It was a David versus Goliath matchup.

The 5-foot-7 Garrett Wolfe taking on the vaunted Michigan defense in the Big House.

It was September 2005 and I had just arrived as a freshman in DeKalb with no prior knowledge of NIU football outside of Michael Turner. “This guy is going to get crushed,” I predicted as Wolfe took the field in Ann Arbor, Mich.

60 minutes and 148 rushing yards later, I was intrigued.

Two hundred and twenty five yards and three scores a week later at Northwestern and I was amazed.

One hundred and ninety seven yards against Miami University under the bright lights of Huskie Stadium on an early October evening and I was hooked. His ability to cut and make defenders miss had me mesmerized.

I spent rest of the ‘05 and ‘06 seasons watching Wolfe run his way right past Turner into the Huskies record book as the all-time leading rusher.

Despite his lack of size, it was his blazing speed and lightning-quick cuts that caught the interest of NFL teams.

A 4.39 seconds 40-yard dash time at his pro-day prior to the 2007 NFL Draft sent the running back rocketing up teams’ draft boards.

It was the Chicago Bears who decided to take a chance on Wolfe and selected him in the third round of the 2007 draft.

The Chicago native drafted by his hometown team. I couldn’t help but feel it was reached by the Bears drafting him on day one, but it sure was a great story.

Unfortunately, Sunday night showed the Bears and Wolfe one of the harsh realities college players have to face when entering the NFL: everyone has speed, so you better have size.
On a first down late in the second quarter, Green Bay Packers linebacker Brandon Chillar literally leapt over Wolfe to sack quarterback Jay Cutler.

It suddenly became painfully apparent that the Bears’ plan to use Wolfe as Matt Forte’s primary back-up may have been misguided.

Wolfe has been an excellent special teams player, a reason I advocate keeping him on the roster every year, but asking him to match up one-on-one with a blitzing linebacker might be out of his skill range.

He’s been proving people like me wrong his entire career and I hope he does again. But, I fear that when it comes to protecting the best Bears quarterback in my life, Wolfe doesn’t quite measure up to the task.

All comments are moderated before being published. We will not edit your comments, but we also will not approve those that are abusive, off-topic, attack another poster or contain information we know to be libelous or false.

During peak weekday viewing times, most comments will be reviewed within six hours. For more detailed information, click here.

After submitting your comment, check below for a confirmation message.

• Your name:
• Enter text from image:
  

• Your comment:

* 300-character count. HTML formatting will not display.