Bears defense takes first step back
By David Haugh
8:04 PM CST, November 23, 2008
After the Bears' embarrassing loss to Green Bay, Adewale Ogunleye looked forward to watching the tape to find out if any of his defensive teammates had quit.
Ogunleye got his answer Sunday. And what a resounding answer it was.
In holding the St. Louis Rams to 14 yards rushing — 186 fewer than Green Bay had gained seven days earlier — the Bears' defense looked rejuvenated.
"You lose like we did to the Packers, and you've got to bounce back," said Ogunleye, who had two sacks. "Easily we could have gone in the tank. [But] it was kind of refreshing to see us set the tone early."
Showing a sense of purpose that was missing against the Packers, the Bears threw the Rams for losses on eight of their first 12 offensive plays. Of the first seven pass plays called, three resulted in sacks.
Most encouraging for the Bears was the pressure created by the front four. Besides Ogunleye's two sacks, tackle Tommie Harris added two and right defensive end Alex Brown had one.
Postgame statistics credited the Bears with seven quarterback hurries, making the pocket much less comfortable than it had been. That harassment played no small role in the Bears intercepting four passes.
"We talked about getting 'that' back, whatever that is," coach Lovie Smith said.
Ogunleye had just as difficult of a time pinpointing why his sacks tend to come in bunches. It was the 16th time in his NFL career that he'd had a game with more than one sack.
"It's just the way it is in my career, and hopefully it continues," Ogunleye said. "The key is if I get one early."
The first sack came against the Rams thanks to an overmatched right offensive tackle, Alex Barron, who had given up six sacks entering the game, according to STATS.
But the Bears' much-maligned scheme created a second sack when Ogunleye ran a stunt on which he came up the middle and whizzed by center Nick Leckey.
"We've run that all year," Ogenleye said. "I think we run it too much, but it worked today.
"It's about coming clean. A lot of times the ball has just been out [of the quarterback's hand], and today the ball wasn't out. He was about to throw it, looked away and I was there."
For the first time since before the week off, Ogunleye and his fellow defensive linemen clowned around in a happy postgame locker room. But for the good times to last, Ogunleye knows the bad times cannot be totally forgotten due to one good showing.
"We've got to now realize every week we clear the slate and refocus," he said.
"We've got to literally reset our game plan and reset our minds. This is a step, but we've got a bigger game coming up this week."
