(Written by kencraw)

I find myself a bit outside the bulk of commentators on this game:

• The offense was not “efficient” or any of the other similar words that spoke to them executing precisely.  You can get me on board with words like “potent” or “impressive” or “overwhelming”.  But I saw too many mistakes, too many penalties, too many short runs to call them efficient.  The analogy I used on the podcast was it was like a teenager driving an over-powered muscle car.  The Bears could stomp on the accelerator when ever they got in trouble and use the big play to get out of jams, but there was a bit too much fishtailing to make me comfortable.
• I seem to be one of the only people who noticed the weakness of the run game.  I’m sorry, minus Mohammad’s two big runs, the Bears only had 121 yards on 27 carries (3.3 yards/carry).  That’s not a good number.  Maybe against a great run defense we can accept that number but against an otherwise overwhelmed Grambling State squad we should expect better.  I wouldn’t expect any more run balance than last year.  (But maybe that’s not a huge problem.)
• But I am on board with how well the defense did.  No big plays until we were so far down the depth chart it is hard to worry about it.  Minus the one 90 yard run, they gave up only 37 yards of rushing and a total of 207 yards.  And of course, a shutout into the 4th quarter.
• Add to that, there were the things I was looking for in my pre-game post:  Pressure on the QB, interceptions, plays on the ball, successful press coverage… all the things we were looking for.
• Now, we shouldn’t get ahead of ourselves.  That wasn’t evidence of a great defense.  I saw plenty of open receivers and other reasons to suggest this is merely a mediocre defense.  But mediocre would be a HUGE improvement.

So, long story short, I think the team has potential, but we shouldn’t get ahead of ourselves.