Quote:
Originally Posted by Big Hugg
The Bears won because the Cardinals coaching staff did what the Bears couldn't do on the final drive.
Stopped Matt Leinart.
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Meh. The Cardinals game plan was to come out and use the passing game as a running game. They were throwing short and letting their excellent wide receivers make plays because they knew they weren't going to get anything in the running game. Leinert didn't even really throw any medium range passes all night, so the Cardinals weren't going to score behind his arm. Both touchdowns were Leinert throwing about a 5-8 yard pass and the receiver making someone miss to get there. As the game wore on the Bears adjusted and the defensive line started concentrating more on closing Leinert's passing lanes and trying to knock those short passes down at the line of scrimmage (and they got 3 or 4 of them).
It isn't like they changed their mind and got conservative late in the game, they were conservative the entire game because they knew if they tried to do something riskier down field it was likely going to be the Bears making the plays. The offensive line is horrible, you can't run for under 2 yards a carry and hope to close a game out.