The Scouting Report
Monday Night Football is prime time entertainment and the Bears will be hosting the Seattle Seahawks. Both teams are 0-1 and combined to lose their games by a total of 4 points. So they desperately desire that first win since they both were "oh so close." Seahawks are 23-9 all-time on Monday night and their .719 winning percentage on Mondays ranks first all-time in NFL history. They should be familiar with this setting. The point spread has Chicago by 3.5 as of Friday.
Bradley McDougald (2 INT) and Earl Thomas (1 INT) were the only safety tandem in the NFL to each record an interception on Kickoff Weekend. McDougald is tied for the league lead after picking off Denver QB Case Keenum twice on Sunday. Their safeties seem to fare better in the opening week than the Chicago Bears tandem of Eddie Jackson and Adrian Amos. But let's face it, they played against Aaron Rogers and not Case Keenum.
This brings me to my next concern, Chicago will be facing a former Super Bowl Champion quarterback in Russell Wilson. Wilson is able to extend plays and has shown a tendency of hanging onto the ball too long. At least that was the case last week when he was sacked 6 times by the Broncos. It is a double edged sword because of his ability to extend plays, he also puts himself out there to be sacked. He also was without his top receiver so that could have contributed to him holding onto the ball.
In those six sacks, Three of them was by Von Miller. Can Khalil Mack be as disruptive as he was against the Packers? I expect Mack to be a little bit better shape than he was in game one. Seattle will certainly be aiding their offensive tackle to help block Mack. They might keep their tight end in to double team him or bring a running back at Mack. Mack is certainly familiar with attacks coming from other angles and he will be ready Monday night. Mack had one sack last week, but he also stripped the ball from Deshone Kizer and intercepted a pass for a touchdown. With all the double team coming at him, expect Akiem Hicks or Roy Robertson Harris to step in with pressure. Both of them had sacks in the game against Green Bay.
Last week the Seahawks was 2 of 12 in third down conversions. I expect that to be a focus for the visitors on Monday night. The Bears are going to have to stop the run and keep Seattle in third and long situations. With the six sacks, that had to keep them in the hole, it is hard to overcome that.
With the Seahawks being the only team to record three interceptions last week, it makes you wonder if Trubisky is going to continue in his shy ways? Seahawks best linebacker Bobby Wagner has been ruled out for the game so will that help Mitchell find a Tarik Cohen against the other linebackers? Head coach Pete Carroll when asked, "What happened to Bobby Wagner?" Carroll said, "He had a groin thing that showed up kind of late." That sounds funny but Carroll went on to say, that at first they thought it was a cramp." I for one am glad he explained the 'groin thing that showed up." With Wagner out this should get Nagy thinking about how he wants to get the backup linebacker into a mismatch.
