Bears vs Rams – Keys to the Game
So we’re on to lucky Week 13 and the luck comes in with the pitiful St. Louis Rams coming to town to face off against our humbled 4-7 Chicago Bears. The Bears started 3-1 and have gone 1-6 since while the Rams have only been able to muster 1 win all season.
There’s not much left to say about the season. If the Bears somehow manage to lose this game, Lovie Smith and company might as well go jump in Lake Michigan because they’ll be sleeping with the fishes. Let’s get right to the Keys to the Game:
Action Jackson
No big secret here – the Rams offense goes through this guy. Steven Jackson is a beast and the only good thing going for the Rams. With Marc Bulger on the bench and Kyle Boller at the controls, the Rams offense shouldn’t post much of a threat otherwise.
The Bears are already shuffling their defense around to bring the surer-tackling Kevin Payne into the lineup at Danieal Manning’s expense.
Pick up the Pace
Orlando Pace joins the list of walking wounded this week and will not play on Sunday. What a shame that he can’t show the team that cut him what a big mistake they made. Oh wait…
Among the top priorities for the Bears, aside from win one of the two winnable games left on the schedule, is to figure out what they have for the future. That starts Sunday with Chris Williams moving over to his natural left tackle position. Williams has been ho-hum at best on the right side and if he can’t hold down the left tackle spot, the Bears are in even worse shape.
SCORE!
The Bears need to do that thing with the ball where you run to the end of the field where they paint the team logo on the grass. Rumor has it, it’s called the end zone. When you run in there with the ball, they give you 6 points.
Matt Forte has had a disappointing season, but the 28th ranked Rams rush defense could be just the right medicine to give the 2nd year runner a little boost. It doesn’t get much better for the Rams’ pass defense, which comes into Sunday ranked 22nd. This should give Jay Cutler some opportunities to make a few plays.
Prediction
Losing to the 1-10 Rams would equate to hitting rock bottom. Some fans will be rooting for that and it’s hard to make an argument against it except that it kills me to have to give the Broncos a higher pick. It just makes the Cutler trade look worse by the day. Bears will win and should do it handily behind strong efforts by Cutler and Forte and at least one defensive/special teams TD.
Bears 33, Ran 20