Bears in Five week 12: Bears take care of business in St. Louis

It’s hard to say that a victory over one of the worst teams in the NFL is a cure for all there ills but it should at least help shake off the hangover of the debacle in Green Bay. Sunday in St. Louis the Bears manhandled the Rams and finally did all the things we’ve been waiting for this season, like rushing the passer.

While the cries of victory should be tempered by the quality of the opponent it was certainly satisfying to see Brian Urlacher making plays and Tommie Harris and Adewale Ogunleye get to the quarterback. The Bears defense finally played with the passion fans had become accustom to, now the hope is the injuries coming out of this game don’t prevent a repeat performance in Minnesota.

So with a battle for first place against the Vikings on the horizon, we look back at the Bears and Rams in five:

1) It starts and ends with Forte
Everything the Bears have been able to do this year has started and ended with Matt Forte. Now fifth in the NFL in rushing with 909 yards and leading in total offensive touches with 270 the offense doesn’t go unless Forte makes it go. With 132 rushing yards Sunday he allowed the Bears to coast through the second half.

There is still some concern that he’ll hit that inevitable rookie wall, but if he could hold it off for just one more week he could give the Bears a serious leg up in the chase for the NFC North division crown. The Vikings commitment to stopping Forte the last time these two teams met allowed Kyle Orton to shred their secondary en route to 48 points. The Bears will need more out of Forte this time in an attempt to control the ball and keep his counterpart off the field.

2) The snap to Hester…
Sunday marked the long awaited debut of the Bears version of the “wildcat” formation. While the play wasn’t quite the homerun that it had been in other places around the league Hester still managed to work his way towards a first down and give opposing defensive coordinators a lot more to think about.

While Hester continues his struggles as a returner, even being relieved of his kickoff return duties, his nearly 90 yards of total offense Sunday shows the kind of contributions he can make. Ron Turner did an outstanding job of using Hester successfully in a variety of ways that should put all the Bears remaining opponents on notice.

3) Slow but steady
That’s the mantra Kyle Orton needed to have against the Rams. The play of his defense and Forte made sure that Orton had to do little more than dink and dunk and keep the offense moving. The ankle injury appears to have limited his ability to get the ball deeper down the field, but his accuracy was vastly improved from the game against Green Bay.

Now as the Bears travel to the Metrodome Orton will need to find his deep touch again. Four weeks removed from the injury against Detroit the Bears will need the QB who was creating all sorts of long-term extension buzz before the bye week to return.

4) Did the real Bears defense just stand up?
We’ve seen 1-game aberration from this group before and it’s hard to overstate how terrible the Rams are, but success has to start somewhere. It’s obviously unreasonable to expect this team to return to a top-5 or even top-10 defense given the body of work they’ve put out this year, but improvement is the key. The defense needs to avoid the drop-off they experienced after their last dominant performance in Detroit.

Then again the return of a pass rush from Tommie Harris and Adewale Ogunleye make pretty much anything possible. If the Bears can return to getting pressure with just their front four it allows them to get more creative in disguising their coverages. Perhaps most important though was the return of the run defense going into their second match-up with Adrian Peterson.

5) The injury bug
The only significant injuries the Bears had going into St. Louis were Marty Booker, who hadn’t caught a pass in three weeks, and Kevin Jones, who’s been ineffective all season. Now coming out of that game the Bears could be down half of the starting secondary. Mike Brown’s lower leg injury and Nathan Vasher’s hit to his surgically repaired wrist could likely keep both out next week.

The silver lining here is that both of their back-ups have seen playing time and played well. Corey Graham was already on the verge of taking Vasher’s starting spot and his superior tackling probably would’ve had him on the field most of the time anyway.

Craig Steltz for Mike Brown on the other hand should be more concerning. While Brown is not the playmaker he once was in coverage he is still excellent at playing downhill and attacking the line of scrimmage, that’s something the Bears could sorely miss in Minnesota.