The Bears defense would have difficulty finding a better opportunity to prove its preseason claims of improvement.
In Sunday's regular-season opener, the defense will face Washington Redskins running back Clinton Portis, who not only has achieved great success against the Bears in the past but whose running style perfectly exploits a basic weakness in their defensive scheme.
"Whenever you have a fast back like that, if they get through and either break a tackle or somebody misses a gap then they're at the safety right away," Bears strongside linebacker Hunter Hillenmeyer said. "That's something you risk when you play a gap defense like we do.
"But I think we've been pretty solid against the run in the preseason. Hopefully, that will carry over."
As Bears defensive players get in a lane and charge up field, one slight lack of execution can lead to a devastating big gainer. There are fewer players in the secondary to clean up a mess if the defensive linemen and linebackers miss the play.
The one big play allowed by the Bears' first-string defense in preseason was a 33-yard run by St. Louis' Steven Jackson when safety Mike Brown came up in run containment and missed the tackle.
"We need to tackle well — tackle in the open field — and we can be a great defense," defensive end Alex Brown said.
A different scheme — one like they used to play — might allow fewer big gains but also would produce fewer rushing attempts for negative yards.
"With those defenses where they get the big, huge defensive linemen and just sort of sit there and hold two guys on the line like that, there's usually a couple of people there with a chance to make the play after the defensive front," Hillenmeyer said. "Whereas when everybody is shooting their gaps, if its in your gap and you don't make the tackle, then you're letting your defense down."
Last year Portis broke off runs of 17, 18, 19 and 22 yards against the Bears en route to a 177-yard effort (on 36 carries) in a 13-10 Redskins win.
The Bears were in a different scheme in 2003, but Portis still had a big day. He gained 165 yards on 14 carries for Denver in a 19-10 Bears win. In that game, he broke runs of 59 and 49 yards.
"You just have to be the same way he is," Alex Brown said. "If he's persistent then we have to be persistent throughout the game and make sure that there isn't a hole, so everybody stays in their gap."
The Bears did a good job of stopping the run during preseason.
"We did have a couple (runs) break," Alex Brown said. "I think one broke against St. Louis and we know what the problem was. That doesn't mean we necessarily have a problem, but we just missed the tackle, that's all."
The Bears' first-team defense gave up just 138 rushing yards in almost nine full quarters of preseason action.
"If one does break, we have to make sure we've got 10 guys running to the ball and we can limit it to 15 yards instead of getting a 38-yard break or something like that," Alex Brown said. "As long as we're all hustling to the ball, I think we'll come out fine."
The Bears haven't ranked higher than 16th against the run in any season since they were second in 2001 — they went 13-3 and made the playoffs that season. Last year they ranked 25th (of 32 teams) in rushing yards allowed per game (128.1).
They're about to find out if a second year in their system, with a healthy defense returning, can rectify this problem.
Also, last year, when the Bears played Washington, Brian Urlacher was battling hamstring problems, they didn't have Mike Brown or Charles Tillman, and Adewale Ogunleye suffered a torn ankle tendon in the game.
"We may have had excuses then, but we won't have any now," Alex Brown said. "We'll get out there and see what we've got."
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