Week 7: Tampa Bay Bucaneers

Coming into the week 7 game against the Buc's and playing well was tops on the Bears to do list. With a win, the Bears could head into the bye week confident and ready to make a late season move into the playoff like they did last year. A lose against the Buc's and the Bears would be heading into the bye week at 3-4 wondering if they could gain momentum to make a post season run. Luckily for the Bears, they went to London and took care of the Buc's and were able to receive a gift when the Lions lost for a second week in a rose, this time to the Falcons. With the loss to the Falcons, the Lions are now only one game up on the Bears in the division and are going to be one of the few teams challenging the Bears for a wildcard spot. As the Bears game started, many wondered which team would come out and play the best due to the two different travel schedules. Would it be the Buc's who arrived in London on Monday and were able to adjust to the time difference or would it be the Bears who arrived on Thursday and were just trying to treat it like any other week. Well it turns out that the travel to London had no real effect on the Bears. In the first half, the defense looked very dominating and forced the Buc's to become a predominately throwing team after backup running back Ernest Graham got injured. On the offensive side of the ball, the Bears leaned early on Matt Forte and were rewarded quickly. Forte was able to bounce a run to the outside late in the first quarter which ended in an electrifying 32 yard touchdown run. Forte ended the game with 145 yard rushing and 38 yard receiving to make him the first player since 2004 to eclipse the 1,000 total yard mark by game 7. After coming off two great games, Jay Cutler looked just average against the Buc's. It seemed as if he was never really comfortable in the pocket, even though the offensive line only gave up one sack and four quarterback pressures. He had a few bad plays were he reverted back to old tendencies such as throwing into coverage or throwing off his back foot. Look for Cutler to come back with some better play after the bye week and time to break down his tape. The offensive line put in another solid performance for the Bears and it may be interesting to see what happens once Gabe Carimi comes back. He is projected to be back in practice in time to play the Eagles and it will be interesting to see who gets the boot from the starting lineup seeing that the line has started to jell recently. One the defensive side of the ball, it was another solid performance for the Bears. They were able to make the Bucs one dimensional in shutting down the running game and were able to get solid pressure on Josh Freeman throughout the day. Another thing that helped the Bears defense was their ability to cause turnovers. The Bears ended the game with four interceptions, with both Brian Urlacher and Lance Briggs picking of Freeman and Joshua Moore capping the game with an interception. The Bears seem to win games when they are able to run the ball effectively and cause turnover on defense. If the Bears can continue with the formula, they have the possibility to make a playoff run after the bye week. The second part of their season includes five games against teams with sub 500 winning percentages, so everything is looking up for the Bears during the second half of the season. With the Bears on a bye week, this will be a very long two weeks for Bears fans, so hang in there and until next time, Bears Down.