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JOHN "MOON" MULLIN
The Bears defense will be looking at its second No. 1-overall draft choice in the span of three weeks when they get together with St. Louis Rams quarterback Sam Bradford.
The first was Andrew Luck. The Bears took care of him and his Indianapolis Colts in game one.
The Colts were a 2-14 team last season. The Rams also were 2-14 in 2011. This one is different, however.
Right now the Rams are simply better on offense than the Bears. And that’s without adding a couple marquee wide receivers in the offseason and with an offensive line that has two starters (center Scott Wells, left tackle Rodger Saffold) out with injuries.
The Rams (1-1) are a top-10 offense in overall yardage, sixth in rushing, 11th in passing. All three are higher than the rankings for the Bears (1-1).
Bradford has a passer rating of 112.4, third in the NFL.
Jay Cutler (58.5) is ahead of only Cleveland rookie Brandon Weeden and Arizona’s John Skelton.
Bradford is the No. 2 fourth-quarter passer; Cutler is 17th. Bradford is No. 1 in the NFC in third-down passing (125.2);
Cutler ranks 15th at a jaw-droppingly bad 44.7.
The Rams had the opportunity to stay at No. 2 in this year’s draft and select Robert Griffin III. They liked what they had in Bradford, traded the pick to the Redskins, and Bradford outplayed Griffin when the Rams defeated Washington.
Coach Lovie Smith made the obvious declaration over what he likes a quarterback:
“I like Jay Cutler and everything that he is,” Smith said in the course of defending Cutler after the latter’s meltdown in Green Bay. “I’m not trying to trade any of our players. The week before, we didn’t hear an awful lot of this stuff. We were talking about how good we were and how we were playing, so we’ll get back to that where the focus is on the play on the football