The Bears and the Rams both trudge their way into this Sunday's game heads down and tails between their legs.  The two teams lost to their  last opponents a combined 72-19.  The Rams are out of any race that exists save for the one for the #1 draft pick and sadly they are two games out of 1st place in that race as well.  The Bears despite their defensive and as of late offensive woes are in a 3 way first place tie with the Packers and Vikings.

Following Suit...

Last week I made a comment about the Bears never being able to take advantage of places they are suppose to take advantage.  Theoretically, the Bears should route the Rams.   The last 4 opponents the Rams have faced (NY Jets, 49ers, Patriots and Cardinals) have outscored the Rams 139-48.  It would be nice to see the Bears go out and do what they are supposed to do.  It would be hard to see the Bears contending for anything if they cannot easily take care of the Rams.

At Least We Have Our Health...

With one more week under his belt and another full week of practice, starting QB Kyle Orton should be ready to go and rebound from his statuesque performance from last week.  The Rams on the other hands are down their two best players.  They have already announced that running back Steven Jackson and future HOF offensive lineman Orlando Pace are out for this game.  Pace will be replaced by Adam Goldberg and they will look to fill Jackson's spot with Antonio Pittman followed by Sam Gado, Travis Minor and Kenneth Darby.

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*** If one wanted to look at our defensive woes, one could summise that once some of our defensive players got their off season money they may be mailing it in.  It is safe to say that one guy who is definitely not mailing it in is Lance Briggs, who looks to be our defensive MVP this year, and he doesn't believe anybody else is.

Briggs was asked in a roundabout way if marquee players have not played as hard after getting paid.

"I've heard it happens," Briggs said. "I can only speak for myself. I've always played the game the same way. Been no changes, never going to be a change.

"I've played with the guys here for a long time. There's no way you can convince me that these guys are playing satisfied. Until I believe it with my own eyes, there's no way that I would say that."

 

*** You can expect the Bears to get more looks at returnable punts and kickoffs this week as the Bears are likely to use Danieal Manning as their number 1 returner.  The hope is he can provide a spark.  I wonder though if the Bears should wait one more week on this move.  The last time the Rams saw Hester he ran back 2, they would probably just give us the ball at the 50 to keep it out of his hands.

"Devin has set the bar so high that people expect every time he touches the ball, he needs to score … every time," Manning said. "Sometimes I expect him to score, and I'm his teammate.

"If he's tired or down or anything like that, I'm the next guy in line. And I'm just trying to do my job. I try not to let my team miss a beat."

*** Speaking of Hester, HOFer Gale Sayers thinks Hester is running scared.

"He's running everything up the middle. [ The Bears return team] might have a middle return on, but if every [defender] is going to the middle, he has enough speed to go outside. He's not doing it.

He's running straight up the field and everybody is tackling him. He looks like he's afraid to go out on his own.

"A couple of times the other team would kick to the right and [Hester] would run to the right and run out of bounds. It's like he doesn't want to run the kickoffs back. Run to the left … you have the whole field!"

*** Terrence Metcalf returns to practice after a four game suspension.

 

 

*** Matt Forte is accounting for 33.9 percent of the Bears yardage.  That is fourth  in the league, behind Clinton Portis, Adrian Peterson and Frank Gore who are tied at 34.4.

*** Kyle Orton is on record pace for throwing no interceptions.

...Orton has not thrown an interception in 156 pass attempts dating back to Week 4. Orton threw a pick at Green Bay, but it was erased by off-setting penalties. His streak is the fourth-longest in team history. Erik Kramer holds the team record with 174 attempts in 1995.

*** The Bears would need some late scratches to get players into the Pro Bowl this  year.  Traditionally they do well with the fan vote, but are behind this year.

Return man Devin Hester is second behind Washington's Rock Cartwright by 2,681 votes and middle linebacker Brian Urlacher ranks second behind the Redskins' London Fletcher. Urlacher led in fan voting last year, but wasn't in the top five at his position after being snubbed by coaches and fellow players.

Olin Kreutz, a six-time Pro Bowl selection, is third at his position among fans voting; punter Brad Maynard is fourth; and tight end Greg Olsen and special teamer Corey Graham are fifth.

Linebacker Lance Briggs and defensive tackle Tommie Harris were not among the top five players at their respective positions

*** To further show the neccessity of a healthy Kyle Orton:

In the last two games, the Bears' offense has converted just five of 26 third-down opportunities (19.2 percent) after converting 42.4 percent of their third downs in the first eight games.

The Rams report is a little off. They have already announced that Steven Jackson and Orlando Pace are out for the game.

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After the Bears worst loss of the season and the only game that they were never in, it comes as no suprise that many fans and journalists are calling for the heads of various combinations of the Bears coaching staff.

So the question is simple who should the Bears get rid of and why?

 

Poll

Who should the Bears fire?

• Lovie Smith
• Ron Turner
• Bob Babich
• Ron Turner and Bob Babich
• All Three
• None of the above

  278 votes | Results

The Chicago Bears, Green Bay Packers and Minnesota Vikings are tied atop the NFC North and start a small 6 game schedule.  Lets take a look at each team's remaining schedule.

Chicago Bears

@ St. Louis
@ Minnesota
vs. Jacksonville
vs. New Orleans
vs. Green Bay
@ Houston

Green Bay Packers

@ New Orleans
vs. Carolina
vs. Houston
@ Jacksonville
@ Chicago
vs. Detroit

Minnesota Vikings

@ Jacksonville
vs. Chicago
@ Detroit
@ Arizona
vs. Atlanta
vs. New York Giants

We are at a small disadvantage to start the race having our next two games on the road, however we do have the easiest schedule for the next two games.  We also have an advantage having 3 tough games at home.  GB and Minny both have Detroit, but I think Detroit will get one of those.  I think Minnesota might have the hardest record left and ending against the Giants is brutal unless they are coasting at that point.  The Bears D will get tested even if they can go back to stopping the run.

What is your take on the remaining schedules?

I almost called this section The Bad, The Bad and The Ugly, but there were a few good things that happened.  Some guys were really out there trying.

THE GOOD

Matt Forte.  In what is the Bears only reliable good point, Forte ran for 64 yards with a 4.0 yard average.  The majority of that was in the first half and had the Bears not totally ignored him in the second maybe they would have actually moved the ball.  Forte also had 6 catches for 40 yards.

The Return of Mike Brown.  I commented during the Detroit game that Brown looked like he was returning to form.  Perhaps it had to do with switching his safety spot and getting back to the line.  Brown was everywhere.  He was near the line or on their side of the line quite a bit during this game.  He racked up 6 tackles.

Danieal Manning.  Late in the game the Bears pulled Devin Hester from return duties.  I don't know if was because of lack of production, an apparent lack of focus and direction or just to keep him safe.  Either way Manning replaced him tallied 82 yards on 3 punts.  That was including a return that saw him push the pile for what seemed like 15 yards to go down near the 50.

 

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After half time I started to dread writing this post, because of what I would have to write, but I guess it comes with the gig.

The Chicago Bears had no business being on the field with the Green Bay Packers today.  They were outplayed, outcoached, outhustled and out right dominated.  In looking at this game I am not going to mention any numbers, because it will just hurt too much.

Schemin'

Early in the game Troy Aikman made an observation that the reason why the Bears were so good against the run was because they used a lot of 8 man fronts.  In this game they were trying something different in an effort to help out their secondary.  The problem was the pass coverage didn't get any better, so why not switch back and at least stop the run?

Where hear it every week, there is a soft spot in the middle of the Bears pass defense.  Ok, I can buy that, but the Packers were catching passes in the middle, the outside, the inside, down field, up field, downstream, in the doghouse, under the porch, in the cheerleader's locker room, in the parking lot, under the blouse of those two cute snow bunnies FOX's camera crew kept focusing on and up in the press box.  So if the middle is our soft spot, where exactly are the good spots?  Where is it bad to throw against this pass D? 

There is a famous saying both because soon to be ex-President George Bush mangled it and because..well it is famous.  It goes full me once shame on  you, full me twice shame on me.

A few weeks ago Nathan Vasher made a statement that everybody knew how they were going to cover on & goal situations.  He said teams knew they were covering outside and could be beaten by slanting to the inside.  That game Vasher got beat for a TD when the receiver slanted inside.  So prior to this game, Greg Jennings made a comment that he had been watching game tape and could not believe what he was seeing.  He almost had to stop because it hurt to watch.   So what happened on the first TD of this game?  Graham got beat when the receiver cut inside.  When the opposing team is telling you that they see our weakness and that they are going to take advantage of, wouldn't you change it?  We have two 6 foot corners, why aren't we hammering guys off the line?

There were a lot of missed opportunities in this game and by opportunities I mean tackles.  Ryan Grant busted at least 2 tackles on almost every run.  Bears defenders were bouncing off of him all game.  Grant isn't Ironhead Heyward or The Nigerian Nightmare over here.

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