Bears-Lions Preview

By Brett | Permalink | No Comments | September 13th, 2006 | Trackback

We’re gonna come clean: We’ve been Bears fans for the last 20 years, which if you do the math, means that we actually became fans the year after they won the Super Bowl.

How’s that for bad luck?

We don’t live in Chicago, nor do we have any ties to the city. In fact, we’ve never even been there, with the exception of a few lovely layovers at O’Hare.

So how did we get to be Bears fans? Well, ‘86 was the first year that we started watching football, we were 8 years old, and the Bears were on TV all the time. It was always them and the Cowboys for some reason, but we figured it made sense to cheer for the best team in the league.

By the time we were old enough to realize what a horrible, horrible mistake we’d made, it was too late. We tried to jump off the bandwagon several times, but couldn’t. Even just a few years back when the 49ers utterly embarrassed the Bears on opening day (if memory serves, the score was 49-7) we tried to quit being a Bears fan. For two weeks, we cheered for the Jets, but we just couldn’t get into a Herm Edwards coached team. So it was back to the Bears.

The upshot? We’ll probably write a Bears-specific post or two every week, but we’re going to try our best not to be overly homeristic about it.

Our thoughts on the Bears-Lions matchup after the jump.

The Lions are coming off a gritty, but ugly loss to Seattle. Offensively, they were out of sync the whole game. Their defensive front 7 looked dominant, limiting Shaun Alexander to around 50 yards rushing. Rod Marinelli has vowed to change the football culture in Detroit, and make this a tougher team. So far, looks like he’s doing a good job, even though that didn’t translate into a win against Seattle.

The Bears pummeled the Packers 26-0 in week one, and look to have an improved passing game this season. Of course, considering how their passing attack was last year, it would have been hard not to improve. The Bears defense is among the league’s best, but can be worn down by teams with strong ground games. This defense thrives on turnovers, which were the difference in both of Chicago’s victories over Detroit last season.

Detroit’s 3 Keys to Victory
1. Get after Rex Grossman. If their defensive line can be as disruptive as they were against Seattle, they should be able to force Grossman to make some mistakes.
2. Kitna needs to settle in. Last week Jon Kitna looked a little lost and flustered at times. He’s a pretty decent, veteran QB, so if he just settles down a bit, and gets a little more comfortable with the offense, the Lions should start seeing better results from him.
3. Time for the playmakers to step up. Roy Williams and Kevin Jones need to start producing like 1st round draft picks. They no longer have Joey Harrington to use as an excuse, and they are the two featured players in Mike Martz’s offense. He’s going to call play for them. They need to start making things happen once they get the ball in their hands.

Chicago’s 3 Keys to Victory
1. Establish the ground game early. The Bears rushing attack never really got going against Green Bay, but they’ll need a better effort this week to slow down Detroit’s pass rush and take pressure off Grossman. This will be no small task.
2. Big plays on defense. Even though the Bears finished up with 3 sacks and 2 INTs last week, for the most part, they employed a bend-don’t-break philosophy. This week, they’re going to need to get more pressure early on in the game and force a first half turnover or two.
3. Return game. Last week Devin Hester’s 84 yard punt return put the finishes touches on the Pack. The Bears will need another big effort from their return game to set up their offense with good field position. They’re not going to be able to march on the Lions defense like they did last week.

Bottom Line
This game is going to be an old school, black and blue division slugfest between two teams and two coaching staffs that are very familiar with one another. It’s these types of games that often come down to a field goal or late turnover. Should be a fun one to watch.

Our prediction? Clearly, it’s Da Bears 247 to -3. We kid, we kid. Let’s go Bears over Lions, 13-10.

Home » NFL News