Bears vs Cardinals Open Thread
The Bears face off with the Arizona Cardinals at Soldier Field tonight in the always important third preseason game. I mean as important as preseason games go.
The Cardinals look like a team in disarray. With Kurt Warner retiring, it looked like it was going to be Matt Leinart’s turn to take the reigns, but he’s struggled in the preseason, so Ken Wisenhunt will turn to veteran Derek Anderson to see if he can lead this Cardinals offense.
For the Bears, there are three key things that I’ll be watching:
- Protect Cutler – the offensive line has been facing a media blitz after two disappointing preseason games. They need to improve, period! It’s hard to evaluate Cutler and the receivers and see how they’re coming together when the quarterback is running for his life.
- Defense must get off the field – and by that I mean that they must stop the Cardinals on third down. The Bears were awful last year and if they don’t improve, it won’t matter what Cutler and the offense do.
- Get out healthy – the Bears’ depth scares the heck out of me. Even the linebacker position, which at one time seemed endlessly deep is getting awfully thin. You add a glut of injuries to the safety position and concerns to the depth at cornerback and you’ve got a recipe for disaster if they don’t come out of this game healthy.
As you’re watching the game, or after the game, feel free to post your thoughts in the Comments. I’ll try to address what I can and who knows, if you make a great point, I could turn it into a post!