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Formula for Bears Success Starts with the Run

It is not secret that the Bears will plan to serve up a healthy serving of the run game against the Seahawks.  With the 22nd ranked run defense, the Bears getting the run game going, can be what decides the whole game.  This article takes a look at what the Bears will do on offense.

The Bears have no interest in putting this game solely in the hands of Rex Grossman. If that happens, the Bears are in trouble because Seattle will have stopped what the Bears really want to do: run and run some more. The Bears beat on the Seahawks with 38 runs (vs. 32 pass plays) for 143 yards in the teams' first meeting and had the ball more than 35 minutes.

Thomas Jones' fumble against the Giants was the Bears' only turnover in 453 combined carries by Jones and Cedric Benson. The Bears' average of 120 rushing yards per game was good enough for a pedestrian 15th in the NFL, but they ran the ball 503 times, tops among the remaining four NFC teams, and were 10-1 in games when they ran at least 30 times.

The Bears' only losses were to top run defenses (Packers 13th, Patriots fifth, Dolphins eighth). Seattle finished 22nd vs. the run. The Seahawks have superb linebackers but are not strong up front, and Seattle nearly let the Dallas game get away when it could not stop Julius Jones from rolling up 81 yards on 11 carries in the second half. Now they get brother Thomas, plus Benson, behind an even better offensive line. With Seattle's patched-together secondary, the potential for play-action off a dominating run game is huge.

Listen.  The Bears are going to run the ball, we know it, they know it, heck even Salisbury knows it.  That said I can't tell you how excited I am about Berrian in that secondary.