Week 9: Cardinals at Bears, noon on Fox

[jersey cubs fan]

Chicago opens as a 3 point favorite against the schizo Arizona Cardinals. You would think it benefits the Bears to have this game in Chicago, however, Arizona looks like they may be better on the road. They beat the previously well-respected Giants in the Meadowlands then turned around and got spanked against a bad Carolina Panthers team at home. Arizona's ride to the Super Bowl was on the road last year, and they are undefeated in away games this year, while all 3 of their losses are at home. One would think they could shred the Bears passing D, with multiple weapons and a big time QB. They are a top 10 passing offense by yards gained, but have only 11 TD to 11 INT. And their rushing offense remains dead last in the league, gaining nearly 30 fewer yards per game than the feable Bears rushing attack. Defensively they are solid, but not great, against the run, and beatable through the air. Mediocre sack and INT totals and they give up more than 7 yards per attempt to rank 20th in the league.

 

This game is a fairly even matchup of potential first round playoff foes, with Arizona possibly becoming the de facto NFC West champion again and the Bears fighting for a wild card. Coming into the season this was a must win if the Bears were going to win the division, and now it might be a must win if they want a wild card. A loss would leave them at 4-4, and I'm not sure there are 6 wins on the schedule after this week. A win leaves 11 wins as a possibility.

[JonJayCutler]

I'm unusually confident about this game. Hopefully Lovie and Marinelli are on top of their game, because Warner MUST be pressured. He doesn't move around well, and with pressure he can become a turnover machine. As for the offense, Cutler is due for a good game, and Arizona's defense is nothing special. I expect this to be a close one.

 

Bears 27

Cardinals 24

[UMFan83]

Jersey I just wanted to point out that Arizona only played 1 road game in last years playoffs (Carolina) and 2 at home.

[Sammy Sofa]

As for the offense, Cutler is due for a good game

 

Sure, but there's only so much he can do if he's basically under pressure almost the entire time without much of a rushing option. The book on the OL simply seems to be "blitz to your heart's content."

[JonJayCutler]

Right now the forecast calls for 58 degrees and rain. I'd like to see it a bit colder than that.

[JonJayCutler]

As for the offense, Cutler is due for a good game

 

Sure, but there's only so much he can do if he's basically under pressure almost the entire time without much of a rushing option. The book on the OL simply seems to be "blitz to your heart's content."

 

Fair enough. And I actually thought he played well yesterday although his stats weren't great. However, he did have three straight games with a QB rating over 100, and now three straight games with a rating below 80. It is partially the O-Line's fault, but not entirely, and I think Cutler would be the first to admit that.

[jersey cubs fan]

Jersey I just wanted to point out that Arizona only played 1 road game in last years playoffs (Carolina) and 2 at home.

 

That's right, for some reason I was thinking the game against Philly was on the road.

[jersey cubs fan]

As for the offense, Cutler is due for a good game

 

Sure, but there's only so much he can do if he's basically under pressure almost the entire time without much of a rushing option. The book on the OL simply seems to be "blitz to your heart's content."

 

Fair enough. And I actually thought he played well yesterday although his stats weren't great. However, he did have three straight games with a QB rating over 100, and now three straight games with a rating below 80. It is partially the O-Line's fault, but not entirely, and I think Cutler would be the first to admit that.

 

It's almost entirely the line's fault. He's under constant pressure and he doesn't have a single great receiver to fallback to when under pressure.

[Sammy Sofa]

As for the offense, Cutler is due for a good game

 

Sure, but there's only so much he can do if he's basically under pressure almost the entire time without much of a rushing option. The book on the OL simply seems to be "blitz to your heart's content."

 

Fair enough. And I actually thought he played well yesterday although his stats weren't great. However, he did have three straight games with a QB rating over 100, and now three straight games with a rating below 80. It is partially the O-Line's fault, but not entirely, and I think Cutler would be the first to admit that.

 

Agreed. He's pretty far from perfect, but I think even the best QB's out there would be having trouble with the problems the Bears are going through. It's basically a perfect storm of suck out there right now in terms of wanting to be able to capitalize on a QB with Cutler's talent.

[JonJayCutler]

As for the offense, Cutler is due for a good game

 

Sure, but there's only so much he can do if he's basically under pressure almost the entire time without much of a rushing option. The book on the OL simply seems to be "blitz to your heart's content."

 

Fair enough. And I actually thought he played well yesterday although his stats weren't great. However, he did have three straight games with a QB rating over 100, and now three straight games with a rating below 80. It is partially the O-Line's fault, but not entirely, and I think Cutler would be the first to admit that.

 

It's almost entirely the line's fault. He's under constant pressure and he doesn't have a single great receiver to fallback to when under pressure.

 

If this is true, then the real question should be why the O-Line has been crap since the bye week, because Cutler played quite well against the Steelers, Seahawks, and Lions.

[jersey cubs fan]

If this is true, then the real question should be why the O-Line has been crap since the bye week, because Cutler played quite well against the Steelers, Seahawks, and Lions.

 

The line has been crap for a few years now. Cutler played quite well because he's quite good. You can't expect him to be perfect every game though, and you'd have to be pretty close to perfect with this line, running game and recievers, if you want to avoid subpar games like yesterday.

[JonJayCutler]

If this is true, then the real question should be why the O-Line has been crap since the bye week, because Cutler played quite well against the Steelers, Seahawks, and Lions.

 

The line has been crap for a few years now. Cutler played quite well because he's quite good. You can't expect him to be perfect every game though, and you'd have to be pretty close to perfect with this line, running game and recievers, if you want to avoid subpar games like yesterday.

 

Last year's O-Line wasn't nearly as bad. It was bad in 2007 because Fred Miller was basically doing what Pace is doing now, but I'm not sure even that line is as bad as the one now. Point taken though, we basically need an entirely new line outside of Williams.

[Soul]

It's been bad for a few years now, but this year is the peak of ripe reekage from that unit.

[Derwood]

outside of the obvious (winning), the Bears biggest priority is to stay healthy this game, as there is a short turnaround before a Thursday night game against the 49ers. Why they don't do a Thursday game after the bye week is beyond me...

[jersey cubs fan]

outside of the obvious (winning), the Bears biggest priority is to stay healthy this game, as there is a short turnaround before a Thursday night game against the 49ers. Why they don't do a Thursday game after the bye week is beyond me...

 

That's what they should do, but bye weeks stop after week 10, when Thursday night games start, which would leave only 2 of the 9 Thursday/Friday night games played by teams with that extra rest. The solution to that problem is having the byes go a little later in the season, but they don't want bye weeks when baseball and regular season college games are over and the playoffs are approaching. If they went up to the week before Thanksgiving, then at least 5 thursday matchups would involved teams on rest.

[Soul]

I'm praying for cold, slushy, really un-Arizona-like weather.

 

Right now the extended forecast doesn't look favorable from that perspective.

[jersey cubs fan]

I'm praying for cold, slushy, really un-Arizona-like weather.

 

Right now the extended forecast doesn't look favorable from that perspective.

 

The Bears aren't built to thrive in those conditions. I don't think it really matters one way or the other. Arizona has weaknesses with or without the weather, and I just hope the Bears figure out how to exploit them.

[Soul]

I'm praying for cold, slushy, really un-Arizona-like weather.

 

Right now the extended forecast doesn't look favorable from that perspective.

 

The Bears aren't built to thrive in those conditions. I don't think it really matters one way or the other. Arizona has weaknesses with or without the weather, and I just hope the Bears figure out how to exploit them.

 

You're probably right. We're too far away from the old smashmouth teams of yore to expect much advantage from it now.

[SpongeWorthy]

Chris Chambers was released by the Chargers today. He's a shell of his former self but he's a bigger wide receiver and was once one of the better WRs in the league at nabbing balls in traffic.

[Banedon]

Chris Chambers was released by the Chargers today. He's a shell of his former self but he's a bigger wide receiver and was once one of the better WRs in the league at nabbing balls in traffic.

 

I think he's a bit undersized to play o-line though.

[Soul]

Heh.

 

That made me think of some caller last night on the Score. He asked if Gaines Adams could play some linebacker.

 

Lawrence was like "NO! Stop asking for everyone to change positions!"

 

It was funny.

[JonJayCutler]

Chris Chambers was released by the Chargers today. He's a shell of his former self but he's a bigger wide receiver and was once one of the better WRs in the league at nabbing balls in traffic.

 

ESPN has him at 5'11".

[Soul]

I do find it a little unsettling that the Cards are 3-0 on the road.

 

We need that Super Bowl loser's curse to kick in a little this week.

 

For as shaky as the Bears have been, we did beat the Steelers at home with this squad. So channel that Pittsburgh performance and get the job done. Simple.

[rawaction]

The thing that worries me is the Cincinnati game. The Bears were overly concerned about OchoCinco beating them deep that they played soft and let Palmer sit back in the pocket and pick them apart. If 8-5 struck that type of fear into the Bears, what is Fitzgerald going to do?

 

Good thing is that I don't think Boldin is going to be anywhere near 100%. Breaston has had off and on injuries also.

 

I'm sure I'm not breaking any major news here, but the key is getting pressure on Kurt Warner and forcing him into some bad throws. This will likely be the coldest game the Cards will play all year (though not as cold as I would like). Hopefully, it will rain a good amount and Warner is a little more flustered.

[Soul]

Actually, what I got from the Cincy game was that the Bears were so concerned about being beat by the pass that they let Benson run wild. Cincy is the 9th team in the NFL in terms of rush yards per game, so they had the run game to fall back on, and they killed us with it -- Benson having his best game as a pro.

 

Arizona is dead last in rushing. 32nd. So hopefully the Bears can actually get away with concentrating on the pass game, and Arizona won't be able to beat us with the run.