Bears-Falcons: Best case, worst case and prediction

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The best-case scenario

Mike Glennon and the Bears’ offense consistently operates like it did on its first drive of the third preseason game against the Tennessee Titans, efficiently marching downfield, not turning the ball over and getting in the end zone. A pass-catcher or two — be it Kevin White, Kendall Wright, Zach Miller, Tarik Cohen, etc. — steps up in the absence of Cameron Meredith, and Jordan Howard finds success establishing the run. And most importantly: Glennon doesn’t throw an interception or interceptions, or at least commit a catastrophic mistake as we saw him make against both the Denver Broncos and Arizona Cardinals in preseason play.

“I hope that those preseason games prepare me for this, but going from preseason to regular season, it’s not the exact same,” Glennon said. “But I feel ready for it. I’ve started games against the Falcons. I’ve started a couple games against the Falcons, I’ve played against them. So the speed of the NFL is fast, but I feel like I’ll be ready for it.”

It’s unlikely to expect the Bears to win a shootout against the Atlanta Falcons’ top-scoring offense from a year ago (33.8 points per game). But if the Bears’ front seven can key on Devonta Freeman and mute his production, perhaps it’ll lead to more blitzing opportunities for a front seven that looked solid in August.

Containing Julio Jones will be a difficult task, as will forcing a mistake from Matt Ryan, who had a career-low interception rate of 1.3 percent last year (seven in 534 attempts). Perhaps the Falcons’ numbers could look like what the Eagles held them to last year: Ryan threw for 267 yards with one touchdown and one interception and Jones caught 10 passes for 135 yards, but Freeman was limited to 49 yards on 12 carries as Philadelphia won, 24-15. That could be a good recipe for what probably would be a close win and an upset.

“It’s not like they’re a pass-happy team that you gotta go in there and stop the pass and if you do you might have a good chance,” defensive coordinator Vic Fangio said. “These guys run the ball extremely well. So some of the things you like to do against the passing game may not help you against the running game and vice versa. So when you’re playing a team that’s this balanced and scores as many points as they do, it’s a tough assignment. We’re going to have to be our best.”

The worst-case scenario

This begins with Glennon throwing at least one bad interception — either in the red zone or in Bears’ territory that gives the Falcons a short field. The Bears perhaps can recover from one interception so long as they play mistake-free football the rest of the game, but if Glennon were to throw multiple picks, that could be too deep a hole out of which to dig against the defending NFC champions.

If Atlanta is able to cheat its safeties into the box and limit Howard’s effectiveness, and Glennon can’t connect with a receiver/tight end/running back with consistency, this could be a rough afternoon for the Bears’ offense.

Defensively, the Bears still have some question marks in the secondary, which is a concern facing an elite passing attack.

“You can’t play good run defense if your corners don’t tackle and your safeties don’t tackle,” Fangio said. “You can’t play good pass defense if they can’t cover and make plays. We need improvement in all areas.”

The worst-case for the Bears is that they’re unable to get within striking distance and the Falcons cruise to a relatively stress-free win. There are plenty of reasons why the Falcons won the NFC last year and the Bears went 3-13, after all.

Prediction

Falcons 24, Bears 19

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