Rams better prepare for an air raid

For most of the past two games, Bears wide receivers have been missing in action, with just 9 catches for 129 yards and no touchdowns.

Today at the Edward Jones Dome in St. Louis, an effort will be made to find them in a noon matchup with the Rams (Channel 32; WBBM 780-AM).

Offensive coordinator Ron Turner said the wide receivers' lack of production has not been caused by an inability to get separation, although Packers cornerbacks Charles Woodson and Al Harris appeared to have the outside receivers blanketed for most of the afternoon last Sunday.

"It hasn't been about that all year," Turner said. "Some people are saying, 'Oh, you come up and press the receivers and they're in trouble.' But I get excited when I see people come press us. What Green Bay did, they pressed us, and they had safeties (helping out) over the top. Most teams don't do that, so I'm confident that if people come up and play our receivers man-to-man, we'll make plays."

But, when opponents place a premium on taking the wide receivers out of the equation, it's up to other players to take advantage of the situation.

"We knew they were going to do that," Turner said of the Packers' defense. "That's fine, but when someone's double-teaming the receivers, you have to go elsewhere. You have to make plays in the running game, you have to make plays with your tight ends and backs."

The large, early deficit last week took the Bears away from the run game, but running back Matt Forte led the team with 6 catches, although they accounted for just 40 yards. Tight end Greg Olsen caught 4 passes for 45 yards, but the Bears' other tight end, Desmond Clark, had just 1 catch for 4 yards.

Clark is confident the wide receivers will play a bigger role against the Rams, even though they were blanked in the first half against the Packers. Clark pointed out that the passing game has received contributions from many different sources throughout the season.

"I'm going to go out on a limb and say the wide receivers will have a catch or two in the first half this week," Clark said. "I don't know how much of a limb that's going out on. But whenever a particular unit is not involved in a game, everybody else has to step it up, and that's what we've been able to do."

The numbers back him up.

Bears' wide receivers have a combined 83 receptions so far, the tight ends have 68, and the running backs 55. It's a running back, Forte, who is the individual team leader with 43 catches and 3 TD receptions, while and a tight end, Olsen, is the individual leader with 391 yards. Wide receiver Marty Booker leads the team with a 16.6-yard average per catch. Four players have 2 TD catches apiece - Olsen and wide receivers Rashied Davis, Devin Hester and Booker.

"It hasn't been like one particular group putting the whole team on its back for any stretch of time," Clark said. "It's been different people in different games, and if we can just keep doing that and get back to playing good football, I think we'll be all right."

Against a Rams defense that is the NFL's worst in points and average gain per pass play allowed, the Bears' passing game should be more than all right.