Well, the Bears have gotten back to that type of smashmouth football, but now, instead of Butkus, it’s the likes of Brian Urlacher and Julius Peppers.
Peppers may be the single-biggest reason the Bears are in control of the NFC North, a division no one saw them finishing better than third in. The defensive end is helping the Bears generate a pass rush that they’ve lacked in years past, and as a result, Chicago is in the top half of the league’s passing defense.
Their run defense, aided mostly by linebackers Urlacher and Lance Briggs, is one of the best in the NFL against the run. In fact, they’re second to only the Steelers in run defense.
The Bears are giving up a little more than 300 yards a game (third in the league), and they’ve given up the third-fewest points in the league. Interestingly enough, though, the Patriots have played or will play, seven of the teams in the top 12 in the league in terms of points allowed.
Of course, the Patriots are certainly responding in those games. In their six games with those teams (they’ve played the Jets twice and still have to play the Bears, Packers and Dolphins again), the Patriots are averaging 29 points. That’s again, against the league’s best scoring defenses.
The Patriots have played three teams already this season — Jets, Ravens and Steelers — that were considered to be at least in the discussion for the league’s best defense, and the Patriots handled them all quite easily for the most part. Are the Bears better than those defensive units?
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Is Bears' defense the best unit the Patriots have faced this year?survey software
