Other people’s injury misery has been the Broncos’ good fortune during their five-game winning streak. The trend will continue Sunday when the Broncos face a Bears offense without quarterback Jay Cutler and running back Matt Forte.
To tack on a sixth consecutive win, the Broncos will have to:
It’s built to remove the big play, and quarterbacks willing to keep it short and move the chains have a better chance to succeed than the ones who try to push the ball up the field too often.
The Bears have some concerns at safety now, so there may be an opportunity to go deep, but Smith’s defensive philosophy basically assumes a quarterback will crack at some point and a turnover will follow.
That’s especially true at linebacker, where Brian Urlacher leads the team in interceptions with three. They’ll drop the linebackers in and out of the passing lanes, looking for mistakes by quarterbacks who didn’t account for them in pre-snap reads.
This will be a different kind of test for Tim Tebow, especially if he tries jam the ball into his primary receiver time after time.
Two Hester touchdown returns later, in the same quarter no less, and what was potentially a playoff season was sent spinning down the drain.
Champ Bailey was asked this week if the decision was his, would he kick to Hester? His answer summed it up best: “Not in a million years.”
The Bears are having troubles on offense, so for the Broncos to even think of giving Hester a chance to turn the game on special teams would mean they will get what they deserve in return.
In his 10th season, Peppers is still an elite athlete who makes plays all over the field.
The Bears will want to slow the game down and make it a defensive struggle, and their chances for success in doing that go up exponentially if Peppers is running in open space.
Jeff Legwold: 303-954-2359 or jlegwold@denverpost.com
