So, tell me if I'm crazy for thinking this, but what if the Bears are actually benefiting from playing all of these games against zone-read teams with athletic QB's? They got a major taste of it with the Eagles and Seahawks in pre-season, and right off the bat in the regular season, they get the Bills, 49'ers, and Jets in back-to-back-to-back weeks. They've been awful at defending it up until this game. They still allowed like 120 yards on the ground today, but it feels different this time. Gore had 1 explosive run and Kaepernick got away from a few defenders that missed tackles to rack up some yardage late. The difference this time is the Bears were usually right there to make plays this time.

 

Is it possible that the Bears have gotten to the point now where they are starting to get used to all this read-zone stuff, and it's starting to click? It's almost like after a certain point, you're brain is going to start adjusting to things after you've been playing against it for a while.

 

I saw Jon Bostic play instinctive tonight. He was in the backfield on a few running plays where I couldn't believe my eyes. The containment was there for the most part. Kaepernick got away a few too many times late in the 4th, but the Bears had about 3-4 chances to wrap him up for a sack and didn't get him down.

 

I'm real curious to see if any of this translates into the game next week against the Jets. If they get dominated on the ground, this topic may be all for not, but after the game, it had me thinking. What if this stuff is actually sorta helping them in a weird way?

Your eyes are not deceiving you. The front 7 are getting better at reading and defending the plays in particular the read-option. If they can continue to progress hopefully it will allow our DBs to focus on better coverage.