Week Two Answers: Chicago Bears at Carolina Panthers

by faketeams on Sep 15, 2008 10:15 AM EDT in Football

In a match-up between two Week One road winners, the Carolina Panthers defeated the Chicago Bears 20-17 at home. The Bears' special teams scored first while its offense managed to score just 10 points. TE Greg Olson fumbled deep in Panther territory late in the opening quarter and again deep in Bears territory in the 3rd period. This led directly to a Panthers' TD.

For the Bears, this looks like a team whose offense will not win games. With a strong defense and special teams play, the Bears could be in every game. As soon as the offense is needed, though, the game is over.

Despite an overall offense that won't win games, the Bears have a legitmate RB in rookie Matt Forte. He followed-up his great debut with 93 yards on 23 carries and three receptions for 21 more. As long as the defense/special teams keeps the games close, Forte is a solid RB2 each week.

The Panthers didn't throw the ball well (102 team passing yards) nor did it dominate rushing the ball (31 attempts for 114 yards), but the team made a change in the 2nd half that could have big fantasy implications. Rookie RB Jonathan Stewart became the workhorse in the second half scoring two TDs and rushing for 76 of his 77 yards.

Disappointingly, last week's fantasy surprise, TE Donte Rosario, did not follow-up with a good game statistically. He caught just one pass for six yards.

Fantasy Player To Watch: RB Jonathan Stewart

Poll

Which RB would you prefer?

Matt Forte, Chicago Bears

28 votes

Jonathan Stewart, Carolina Panthers

28 votes

56 votes | Poll has closed

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Panthers

Rosario was playing hurt, for one thing. Sprained foot. Didn’t practice until Thursday, and was limited then.

The Panther offense was hurt mostly by stupid penalties, especially in the first half. There were at least seven pre-snap penalties (AT HOME, no less) and at least three illegal formations or shifts. This led to a lot of obvious passing situations where the Bears could come after Delhomme, especially since the Panthers lacked Smith (who would be deadly on slants in that situation) and seemed unwilling to try screens. In addition, around 80-100 yards of offense was wiped out by penalties, including a TD pass to Muhammad. The team didn’t get untracked until they stopped setting up 2nd-and-15s and Stewart started running through a gassed Bears D (the field temperature was around 110 degrees at kickoff).

by nuke187 on Sep 15, 2008 1:53 PM EDT reply actions