Are You Ready for Some Football

[rah]

And while backs can be better than others, without a good O line in front of them..................

[pchang]

Only 1

person has the ball at any one time. Thus, it is not that far fetched to say that 1 particular player is better than 2 others combined.

[Frozzy]

Originally posted by rah
And while backs can be better than others, without a good O line in front of them..................

Running is more about the O-line than the back. Look at Edge, pro bowl RB who did stuff all this year, or the Broncos, or the Jets, or the Colts, or the Patriots, all of whom had unproven RBs taking a large number of the carries and had very good success with the run game. Even in the past couple of years you've had the Bears taking Thomas Jones to a decent RB.

I think the running game for both sides is a push...

[Ned]

Good analysis here on the two teams. You are not going to get that from the talking heads on TV. What they do is focus on QB's. Manning is better than Grossman. Colts win.

But they do the same every SB. They only look at the offense and the better QB. They never look at the defenses and hardly ever at the running game. Until Imran's post above, I was entirely unaware that Indy had a good running attack this year. All you ever hear about is Manning this and Manning that.

But I would just like to point out that Brees and the NO offense was the top offense in football this year. Brees was an MVP candidate. That is why everyone, to a man, picked NO to beat the Bears Sunday: Brees v. Grossman. Lights out. Pick NO.

But it turns out that Chicago's defense is both fast and strong. It litterally beat up NO's offense. Ditto Chicago's offense. It pounded on NO's defense. As the game went on, it got worse and worse for NO on both sides of the ball.

But Indy is a different team. They are also noted for speed on defense. I suspect they will focus on stopping Chicago's running attack so that Grossman will be forced to throw on third and long. That is where Chicago is vulnerable to the turnover.

The teams are even in my book. It should be a good game.

[snoopy369]

Originally posted by Imran Siddiqui
And listen, I don't care if someone thinks the Bears running attack is better than the Colts. It is an arguable point. However, I think it really goes off the deep end to claim one of the Bears backs is better than both Indy backs combined.

I'd say that you're right, certainly thomas jones alone is not worth more than the two indy backs.

However, the jones/benson combo has been absolutely killer in the playoffs... Benson tires out the opposing team then Jones gets hot and scores against tired defenders. Pretty much the same way that Indy tired out NE ...

But the Bear's D doesn't tire in quite the same way

[asleepathewheel]

Originally posted by Donegeal
19 rushes for 123 yards and 2 TDs? And you think Addai is better than Jones?

Not that I agree with you, but for the sake of argument, I'll let that one slide. Follow Jones up with Benson, who has been running better and better with each game. Hell, I'd take Benson over Addai and Rhodes, not even counting Jones!

Are you seriously going to argue that Indy has a better running attack than Chicago?

Do you even follow non Bears football?

Apparently not, by this quote.

Addai has been quite impressive at times, and as Imran said, look at the numbers, avg/carry, etc. pretty comparable, even without addai's superior receiving numbers

[-Jrabbit]

Geez, guys, get a grip. Comparing season stats to playoff performance is just not realistic. People improve. People get hurt. People get tired. People get healthy. Etc.

1. Addai showed flashes of brilliance in the regular season and blocks very well for a rookie, but he's been weak in the post-season with a shoulder injury.
2. Rhodes (who looked kind of useless during most of the season) has been playing very well in the playoffs.
3. Receiving stats for RBs are largely a matter of offensive design. Brian Westbrook and Reggie Bush would have crap receiving stats in Chicago's offense. Superior numbers do not necessarily mean superior skill.
4. Well, there's more, and it's really good stuff. Very insightful, trust me. But my goal is to stop this non-analysis, not to spur it on.

[asleepathewheel]

Originally posted by -Jrabbit
3. Receiving stats for RBs are largely a matter of offensive design. Brian Westbrook and Reggie Bush would have crap receiving stats in Chicago's offense. Superior numbers do not necessarily mean superior skill.

hence the

[Frozzy]

One point that jus occured to me reading Ned's take was that when he mentioned the Colts would try to force Grossman to win the game, I think this plays directly into the colts hands. One of Grossman's strengths is his ability to throw the deep ball, but the Colts will not give you that. You have to beat them throwing 10 yards and under routes, and I have my doubts he can do that.

If the Bears don't run, or are unable to, I think it's all over red rover on that count. It is critical that the Bears run the ball.

[Imran Siddiqui]

he's been weak in the post-season with a shoulder injury.

Well aside from that 122 yard rushing game against the Chiefs in the WC round . And Hell, the next game he played Baltimore. No one on the Colts offense except Vinateri had a good game. Against NE, Addai has a yards per carry average of 4.0. But since they went down 18 points fairly early they threw the ball a whole Hell of a lot and Addai only had 14 carries.

Not sure I'd call that weak. He's had one bad game, vs. Baltimore.

[-Jrabbit]

His coach would call it weak. That's why he reversed the trend of Addai getting more and more carries. Rhodes was rested and healthy.

I'm just saying the dude is hurting or he'd be doing better, Imran.
Jeez. Chill.

[Ned]

Imran, could the good stats on the Colts running attack be a product of defenses being arranged to stop Manning?

In contrast, defenses want the Bears to throw, so they focus on stopping the run.

[SlowwHand]

The Bears don't have to use Grossman to the degree they do. They have 2 good backs. Use them and then go play action, at times.

[SlowwHand]

dp

[Jaguar]

Originally posted by Ned
Imran, could the good stats on the Colts running attack be a product of defenses being arranged to stop Manning?

In contrast, defenses want the Bears to throw, so they focus on stopping the run.

Yes, exactly.

The first three yards for Colts running backs are free because everyone's scared to death of Peyton Manning. Bears running backs get their help from superior blocking.