Bears Blitz

Published by Jake Perper on November 21, 2009
Article Source: Bleacher Report - Chicago Bears

Victory needs to be in the Bears vocabulary come tomorrow night. The once 3-1 Bears have lost four out of their last five, and two games they didn’t just lose; they were flat out embarrassed.

This picture in the article shows the Bears’ goal line stand against the Philadelphia Eagles last season on Sunday night. The Bears hung on to win that game, with Matt Forte struggling to get anything going on the ground, but leading the team in receiving yards. That sounds a lot like last week, when Forte had a team-leading 120 yards receiving, but again struggled on the ground.

I’m glad the Bears finally noticed that Matt Forte is a pretty darn good receiver out of the backfield. He gives Jay Cutler another weapon. The Bears defense looked much improved last week, forcing a fumble and intercepting Alex Smith, but that just might have been because the 49ers offense isn’t very good.

Whatever the case may be, Donovan McNabb has lots of weapons on his offense this season. He has TE Brent Celek, who’s leading the team with receptions, young receivers DeSean Jackson and Jeremy Maclin, and also has a nice young running back by the name of Lesean McCoy.

The Bears defense should be in for a fight with that bunch, but I think the offense has to prove themselves in this game than any other unit. Jay Cutler has Greg Olsen, Matt Forte, Devin Hester, Earl Bennett, Johnny Knox, Kellen Davis, and hopefully Devin Aromashodu to get the ball to. We all know how young these group of receivers are, but there other problem is they don’t have much size.

This game is basically the Bears’ season. If they win, they go to 5-5, and if they lose, they fall to 4-6 and have much slimmer hopes at claiming one of the wild card spots in the NFC. I know the Bears shouldn’t be watching other games before they have even played theirs, but some of the games this weekend are important for the Bears’ chances at the playoffs.

The Eagles, Falcons, Packers and Giants are all 5-4, and the 49ers are 4-5. Good news is the Falcons and Giants play each other, the 49ers and Packers play one another, and we of course play the Eagles. So, if we come out with the victory tomorrow night we could be in good shape in the standings.

Key Matchup:

The Bears offense needs to take advantage of the Eagles banged-up secondary, who will be without Quintin Demps, Ellis Hobbs, and possibly Sheldon Brown. Jay Cutler needs to take some deep shots to speedsters Johnny Knox and Devin Hester a little bit more than usual.

Good News:

Al Afalava will be returning this week after missing last weeks game with a shoulder injury. Olin Kreutz who missed practice until Friday with a back injury will play tomorrow night, as well as Tommie Harris (knee).

Bad News:

The Bears will be without Kevin Payne for the second straight week. He was being used as the safety in certain situations this season. Without Payne Josh Bullocks, who started last week in San Fransisco, will get some more playing time.

Tight end Desmond Clark will miss another game with a bad back. He was injuried early in the game against San Fransisco, but could not finish. Clark is the best blocking tight end the Bears have. This means Kellen Davis will take over at the second tight end spot, and he is not a very good blocker.

Players to Watch:

1) Tommie Harris – He showed some signs of his old form last week in San Fransisco. Maybe he can show up big against the LeSean McCoy-led running game of the Eagles.

2) Greg Olsen – He needs to be a target on every drive, especially in the redzone. Olsen should find himself putting up some big numbers come Sunday night.

3) Charles Tillman – He only has two interceptions this season, but he is a master at taking the ball away from teams another way: forcing fumbles. Except to see Tillman flying around all night.

Keys to the Game:

1) Protect Jay Cutler. The Eagles have a pass rusher by the name of Trent Cole, who has seven and a half sacks this season. You have to contain him.

2) Get Matt Forte going, no matter what it takes, and it doesn’t have to be in the running game as we saw last week. Get him the ball in the open field and see what he can do with it.

3) Contain speedsters Jeremy Maclin and DeSean Jackson.

Prediction:

Bears 27, Eagles 20

Bear Down!

Jake Perper is the creator of www.BearsBacker.com and also covers the Bears forwww.NFLTouchdown.comand www.MVN.com.

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