Initial challenge II: Bears face Chief's Johnson
Last week the Bears kept the NFL's rushing leader at a near standstill, limiting LaDainian Tomlinson to 25 fitful yards on 17 attempts.
They won that battle but lost a 14-3 war to the Chargers in San Diego.
This week they face the league's second-most productive rusher, the Chiefs' Larry Johnson -- whose 1,789 yards were just 26 fewer than L.T.'s.
It's another difficult challenge, but different.
"He's a big body, a big target," coach Lovie Smith said of the 6-foot-1, 230-pound Johnson. "Hopefully he's a big target, but he hasn't been for a lot of people. He's one of the best players in the league, can catch the football, has good moves, with a lot of power and size. It will be a big challenge for us this week just like last week."
Johnson rushed for a modest 43 yards in Week 1, but he only got 10 carries and did not appear to be in mid-season form after a 25-day training camp holdout. The Bears are expecting to see the real L.J. on Sunday, which isn't the same as L.T -- but can be just as dangerous.
"L.T. sort of has everything," said strong-side linebacker Hunter Hillenmeyer. "Larry Johnson is almost deceptive. You watch him on the film, and he doesn't look blazing fast, but you don't see anybody catching him.
"He doesn't look like a huge power runner but you just see people bouncing off of him. So he's obviously doing something right. He breaks a lot of tackles, he gets tough yards, he runs downhill. He's a great player. Obviously when you put up the kind of numbers he had, he's doing a lot of things right."
The Chiefs also have a lot in common with the Chargers, at least offensively. Aside from a running back capable of carrying an offense on his back -- Johnson's 416 rushes last season were 68 more than the second-busiest runner, Tomlinson -- the Chiefs also have a world-class tight end in Tony Gonzalez but only a mediocre group of wide receivers.
Chargers tight end Antonio Gates caught 9 passes against the Bears for 107 yards and a TD.
"We're getting them out of the way early here, facing probably the two best tight ends in the league right off the bat," said Hillenmeyer, who will be one of the keys in trying to contain the 6-foot-5, 251-pound Gonzalez. "Whenever you see a guy like that, they always pose matchup problems because they'd like to think they can get open against linebackers and they can use their body against defensive backs.
"Gates had a good game against us, but people are going to make their plays. We tended to focus on Tomlinson last week, and we shut him down. We'd like to feel that we have the advantage whenever we can make a team one-dimensional."
• Guard Ruben Brown was held out of Wednesday's practice with a shoulder injury, and tight end Greg Olsen (knee) was limited but showed improvement over last week.
Safety Josh Gattis was signed to the practice squad. He replaced defensive end Copeland Bryan, who was signed to the Buffalo Bills' active roster.