Bears Must Stop Peterson to Beat Minnesota
The Chicago Bears visit the Minnesota Vikings in an important NFC North showdown on Sunday. The Bears are 6-5 on the season and sit a half game behind the first place Detroit Lions.
Detroit defeated the Green Bay Packers handily on Thanksgiving pushing the Packers down to 5-6-1 on the season.
Chicago needs to win to stay abreast the Lions who are rounding into form at the right time with their high-powered offense.
Chicago’s defense has been slumping against the run and faces the league’s best rusher in the Viking’s Adrian Peterson. Containing Peterson is a top priority for Chicago in this matchup.
Chicago currently has the worst defense against the run, while Peterson is one of football’s most physically dominating backs.
Peterson currently is second in rushing in the NFL this season with 997 yards and first with rushing touchdowns with 10.
He should reach his average and beyond in this game against the No. 32 ranked team defense.
Over the past five games, the Bears defense has given up 985 yards on the ground. Twice during the five games, teams ran for more than 200 yards. The Bears are now giving up an average of 145 yards per game.
Holding Peterson below 100 yards will be difficult. If he can rush for 150 yards or more, than the 2-8 Vikings could upset the Bears.
Chicago, to prevent Peterson from defeating them single handedly, needs to first sell out in order to stop the run.
The defense must bring up its safeties to help stop Peterson and make the Vikings beat them with the pass. With two rookies starting at linebacker, the Bears defense will need to have seven to eight and at times more players in the box to contain Peterson.
Chicago must make Christian Ponder the Vikings quarterback try to beat them. If the Bears stuff the run, the passing game for Minnesota will suffer, but if Peterson is getting chunks of yards on the ground, then play option passes become a weapon for Minnesota and the passing game opens for the Vikings.
Another way to contain Peterson is for the Bears to take the lead early. If Chicago can score quickly, often and early, the Vikings will be playing catch up which means they could take Peterson out of the game.
In Minnesota’s losses to the New York Giants, Carolina Panthers and the Green Bay Packers, the team fell behind early and stopped giving Peterson the ball.
In those three games, the Vikings were beaten handily and Peterson only averaging 12 carries in each game, which is well below his average for the season of 22.6 per game.
Another effective way to stop Peterson is to keep the Minnesota offense off the field. Control the ball on offense and the Bears eat the clock and keep Peterson sitting on the sideline.
Regardless of how they do it, the Bears must slow down the league’s best overall rusher otherwise they risk falling a game behind the Lions in the race for the division title.
