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Defensive Notes

If the NFC Champion Chicago Bears were going to turn around their season, everyone should have known the difference wouldn’t have been at quarterback, but on the defensive side of the ball. That’s what happened Sunday, as their rival Packers moved up and down the field against them for much of the game, but the Bears defense made big plays when it counted – a forced fumble (or three) here, an interception (or two) there, and some big plays down the stretch. Say this for Lovie Smith’s defenses: Even when they’re banged-up or over-matched, they’ve always been able to come up with big plays. At 2-3, things look quite nice for the Bears all of a sudden: The Vikings’ one-dimensional offense this week, an up-and-down Eagles group the week after that, and then a revenge game at home against the Lions.

Now the bad news: The Packers elected to keep the ball out of Devin Hester’s hands as much as possible on Sunday, with short kickoffs that never came within 20 yards of the dangerous Hester. Shocking that it’s taken so long for an opponent to resign itself to that choice, but what would be more shocking is if other teams don’t follow suit in the future.

As for the Packers defense, the 27 points it allowed to the Bears are a little deceptive. A phantom penalty and offensive miscues were all that kept the team from keeping the Bears out of the end zone until the final minutes of Sunday’s game, at which point they were gassed from spending the bulk of the second half on the field – forcing punts, and then watching their offense or special teams give the ball right back. Don’t bail on them now, and better yet, the schedule actually gets easier from this point forward.

Fairly quietly, the Jaguars have built one of the league’s elite defenses. They haven’t allowed more than 14 points all season, and thus far – in a break from recent years – they’re playing even better on the road, having shut down the Broncos and Kansas City in their home stadiums. Just five teams have more sacks per game, and aside from a week 7 matchup with Indianapolis, the schedule looks favorable: Houston, Tampa Bay, Tennessee, New Orleans. They might even give the Colts some problems; they have in the past.

When a defense pitches a shutout, it’s going to get a mention in this space. The Steelers were without several top players (Casey Hampton, Troy Polamalu), and still shut down the Seahawks. Clearly Mike Tomlin knows defense; he had a pretty good defense in Minnesota last year that got torpedoed by its subpar secondary, but that’s not a concern here. Not to return to the schedule theme, but based on the early part of the season, it looks like the Steelers will face a quality offense just once (Cincinnati) in their next six games.

Buffalo was fired up for its game against Dallas, and it showed: 6 turnovers, 2 defensive touchdowns, and a kick return TD for good measure. Had that game not ended with a heartbreaking loss, we might have believed the momentum would carry over past the team’s week 6 bye. At 1-4, though, it’s tough to see the beat-up Bills bringing that energy to the table each game. At least their kick-return units will still be among the league’s best, but that’s not enough to make them a weekly play in most scoring systems.

One-week options: Several average fantasy defenses will grade out higher than normal in our rankings this week, including Seattle, which hosts a malfunctioning New Orleans offense, and the Giants, facing a talent-thin Falcons group that will enter the game with a quarterback controversy.

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