. Make Faulk and game-breaking receivers like Isaac Bruce, Torry Holt and Ricky Proehl pay when they catch the ball. Even if they don’t catch it.
“New England [in winning the Super Bowl] flat got after them,” Bears cornerback R.W. McQuarters said. “They were flying around, hitting guys even when the ball was overthrown. When you do that early, in the fourth quarter it comes back to haunt them and they think twice before they come across the middle.”
Because the Rams use three receivers so often, the Bears will be in nickel defenses.
Safety Mike Green, whose effectiveness as the fifth defensive back last season helped him become a starter this year, is expected to have that assignment again. Safety Damon Moore, whose 2001 season with the Eagles ended against the Rams in the NFC championship game, is expected to be at safety, assuming Larry Whigham remains out with his ankle injury.
No. 2: Don’t dance with the Rams. Blache counted 124 different formations and shifts run by the Rams over the last three games.
The Bears’ answer to that will be at times to simply stay with the defense as called, without trying to match the choreographed Rams offense step for step.
A lot of what the Rams do is window dressing, Bears defenders said. What matters is not where they start or how much they move around, but where they end up.
Blache noted that “one of the biggest things when you go into the game with them is having to defend all those formations, plus they take away play recognition. A lot of times a big portion of a defense’s aid is recognizing a certain play based on formations or splits.
“They throw so much at you, if you have your players worrying about watching for play recognition, they don’t play. They sit there and they watch.”
That is not part of the Bears’ game plan.
“We’re going to show up,” Blache said, “and we’re going to fight them and we’ll see how it all turns out.”
