Bears-Seahawks: Key matchups
The Bears are heavy favorites today at Soldier Field to avenge their 23-20 loss to the Seahawks in Week 6 at the same site.
The teams will be meeting for the sixth time in five seasons, and the Bears hold a 3-2 edge in those games, including a 2-1 record at Soldier Field.
In the only postseason meeting in this series, the Bears edged the Seahawks 27-24 in overtime in a divisional-round playoff game en route to earning a berth in Super Bowl XLI.
If the Bears hope to advance to the NFC championship game next Sunday, they will need to reverse the outcomes of some of these key matchups that determined the first meeting.
Bears DBs Charles Tillman, Tim Jennings vs. Seahawks WR Mike Williams
The Bears must have an answer for the Seahawks' 6-foot-5, 235-pound wide receiver who, in Week 6, caught 10 passes for 123 yards.
“He had a career day against us last time,” said Bears coach Lovie Smith. “We can't let him have another day like that. If we let him have another day like that, we'll lose.”
The 6-1, 198-pound Tillman is clearly the player the Bears want on Williams, but there are times when the 5-8 Jennings will have to step up, literally, to the challenge.
Williams was out of football the previous two years after flopping as the Lions' first-round pick in 2005 and getting released after three undistinguished season.
“Mike's a good player,” Smith said. “You have to respect what he's done as far as coming back, being out of the league a couple years, working hard to get back in, playing at the level that he thought he could play at all along.”
Bears LBs Brian Urlacher and Lance Briggs vs. Seahawks RB Marshawn Lynch
For the past 11 years, either Urlacher (eight times) or Briggs (three) has led the Bears in tackles. Four times, including this year, they've finished 1-2.
Lynch is coming off a monster 131-yard game against the New Orleans Saints, including a 67-yard, game-clinching touchdown run that has already achieved folk-hero status. Lynch broke 6 tackles on the play, but, at the current rate of inflation, that number will be 15 by game time.
The Bears have seen the run often, and they give Lynch credit, but they know their tackling is superior to what the Saints showed on that play.
“Lot of missed tackles,” Urlacher said. “Good run, though.”
A run like that against the Bears would come with repercussions for the guilty parties when the defense views the film the following day.
“A play like that,” Briggs said, “everybody is going to have their head down because we all get called out. Our coaches are loud. ‘Lance Briggs, negative, missed tackle, bust, loaf.'”
No one had to hear that after Week 6, at least in relation to Lynch, who was held to 44 yards on 17 carries. Briggs missed that game with a knee injury.
Bears RB Matt Forte vs. Seahawks LBs Lofa Tatupu and David Hawthorn
Hawthorn led the Seahawks with 105 tackles. Tatupu, a three-time Pro Bowl pick who tied for second on the team with 88 tackles, might not play because of a concussion he suffered a week ago. If Tatupu isn't cleared by game time, Hawthorn, who had a team-best 9 tackles last week and recovered a fumble, would move from outside to the middle.
Forte was no factor in the first meeting, partly because he had just 8 carries and partly because the Seahawks held him to 11 yards. But the Bears have seen the error of their ways and have made the third-year runner a staple of their offense.
“We can't go out and do like last time and throw the ball 49 or 50 times and only run it 10 times,” Forte said. “We have to have a balanced offense.”
In the past eight games, Forte has averaged 17 carries per game. In the last six games he's averaged 5.8 yards per carry.
Bears DE Julius Peppers vs. Seahawks OT Russell Okung
In the first meeting, Peppers was as close to invisible as a 6-7, 283-pound athletic freak can be. Going against the Seahawks' first-round rookie, Peppers didn't have a sack or a quarterback pressure — something that happened in just one other game all season.
“He was a good player,” said Peppers, who wasn't anxious to reminisce. “I'm not really concerned about that game. They just had us off balance. We're not really trying to delve back into the past about what. It's a new ballgame. We're going to see what happens this weekend, what they're going to do this weekend.”
Peppers had 8 sacks, tied for the team lead with Israel Idonije, and his 23 QB pressures were more than his next two teammates combined. But Seahawks quarterback Matt Hasselbeck does a good job of getting the ball out quickly, and Okung will likely get help from tight end John Carlson.
“If we can't get there,” Peppers said, “then we've got to try to get in some of those passing lanes and bat passes down.”
Peppers is good at that, too. He led all Bears linemen with 7 pass breakups and 2 interceptions.
Follow Bob LeGere's Bears reports via Twitter@BobLeGere.