Chicago’s game against Minnesota this Sunday needs to be about one word: containment.  When it came to the Vikings, this used to mean simply containing Adrian Peterson, but now it also means containing Sidney Rice and Percy Harvin.  The Bears showed they can compete with an explosive team last Sunday against the Eagles.  Now they need to show they can improve on that and not only play well again, but also win the game.  The good thing about playing the Eagles is that Chicago played a team with very similar talent to Minnesota, both offensively and defensively.  The Bears can now see better as to what they need to do and fix to contain Minnesota on defense and score some points on offense.  With that, here are the keys to the game.

Containing AP

This is the most obvious key to any game against the Vikings.  Try to stop Adrian Peterson.  The only problem is, you can’t.  So what the Bears need to do is try to keep him from doing as much damage as possible.  Take away the cutback lane.  Try to keep him from going outside.  In the four games the Bears have faced AP he has gained 224, 78, 121, and 138 yards, respectively.  Even when he got 78 yards he still scored two touchdowns to lead Minnesota to victory.  The only time the Bears won against the Vikings in those four games was last year in the wild 48-41 shootout.  Adrian Peterson is the biggest offensive threat for Minnesota, and he’s an even bigger threat now that Vikings have a good passing game as well.  The Bears say they want to stop Adrian Peterson, but with the way they have been playing against the run lately and their luck at trying to stop him in previous games, I’ll be happy if they can keep him from making big plays and holding him to a lower yards-per-carry average.

Safeties

One of the reasons the Bears have had so many problems trying to stop AP has partly been because of their poor safety play.  Mike Brown was usually great in helping to stop the run, but even he had problems trying to stop Peterson last year, although part of that was Chicago bringing him up to the line of scrimmage to help stop the run when most of Peterson’s damage comes when he gets past front seven.  Nonetheless, it would be nice to have him in the secondary as he always had a nose for the ball and helped Urlacher put people in a position to make a play.  The worst safety play came from Adam Archuleta.  Part of the reason the Bears signed him was to help with stopping the run, and he couldn’t even do that, especially against AP.  Archuleta was a big reason why Peterson ran for 224 yards on the Bears in his first game against them as he came in too strong to try to stop it and allowed Peterson a wide open field to run to on the outside.  Now the Bears must rely heavily on Danieal Manning and Al Afalava to be the containment needed to keep Peterson from breaking off huge runs.  Afalava has shown he has the ability to start for the Bears in the future, but he still needs some seasoning.  While he has some good speed, he needs to avoid biting on fakes and he needs to take better angles to get to the ball.  The jury’s still out on Manning.  Right now, he still looks better playing as a nickelback than a safety.  Considering all of the one-on-one practice he has received from Lovie Smith in mini-camps and training camp, it seems like he would be making more of a difference than he has been.  These two will need to step up big time and not only help to contain Peterson, but also help keep the Vikings receivers and Brett Favre from making big plays.

Chicago’s defense vs. Minnesota’s passing game

This is where the Bears will need to play well in order to win this game, especially against deep passes.  Big plays have played a factor in all of the Bears losses, especially when those plays have come against the defense.  What have especially hurt the defense have been teams with a deep receiving corps such as Cincinnati, Arizona, and Philadelphia.  Now the Bears face another deep receiving corps in Percy Harvin, Sidney Rice, and Bernard Berrian.  Harvin has been explosive in just his first season and not just with receiving, but also with kick returns.  Rice is having a breakout third season.  Berrian is having a down year compared to his previous two seasons, but he has shown in the past that he can burn teams with his speed.  The Bears will need to put a lot of pressure on Brett Favre and play good coverage in order to keep big plays from happening in the passing game.  If the Bears defensive line can create a lot of pressure on its own, it will help the coverage a lot more as the linebackers can be used to cover more than blitz. 

Third downs

The Bears have been struggling on third downs, both offensively and defensively.  Their failure to convert on third downs on offense has been hurting them, especially in the red zone as they have had to settle for field goals too often.  Part of the problem has been that their run game is still poor and they have faced several third downs with five or more yards to go.  Part of it has also been Cutler’s decision-making with his throws.  Some of his throws on third down aren’t as smart as they could be.  However, some of that could be due to his needing to make quick decisions because of the pressure he’s facing.  The offensive line needs to give Cutler more time to throw not only on third down, but the other downs as well, especially with the Bears somewhat abandoning the run as they have recently.  This will involve trying to contain Jared Allen especially, but also Ray Edwards, Kevin Williams, and Pat Williams.  Chicago can’t let these four wreak havoc in the backfield if they are going to have a chance to win.

Defensively, the Bears need to simply just play better on third downs, especially in third-and-long situations.  There have been too many times lately where they have allowed the other team a first down on third and long.  This seemed especially true against the Eagles as they allowed Donovan McNabb to scramble and gain time for someone to get open.  Chicago needs to try to keep its coverage no matter how long a play is going.

All in all, the Bears will make this a competitive game if they can play at least as well as they did last week, but hopefully they will play better.  They need to remember to contain, not just try to stop.  They’ve tried that before against the Vikings and it hasn’t worked.  If they can improve upon how they played last week, they will put themselves in place to win the game.  They need to keep up the good play and avoid plunging back into the poor play that has plagued them throughout the season.

Chicago played hard against Philadelphia on Sunday night, but it just wasn’t enough.  Almost all facets of their game looked much better than they had in previous weeks, especially in the turnovers department.  In spite of that, there weren’t too many positives that were completely positive.  For instance, the offense looked better, but still had struggles in the red zone and on third down.  The defense forced three turnovers, but allowed 377 yards, 157 of which came from rushing.  While there weren’t many completely positive things for Chicago, there weren’t many completely negative things about the game either.  Nonetheless, I’ll start with the few pure cons and then go into the semi-pros.

Cons

The Bears had many gifts for the city of Brotherly Love with all of the holding penalties called against them in the first half.  They had three called in a six minute span in the second quarter.  They seemed to calm down in the second half and had only a couple of penalties called against them, but these penalties have been hurting them for far too long.  It especially doesn’t help when the penalties keep getting called when the Bears have a good play on offense or the defense gets a third down stop.  The odd thing was that once the Bears stopped getting penalties, the Eagles started getting called for penalties.  It was almost like they were trying to give back. 

The announcing seemed really off, which is tough to say about Al Michaels and Chris Collinsworth as Michaels is one of the best in the business and Collinsworth can usually say at least a few things to bring new insight to the game.  However, each had a mistake right at the beginning of the game.  For instance, Collinsworth said the Bears defense played good against the 49ers.  That’s true if you look at the stats of the game as the Bears held San Francisco to 216 total yards and 106 passing yards.  On the other hand, if you actually watched the game and looked at the rushing stats and time of possession, you would see that they had a hard time stopping the run, allowing 104 yards to Frank Gore, which also made them lose the time of possession battle by three minutes.  It also hurt their starting field position.  The next faux pas was said by Al Michaels, stating that Danieal Manning is on of the best in the league at returning kicks.  Danieal Manning isn’t even the best on his team in returning kicks.  Johnny Knox is returning kicks better than Manning is by an average of three-point-two yards.  That was really the only bad contribution from Michaels during the evening.  Otherwise he was his usual self for the most part.  Collinsworth, on the other hand still had a couple more gaffes in him.  After the touchdown pass to DeSean Jackson at the end of the game, NBC showed Cutler talking to Knox.  Collinsworth said Cutler was talking to Knox about running the play the Eagles just ran, except that at the time Cutler and Knox were being taped, that play hadn’t run yet and, in fact, occurred right at the end of the clip.  Worst of all, Collinsworth talked about Charles Tillman causing fumbles for FIVE GAME MINUTES, from 12:49 to go to about 7:30 to go, after Tillman forced his third fumble of the game.  Five game minutes.  That’s at least ten minutes or maybe even fifteen in real life.  Get over it, dude.  Tillman has been forcing fumbles since Lovie Smith came to the Bears.  It’s what he does.  This can’t be the first time Collinsworth has heard of it, but he was sure sounding like it.  Furthermore, Collinsworth seemed to be correcting himself more than usual.  It seemed to be a really off night for him.

The Bears were awful on third downs, especially on offense where they went three of 16.  They won’t win many games if they keep failing to convert third downs.  The defense also had a few troubles on third downs, especially when Philadelphia had a third and long situation.  Chicago never seemed to be able to put the Eagles away and get the ball back.  While they may have eventually stopped the Eagles, the earlier conversions allowed Philly to put the Bears in worse field position than they could have before.  Chicago’s defense has to work harder to keep teams from converting third downs and keep them from doing damage on third-and-long situations.

The last thing for the Bears that was especially was their use of timeouts at the end of the game.  They called two timeouts and then let Philadelphia get a first down.  They called the first one after allowing a run for four yards.  I would have liked to have seen less yards allowed before calling a timeout there.  Something that showed they were definitely going to stop the Eagles on these first three downs.  The second was called after Philadelphia got their first down after a measurement.  That one just feels like a waste.  The Bears called have used the timeouts better.  They still had three-and-a-half minutes left when they used the first timeout.  I know Philly was running down the clock, but they were able to do it anyway.  It just felt like they could have waited and used them better.

Semi-Pros

First off, I got to hand it to Philadelphia’s offense for playing well throughout the game and for playing good when it mattered most.  They even looked like they could have run away with the game a few times.  Turnovers hurt them big time as they could have made the game further apart than it was.  Also, Philly’s defense constantly put pressure on Cutler and forced him to make a lot of throws before he wanted to.  However, they would have allowed a few more points if Cutler threw better downfield.  Nonetheless, part of Cutler’s poor throws downfield occurred because of the blitzes and pressure created by the defense.

Speaking of Cutler, he had a decent game for the most part.  He made smarter throws than he had been making in recent weeks and protected the ball better overall.  Even so, he still has a lot of work to do.  On one red zone possession, he threw into double coverage.  That was probably the worst throw he made all night coverage-wise.  He also missed Olsen and Hester on back-to-back plays when each was wide open for a touchdown.  He threw another pass a little too far ahead of Johnny Knox when Knox had a step or two on the defender.  He needs to make better throws when this happens.  A big reason the Bears traded for Cutler was because he had stronger arm than Kyle Orton and he could make more accurate passes downfield.  Furthermore, there were a few times where Cutler wasn’t throwing to the open receiver, or at least a more open receiver.  It felt like he was still forcing some throws instead of going through his progressions.

The Bears seemed to run the ball better in this game, too.  While Matt Forte had only 34 yards on 14 carries, Kahlil Bell started off his NFL career nicely with a 72-yard run.   For the most part Bell seemed to hit the hole strong in three of his four carries, the fourth being an outside run.  The run also looked much better when Jason McKie was in the game, as he made a good block that helped to break open the running lane for Bell.  He was also used on a fake handoff play that also worked for a few yards.  He also appeared to help the Bears get more yards running up the middle when he was in the game than when he was out of the game.  The Bears also ran a couple of decent draw plays, gaining about 13 yards on three draws they ran out of the shotgun.  They even ran outside a couple of times. 

Overall, the Bears play-calling on offense was better.  They mixed up the plays they ran in the running game, and it helped them to get over 100 yards rushing as a team for the first time since they played Cleveland.  They even ran a couple bootlegs.  However, they abandoned the run too early and fell into a bad habit of running on first down and passing on second and third down in the second half.  They are also still calling wide receiver screens, which work great if they are run the way Philadelphia ran it on the touchdown to Jason Avant, but usually they aren’t and they’re stopped pretty quickly.  They still need to call some more play-action passes as well.

The Bears defense played well for the most part.  First, big props go to Charles Tillman of course for forcing three fumbles, two of which were recovered by the Bears.  Honorable mention goes to Zachary Bowman for intercepting McNabb in the second quarter and starting the turnover game for Chicago.  The defensive line also put some pressure on McNabb and forced him to move around a lot in the pocket.  Conversely, they allowed some plays that showed how much of a difference Urlacher and Mike Brown made on the team.  For instance, on a couple of plays, Al Afalava bit on the play-action and caught himself out of position.  Lucky for him, he has the speed to be able to make up for his mistakes.  One example occurred on the Eagles first drive.  Afalava lost coverage on Brent Celek in the end zone, but had the speed and burst to catch up and force McNabb to make a throw just beyond Celek’s reach.  Afalava also lost coverage on the touchdown pass to DeSean Jackson.  He was also able to catch up to the ball and have a chance to make a play on the ball, but he didn’t take the right angle to give himself that option either.  There were a few plays as well where the linebackers didn’t play the ball right and were out of position, leading to a good play for the Eagles. 

Overall, the Bears played better against the Eagles than of late.  They looked a lot more like the team that went 3-1 than the team that lost four of its five games leading into this one.  They can certainly get something out of the season if they continue to play at least as well as they played in this game, if not better.  If they can keep playing this way and improving, they can at least be a .500 team.  A big test for them to see if they can at least reach that plateau lies next week when they face the Vikings for this first time this season.

The Bears face the Eagles on Sunday night.  The way the Bears have been playing in prime time, especially Jay Cutler (see Packers, Falcons, and 49ers), this game already looks to be in the bag for Philadelphia.  On the other hand, if the Bears can protect the ball for once and play good defense, they will have a good chance to win this game, which brings me to the keys of the game.

Turnovers

The Bears need to protect the ball, especially Cutler.  His 17 interceptions are the worst in the league.  The worst part is that several of those interceptions have come in the red zone, killing any chance of getting points.  It wouldn’t be so bad if the interceptions simply happened because the other team made a great play, but that has rarely been the case with Cutler.  He’s throwing into double and triple coverages and is forcing the ball way too much.  He needs to relax and start throwing the ball to the open man.  Several times he has thrown an interception and on the other side of the field is an open receiver.  He needs to go through his progressions better and make smarter throws. 

On the other side of the ball, the Bears defense needs to be able to force turnovers as well.  Chicago has had much more success when they get turnovers.  The problem they have had is being able to make good offenses, especially good pass offenses, turn the ball over a lot.  Against the Bengals and Cardinals, the Bears forced only one turnover.  They will need to do a lot more than that to halt the Eagles.  However, that is only one problem the defense faces.

Pass Defense

Chicago has been terrible against teams that air it out.  One major reason for this is that once teams can pass at will on the Bears, the run defense goes to pieces.  This was especially true for the Cardinals and Bengals, but it even held true somewhat when they faced the 49ers.  San Francisco passed quite a bit on its first series, and although Alex Smith didn’t pass for a lot of yards, that first series opened up the running game and allowed the 49ers to control the clock the entire game.  Philadelphia is ninth in the league in pass yards, so a similar situation looks to play out, especially since the Eagles are only 23rd in rush yards.  The Bears are going to need to create a lot of pressure on McNabb and play some tight coverage if they intend to stop the Eagles.

Offensive Line

The offensive line is still not playing well.  While they finally avoided allowing a sack last week against the 49ers, they aren’t blocking well in the run game.  They are also facing a tougher test this week against a Philadelphia defense that has 29 sacks, led by Juqua Thomas with five and Trent Cole with seven-and-a-half.  To complicate matters further, the Eagles are also ninth in the league in rushing yards allowed.  However, the line isn’t completely to blame for the Bears rushing woes.

Play-calling

Chicago’s play-calling has been awful on offense.  Every run goes right up the middle.  The only times Matt Forte even gets a big gain is when he can cut to the outside.  The Bears need to call more outside runs to mix up what they use in the running game.  They should maybe even work fullback Jason McKie back into the running game a little bit more as they have used a singleback formation much more this year than in previous years.  McKie could be worked in more not only to help block for Forte, but also to take a few handoffs himself and maybe throw off the defense a little bit.  Furthermore, the Bears need to call some more play-action passes.  There has been too many times where they followed a run that went for no gain with a shotgun formation.  They could at least try to make it look like they might run again.  At any rate they could try a draw or two when they do that. They should also try at least one or two play-action plays on first down, since they almost always run on that down.   

The Bears can salvage their season with a win on Sunday.  However, they will be facing an Eagles team looking to strengthen its playoff hopes.  Chicago will need to play strong on both sides of the ball in order to win.  They can’t play like they have been in recent weeks or they will get blown out of the water. It would be nice to say they will play better with being at home, but the last time they played at home they got smoked by the Cardinals.  The Bears need to win, plain and simple.  If they win, their hopes of making the playoffs come alive again.  If they lose, though, they will have a tough road to have a winning season, let alone make the playoffs.

Last Thursday I saw quite possibly one of the worst NFL games ever played.  I mean what an awful game to start the slate of Thursday night games on NFL Network.  It almost seemed like neither team wanted to actually win.  It especially seemed like Cutler didn’t as he practically gift-wrapped the victory for the 49ers by throwing five interceptions.  Everything was bad about this game except for the defenses.  The defenses did a good job, but even they had their problems.  Even the special teams were bad.  So I’m going to go through the game’s bad parts (of which there were many) and then finish up with its good parts (of which there were very few). 

First off, the offenses of both teams were very poor, but Chicago’s was worst.  First off, there are Cutler’s five interceptions.  At best, two of them you could blame on the receiver.  In one case Devin Hester fell down coming back for the ball and on another tight end Kellen Davis didn’t keep going on the play and let Mark Roman come in to get the pick.  However, on the latter play, Cutler didn’t throw that great of a pass to begin with.  He thought Roman should have been called for pass interference.  There was no way the refs could have called that because Roman played the ball perfectly.  Heck, Roman didn’t even touch Davis until he was catching the ball.  The other three interceptions were horrible decisions by Cutler.  He threw into double or triple coverage on every single one of those picks. 

Worst of all, on two of those plays, the coverage was right in front of who he was throwing it to as well.  How can someone do that?  Is he not seeing the red jerseys of the 49ers?  Do they somehow blend in with the field like Boise State?  The worst part was seeing the replay after already knowing he made a terrible decision because it made it ten times worse.  Three 49ers are less than five or ten yards from him and he throws it right at them.  I think if you had an extreme close-up of San Francisco’s defenders you would see dollar signs in their eyes.  The last play was even worse.  Cutler threw the ball right at Michael Lewis.  I mean right at him. 

What’s worse is you can clearly see Greg Olsen starting to run to the left right as Cutler threw it.  On that play you don’t hope your receiver comes back to fight for the ball unless you know he will get it.  You throw it to the open man.  Cutler could have even tried to run it for a little bit as long as he either scored or got down and quickly called a timeout.  He didn’t need to force it like he did.  There were eight seconds to go when that play ran.  He had time to do something besides try to force the ball. 

Cutler also threw the ball 52 times.  That is ridiculous in such a low-scoring game.  When asked why the Bears threw so much, Larry Meyer, writer for the Bears on their official website, said it was because “they had little success running the ball against the 49ers.”  Of course they did.  They still haven’t learned that Matt Forte runs really well when he runs to the outside.  Forte had a nice 16-yard run in the game which was due to his bouncing the run to the outside.  On the other 20 runs, he gained only 25 yards because EVERY SINGLE ONE was an inside run.  San Francisco’s linebackers must have been licking their chops at what an easy job they had.  If the Bears ran, all they had to do was pick a spot between the guards and charge and one of them would get a tackle.  Of course, if the offensive line blocked like Stanford did against USC on Saturday, this could be an entirely different story.  However, the Bears still need to run outside a lot more than they have been. 

San Francisco’s offense didn’t do the best job either, but you blame the Bears defense for that more than the offense.  The 49ers had several long drives, but they would end up with a punt because the Bears defense would finally stop them.  They only had four three and outs in the game.  One area that would help the 49ers is some longer passes.  Alex Smith went 16-of-23 for 118 yards and an interception.  He had a good completion percentage, but he had a lot of short completions and quite a few quick throws.  If he could have had some longer passes, he could have stretched the defense a little better and really opened up the offense more.  He could have also taken advantage of the Bears’ inexperienced safeties.  San Francisco probably would have ended up with more than ten points too and not just have points due to turnovers.

On the other side of the ball, the Bears defense had trouble stopping the 49ers offense at times.  They showed once again that they can’t keep a team backed up toward its own end zone, instead letting that team get a first down or three before forcing them to punt.  This especially hurt at the end of the game when stopping the 49ers would mean the Bears would get the ball with plenty of time on the clock or could even be able to get the ball twice.  The 49ers last drive of the game went almost six-and-a-half minutes before the defense finally stopped them on the 34 yard line.  On another drive, San Francisco was backed up to its three yard line on a second and 18 and came away with three first downs before Smith threw his lone interception.  The defense needs to play better when they have the other team right in its clutches.

This was an ugly game special teams-wise as well.  The Bears averaged 14 yards on its three kickoff returns.  They have had a few bright spots on returns this year, but this unit does not seem to be having as much success as when Devin Hester was returning the ball.  I think they need to put Hester back at returning kicks because he was a big threat doing that and he might function better this year at returning kicks than he was last year.  A big problem for him last year was he was thinking too much on returns.  Part of that was he was learning the entire offense instead of just a few plays.  Now that he knows the offense a lot better, he has been returning the ball on punts better with few exceptions.  I think that will turn into better kick returns, too.

Now for some good news.  Let’s start with the 49ers defense.  This unit played perfectly.  Five interceptions.  That is quite a stat.  The secondary put themselves in good positions to make plays on the ball and played tight on the receivers all game.  The front seven stuffed the run on all but one play.  Aubrayo Franklin played a great game inside and out as he not only blocked the holes set up for Forte but he also got an interception.  The linebackers were quick to take advantage of Franklin’s play as well and got into the holes on every run.  San Francisco will have a shot at the playoffs if this unit keeps playing like it did Thursday night.

As for the 49ers offense, it ran the ball extremely well.  Frank Gore ran for 104 yards and kept a lot of long drives going.  The Bears had a hard time stopping him, especially at the end of the game.  San Francisco’s first drive was its best passing-wise.  Smith threw several quick passes and led the team downfield.  It was too bad they didn’t get points out of the drive as Nedney’s kick went wide right, but it showed a lot of promise.  I think if they would have kept up with that game plan they could have scored some more points than they did, especially if they would have been able to work in some deeper passes.

The Bears defense played well in that it didn’t allow a lot of points and kept the team in the game when they should have been out of it.  It was also good to see Tommie Harris and Marcus Harrison causing some pressure as each one recorded a sack in the game.  The defense was also getting enough pressure and covering well enough to hold the Smith to only 118 passing yards. However, it would have been nice to see them playing the run as good as they played the pass.

Of the few bright spots on the Bears offense, one was that they did a good job with screen passes to Forte.  Forte was able to rack up 150 yards on eight receptions and a big part of that was due to the use of the screen.  Kudos also goes to the offensive lineman for blocking well enough on the screens to let Forte break free.  On the other hand, the wide receiver screen is still one of the worst plays in football.  The Bears need to stop running this play because it is not working for them.

The biggest reason the Bears lost this game is due to the turnovers.  It would have been a much different game if they didn’t have those.  They might have even scored a touchdown or two.  Nonetheless, they have a lot of things they need to fix and quick.  Hopefully the coaches, especially Ron Turner, start to actually fix some of these problems for more than a week instead of fixing it only to have it go wrong again.  It would be nice to see some better execution and better play from the Bears.  Hopefully things will go better when they play the Eagles next…Sunday…night.  Oh crap.

Chicago is running out of chances to turn its season around, but maybe they will play harder now that their backs are against the wall.  They had a good start to the season at three and one, but they have lost three of their last four games, including two blowout losses to Cincinnati and Arizona.  Tonight, they face a 49ers team that also started strong at three and one but has lost four games since.  While the 49ers do play in NFC West and don’t have as tough of a schedule over their last eight games as most teams, they will need to win to keep up with a Cardinals team that looks like it found itself in the last few weeks.  This game also takes place in San Francisco, and the Bears have only won one game on the road so far this season, which was against the struggling Seahawks.  With that in mind, let’s take a look at the key match-ups and strategies for the Bears.

Starting strong, finishing strong

The Bears have struggled this season at starting games strong.  However, it hasn’t always been a problem of both offense and defense starting strong.  In a few cases, one side is playing strong while the other side struggles.  The defense has especially had that problem lately, particularly against teams with a top passing game.  Furthermore, the defense has allowed touchdowns on an opponents’ first drive in five games this season.  Hillenmeyer thinks it’s a mindset issue.  He’s definitely right in that aspect.  The Bears will need play with confidence if they are going to win.  They also need to play harder and smarter from the beginning to the end.  The offense will also need to quickly get on the same page at the start and put some points on the board.  In some games, most notably against Green Bay, the offense was out of sync the entire first half only to eliminate the mistakes and play better the second half.  I don’t know what has been going on in the Bears’ locker room at halftime, but they have always come out in the second half playing ten times better.  No matter what has needed fixing, whether it has been the offense, defense, or both, the team has been able to fix it and come out strong in the second half.  It makes me wonder how good the Bears would be playing this year if they played as well in the second half as they have in the first half.  In that same line, the Bears have not had many problems finishing strong.  The most notable exception there is against Atlanta.  When Atlanta’s offense made adjustments in the second half, the Bears defense had a hard time making the adjustments to stop Atlanta.  Much of that blame can easily fall on Nick Roach, but the entire defense needed to adjust to what was going on.  The players can’t just rely on the middle linebacker to make all of the adjustments, whether it’s Urlacher, Hillenmeyer, or Roach.  Players like Lance Briggs and Charles Tillman need to step up better when that happens.  Even the younger players, especially the safeties, need to adjust better.

Chicago’s offense vs. San Francisco’s linebacking corps

Why the entire offense against the linebacking corps?  It’s because the 49ers’ linebackers do a lot.  They tackle, force fumbles, get sacks, and defend the pass.  Patrick Willis is proving to be the biggest playmaker of this group, leading the team in tackles and interceptions while providing two interceptions, forcing two fumbles and getting two-and-a-half sacks.  With the Bears having had struggles against three-four defenses this season, they will need to protect themselves from this corps, especially Willis.  That’s not to say they need to take them out of the game, but they will need to keep them from making big plays and getting the home crowd into the game.

Chicago’s front seven vs. Frank Gore

This is the most important match-up for the Bears defense.  They will help themselves a lot if they can keep Frank Gore from gaining a lot of yards.  Gore has only six more yards rushing than Matt Forte, but he has a better yards-per-carry average by two full yards.  He is also as good at Forte at receiving out of the backfield.  The Bears will need to stop Gore and force San Francisco into third-and-long situations to have a better chance at stopping them.  Chicago will have a tough game if Gore is able to run all over. 

Chicago’s pass defense vs. Vernon Davis

The 49ers don’t have many threats in the passing game.  Isaac Bruce is past his prime and hasn’t been doing well since coming to San Francisco.  However, Davis is finally playing like the guy the 49ers drafted over three years ago and has proven to be a good outlet for both Shaun Hill and Alex Smith.  He has also proven to be a threat in the red zone, as four of his seven touchdowns have come inside the 20.  He’s already on pace to crush his career highs in receptions, receiving yards, and touchdowns, all set in 2007.  The Bears will have problems if they can’t keep Davis from getting the ball.  They might even need to double team him and take a chance at the ball getting thrown to Bruce or one of the 49ers’ other receivers.  Either way, Davis will prove to be the hardest person for the Bears to cover in tonight’s game.

In the end, the Bears will win if they play strong from the first snap.  They need to come in confident and not let that confidence be shaken by a bad play or two.  They have the ability to be a better team than they have been.  They need to use that ability to its fullest and play strong not only tonight, but for the rest of the season to have a winning year and a chance at the playoffs.

Things looked promising for the Bears at the start of their game against the Cardinals.  They were undefeated at home during the season so far and the score was tied at zero.  Then Kurt Warner led the Cardinals down the field and threw a touchdown to Larry Fitzgerald.  Nuts.  The Bears defense has given up a touchdown on their opponents’ opening possession in five of their seven games this season. 

The Bears offense started strong, passing on every down on their first possession including throws of 42 yards to Devin Hester and a 33-yard touchdown to Greg Olsen.  It was a strong drive to start the game.  Everyone was on the same page and it looked like the Bears opened up the field for their passing and running games to flourish. 

The Cardinals scored again on another pass.  The game looks like it is going to be a shootout with the way the offenses are performing.

Well, I was half right about the shootout.  Arizona scored at will and the Bears offense did not answer back at all in the first half.  Poor first halves seem to be defining the Bears season.  The Bears started to completely abandon the run again as they did against Cincinnati.  Great.  At this rate they will be ranked last in the league in rushing.  What a difference from last year.  I want the Bears to run more just so they can waste time and make the hurting stop.  On the other side of the field, the Cardinals seem to be doing everything right.  They look like the team that went to the Super Bowl last year. 

In the second half, the Bears actually held the Cardinals to a field goal.  Then, they finally made them punt.  What?!  Did the defense drink a bunch of espresso during halftime?  Why can’t they do this in the first half? 

Chicago finally scored again in the fourth quarter, off of another pass to Greg Olsen.  It seems like it’s too late to come back though.

Or is it?!  Matt Leinart came in to replace Warner and threw an interception to Zackary Bowman shortly after.  Cutler followed with another TD pass to Olsen, making Olsen the first tight end with three touchdowns in a game since Greg Latta on December 21, 1975 against New Orleans.  The Bears could make a comeback against the Cardinals again.

Never mind.  Following an Arizona punt, Cutler threw an interception and the Cardinals followed with another TD pass by Kurt Warner, his fifth of the day.  Apparently the Bears were who the Cardinals thought they were. 

The worst part about the Cardinals’ first drive was how Tommie Harris did the dumbest thing a player could do on the fourth play of the game.  He punched Deuce Lutui in the helmet and was immediately ejected from the game.  He will definitely receive a fine this week from the NFL, but he could receive a suspension as well.  Nonetheless, it drastically changed the game.  The Bears were never able to stop the run and they couldn’t force as much pressure without Harris in the game. 

The Bears defense also didn’t show up until the second half, when the game was pretty much over.  Alex Brown put the fault squarely on the players, saying:

“What are you expecting, for us to be one of the best in the league? That’s what we expect. Do we have the talent to do it? Yes. Why isn’t it getting done? I have no idea. The coaches are putting us in great position to make the plays.

“We’re just not making them, until we get in a position where our backs are against the wall, and then it’s like, ‘All right. Let’s go play.’ Why can’t we do that when it’s 0-0? Let’s come out and play like our backs (are) against the wall. If we can do that, then I think we can right the ship and go in the right direction. But if not, like I said, we’ll be going home soon.”

Brown has every right to say these things.  After all, he was the only Bears defender besides Bowman to make big plays as he recorded two sacks and forced a fumble.  Besides, he’s right.  The Bears need to play harder at the start of the game instead of only when the team is behind. 

As for the offense, I don’t think the blame can placed on them at all for this one.  However, some of the same problems still persist.  Except for the first drive, they too had a poor first half and didn’t start playing well again until the fourth quarter.  I also don’t care how far the Bears are behind or if they go behind early, I still want to see them running the ball.  Matt Forte ran 5 times for 33 yards, producing his best game average-wise this season except for the game against Detroit.  Heck, with all of the passing they could have at least run some draws.   I also wish they would stop running the ball with Hester.  It’s not working for them and it doesn’t work when they use the Wildcat either.  Give it up. 

The Bears took a big hit to their playoff hopes on Sunday and except for games against the Rams and Lions, they have one of the toughest roads of any team to even make the playoffs.  Hopefully they will play the 49ers with their backs against the wall the entire game because that’s where they are.