For all the excitement D.J. Smith generated with his sack of Jay Cutler on the Bears’ opening play last Thursday, lost in the Packers’ 23-10 win were the issues the inside linebacker appeared to have matching up with Chicago running back Matt Forte in coverage.
Considering Forte has amassed more than 50 receptions in each of his four NFL seasons, he presents a tall task for any defending linebacker, but still produced two of the Bears’ most productive offensive plays at Smith’s expense.
The first came in the second quarter on second-and-15 when he beat Smith for a 22-yard catch. Forte also hauled in another reception for 15 yards on third-and-five before exiting in the third quarter with an ankle injury.
According to Pro Football Focus, Cutler managed only 126 passing yards in the game, but roughly half of that came on completions in Smith’s direction, including a 21-yard touchdown pass to Kellen Davis in the fourth quarter over the reach of the undersized Smith.
Smith played more aggressively than he did against San Francisco with four tackles and two other quarterback hurries to complement his sack, but one-on-one coverage situations with premier threats will be necessary at times, as well.
“I think D.J.’s fine. He’ll be fine,” said Capers on Friday. “If you see him too much in those situations, then I’ve got to be aware of that. You can’t help everybody out. Obviously, we’re trying to make sure that Marshall didn’t have the type of day he had the week before, when he was targeted 15 times and had nine receptions for 119 yards. We know how much Cutler likes to go to him, and a big part of our game plan was to try to take him away. You can’t take everybody away, so D.J. was in a lot of one-on-one coverage situations.”