Bears v. Vikings Preview

Bears Offense vs. Purple People Eaters

The Bears officially hand over the starting quarterback duties to Kyle Orton Monday night. He has a good starting record after bringing the Bears to 10 wins in his starting season. However, that was a time when the Bears had a dominant defense that could change a game and score touchdowns all by itself. The best hope for Orton is to get the ball to Adrian Peterson and Greg Olsen as much as humanly possible. Given the resurgence of the Viking defense they will likely shut down the running game and force Orton to go to the pass frequently. His two year lay off will prompt the Vikings to blitz early and often. The way the offensive line is performing this season, Orton will be running for his life. It will be up to Bears receivers to run back to the quarterback on broken plays and help get positive yardage. The way the Bears receivers have played this season, I doubt they’ll go so generous.

Bears Defense vs. Purple People Shredder

The Bears have no answer for the Vikings running game. The Other Adrian Peterson and Chester Taylor will take full advantage of a Bears defense that will be forced to heavily use two defensive tackles that were not on a football roster up until a week ago. No need to pass in this one, the Vikings can use Tarvaris Jackson sparingly and give him some tune ups for the playoffs. This aspect of the game could become very ugly.

Special Teams

The Vikings have Bobby Wade and the Bears have Devin Hester. That’s about as pathetic a match up as………the Vikings running backs against the Bears defensive tackles. If Hester can get the ball in his hands he can make some amazing plays against the Vikings, who have struggled in this area. Don’t expect the Vikings to be so generous. We’ll likely see more of the punter kicking away from Hester. Until the Bears can find a way to capitalize on starting from their own 40 yard line, teams will continue to kick out of bounds on kick offs as well.