Chicago Bears: Week 5

Opponent: Jaguars
Location: Away
Outcome: Win
Record: 4-1

The Bears trounced the Jacksonville Jaguars in a 41-3 blowout! Unfortunately, I didn't get to watch the Bears game this week so I really can't go into too many specifics, but I'll do the best I can based on the statistics and from the general sports media that I do read.

The Bears are going into their bye week, so I'll start things off with some things that I hope they work on in that time. The first one is the slow start on offense. The score of the game at the end of the first half was 3-3, the final score was 41-3. It shouldn't have taken that long to get rolling against a clearly inferior team. Several others have pointed out that in games where the offense has really gotten going, it hasn't happened until the defense has given us a nice lead with a pick-6. It's nice that the D can do that, but I don't expect them to do that every game. Eventually we're going to play a team that is good enough where the offense is going to have to win it. I'd like to see some evidence that they can do that sooner rather than later.

The offensive line has played well the past two weeks. In Dallas, it was against a good defense. In Jacksonville, not so much. Surprisingly, the one sack we allowed wasn't the fault of J'Marcus Webb, but Gabe Carimi. Webb has been playing better since Cutler chewed him out a couple of weeks ago. Carimi has been touted as the best player on the line, so I'm hoping he just had an off day or was adversely affected by the heat (it was 89 in Jacksonville), but at the same time, he's a first round draft pick. It's time he starts showing it. Giving up an easy sack and a slew of penalties is unacceptable for as good a player as he is.

The last bit of bad from the game isn't about how anyone played, but about what happened on a play. Alshon Jeffery hurt his hand on his touchdown catch. I don't know how accurate the early reports are, but what I’m hearing is that it's broken and he's going to be out for 4-6 weeks. Luckily we've got the bye week in there for part of it, but Jeffery has turned out to be an amazing second round pick. Thus far he's the most successful rookie wide receiver in the league and he's only been getting better with each game. Hopefully he can be back on the field without missing too much. I'd hate to see his rookie season cut in half because of an injury.

Ok, enough with the bad news, onto the good. We won and are going into the bye at 4-1. Now on to the  GREAT!!! The "aging" Bears defense is a BEAST!!! Charles "Peanut" Tillman and Lance Briggs, two of the "old men" drafted back in 2003, both have consecutive defensive touchdowns. Our defense leads the league in turnovers and, unless the Texans got 5 last night, they're tied for first on number of sacks. I was too young to remember, but I wonder if this was how exciting it was to watch the '85 Bears who had an absolutely crushing defense. I really don't know what else to say about them, they're absolutely terrific! It's going to be an exciting year to watch if they can maintain this level. GO BEARS!!!