Thread: Bears vs Raiders Preview................

Sounds like the Raiders may have as many or more key injuries than the Bears. Their coach is bragging about how great a return man Jacoby Ford is and they don't even know if he'll play.

Just like the last three weeks we face a top rated passer and the pass rush has to get untracked. We can't blitz worth a damn using our LB's so we need the front four to step it up. If we are gonna blitz I'd suggest we do it with Graham from NB or cross then with and unexpected Safety or CB blitz. That's not something we show often.

After a shaky start the run D has been back to playing good old fashioned tough against the run again. Less than 70 yards per game is working wonders for our turnover ratio. If they can't run we force them to pass and we get some picks when they go to the well once too often like Rivers did. Carson Palmer is a good QB but he and his receivers don't worry me as much as Rivers and the bunch for Dago.

Good news for the Bears running game. The Raiders are prone to allowing big runs and teams have averaged over 5 ypc against them. We need Forte to get back on his 100 yds + per game track again. In fact a team effort that gets us around 200 yards on the ground would make life a lot easier for Hanie in his first start. Be nice is he doesn't have to throw more than 20 times or so.

Good defense, some ST magic to give us a field position advantage and good ball control wins this game.

The problem with getting 200 yards on the ground in this game is that we don't sub in other RBs often enough to keep Forte's legs fresh. There, again, lies yet another problem in the durability of Barber. He has been very brittle the past couple of years, and I don't know what the Bears will do about that. My guess is that you could see Kahlil Bell some in the game in order to keep legs fresh.

This situation is going to be much like the Steve Fuller fill-ins for the Bears from 1984-86. The difference is that I think Caleb Hanie is a far superior passing quarterback to Steve Fuller. The only thing Fuller would do would be to hand off the ball to Walter Payton or any of the other running backs on the team during those years. Hanie is going to probably throw the ball 25-30 times Sunday, and I have confidence that he will not make too many mistakes doing so. This Raiders defense isn't exactly the Packers top-ranked D of 2010, so I think that if he can manage the game effectively with intelligently-selected passes, we'll be fine.

They can and should start using Barber more. Since he's not having to carry 20 times a game anymore he's sort of rejuvenated. They should be running him 10-12 times per game instead of 4-5.

My thing is this: if Marion Barber can't handle 10-12 plays from scrimmage per game, then he doesn't need to be playing in the National Football League. Still, it doesn't make me worry any less about his durability. It's kind of like that really emotionally awkward pubescent kid you come across. If you say "Boo" to him, he cries. It's like if you play Barber too much, he gets injured. He's too good to simply lie around idly and not be more active than he is. The past two weeks, he's actually be pretty good when we've taken Forte out for breathers. The good thing about Barber is that he is a power back, and thus can push the line of scrimmage forward due to his power and strength. Kahlil Bell can do the same as well, but he's not as fast. He reminds me a little bit of Ron Dayne, only not as big. We need to use all three backs in the upcoming games in order to keep the rotation fresh.

Originally Posted by Dagan81

My thing is this: if Marion Barber can't handle 10-12 plays from scrimmage per game, then he doesn't need to be playing in the National Football League. Still, it doesn't make me worry any less about his durability. It's kind of like that really emotionally awkward pubescent kid you come across. If you say "Boo" to him, he cries. It's like if you play Barber too much, he gets injured. He's too good to simply lie around idly and not be more active than he is. The past two weeks, he's actually be pretty good when we've taken Forte out for breathers. The good thing about Barber is that he is a power back, and thus can push the line of scrimmage forward due to his power and strength. Kahlil Bell can do the same as well, but he's not as fast. He reminds me a little bit of Ron Dayne, only not as big. We need to use all three backs in the upcoming games in order to keep the rotation fresh.

Barber can easily handle a dozen carries in a game. He's been doing that and more for years but when you have a feature back like Forte then it limits his carries. That's made him more effective when he is in there and being injury prone is not what limits his carries. Forte's running limits them. Although when teams are stacking the box and taking away the outside and his cutback lanes like Dago did Barber should get more carries. Better to attack that defense by going straight at it with quick hits between the tackles.

I like Kahlil Bell too but as long as Forte is doing so well he won't see much of the field except on ST. Don't know about the comparison to Ron Dayne though. Dayne was huge at 250 +. Bell only goes around 215 lbs.