Week 11: Midweek Report

As the Bears head into their week 11 match up against the San Diego Chargers, an old rivialry between Philip Rivers and Jay Cutler has been the topic of most discussion during the week. However, I do believe that other topics are more pressing at the time. We all know that Cutler and Rivers played in the AFC west when Cutler was in Denver. It was also well documented about how the two had a bitter disliking for each other and reporters have been trying to dig that up this week during practice. However, Cutler has been the bigger man and shrugged it off and decided to take the high road and talk about the Bears and the things they need to do to win the game.There are some topics though that reporters havent been talking about this week that should be an area of concern. One of the first have to do with Edwin Williams stepping into the starting lineup for injured guard Chris Williams. As many coaches in the Bears organization said, Chris Williams was arguably one of the best and most consistent offensive linemen they have had for the last year and half and replacing him is not going to be an easy task. As many of us saw, the offensive line was finally starting to come together these last few week and it should be interesting to see if they are able to keep up the same level of play with Edwin Williams in at left guard. Many coaches and players on the Bears compare Edwin's athleticism to that of Chris's, but simply point to the fact that he hasn't much game time reps. Edwin Williams did play some time last year at tackle and played well for the time being. It should be interesting to see how he progressed under another year with offensive line coach Mike Tice and see what he can bring to the table. Another thing the Bears need to do is get there offense back on track. With the defense playing so well last week, the Bears offense was simply asked to chew up clock and not turn over the ball. This left the offense pretty stagnate and ineffective and the Bears will need to change that to beat a tough Chargers defense. On thing that no only will help the offensive line get into a rhythm but also help the offense will be getting Matt Forte involved early. If the Bears are able to establish a run game, that will take some pressure off the line because the Chargers ma tune down the blitzing a little to try and stop the run. Another thing the Bears can do on offense to get it jump started is to get some other receivers besides Earl Bennett engaged. Last week, Bennett seemed to be the only wide receiver to show up and make an impact on the game. The Bears have other weapon on offense so it should be interesting to see who else shows up to play.
One the defensive side of the ball, the Bears must be salivating at the though of playing against Philip Rivers. He leads the league in interceptions and lately the Bears have been feasting on turnovers. It should interesting to see how the Bears pressure Rivers in order to try and force him to make some bad mistakes. If the Bears can force turnovers on defense, I pretty much think this game is in the bag. The Chargers have been playing some pretty horrible football this last month and I don't think you can argue that the Bears have been one of the hottest teams in football either. Look for the Bears to try and make some big plays on offense to try to take a load off the defense and like always, look for the defense to make some turnovers and terrorize Phillip Rivers. I predict the Bears will win this game handily at home, in a 30-10 victory and will be riding as high as ever coming into their game against the unpredictable Oakland Raiders. So until next time, Bear Down Chicago.