Week 4 is upon us now as the Chicago Bears travel north to take on Green Bay Packers. We look at Five Keys to a Chicago Bears upset victory.
Enthusiasm is up within the fan base now that the Chicao Bears were able to get their first victory of the season. Most prognosticators thought the Bears would not win one game out of their first four, so that is one expectation the Bears exceeded.
Now that the Bears have won that first game what are the things they must do to make it two in a row; something they have not done since 2015.
Pressure QB Aaron Rodgers.
This is a literal no brainer here. The Packers will be without their top four offensive tackles. Yes, you read that correctly. That means two third string tackles will be starting on the offensive line. Maybe one of them will be a guy just signed off the practice squad. Rodgers was sacked six times in the dramatic win against Cincinnati. I expect the Bears to easily get four. I actually think Rodgers may not finish the game from the beating he is about to receive.
Limit the Big downfield plays.
One of the things Rodgers does better than almost every QB in the league is scramble and make great deep throws down the field. The Steelers tried a few times to go deep and were unsuccessful. If the Bears can limit those plays in Lambeau then that will go a long ways to pulling off the upset.
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Challenge the Packers secondary.
I am sure some of you are laughing at this but hear me out. The Packers are missing one starting CB in Davon House. This means they will most likely play rookie CB Kevin King in his place. While the Bears receivers may not scare anyone, I like my chances against a rookie CB.
Packers defensive coordinator Dom Capers may be afraid to leave him in 1-on-1 situations which will help our run game by forcing them to keep safety help back for him and make them use more zone defense. The zone defense should be easily exploited by our TE and RB’s.
Ball Control
Now that RB Tarik Cohen has given himself and fellow RB Jordan Howard the nickname “Thunder and Lightning” it is time for them to live up to it. It’s hard to expect another performance like they had against Pittsburgh by putting up more than 200 yards rushing, but anything around 145 would be a great number to see.
Force Turnovers.
In my opinion the secondary has been amazing. It is completely night and day from last year and I think they will only get better. Although the Bears lost starting safety Quintin Demps for an undisclosed amount of time with a broken arm, Adrian Amos should be able to step in with no issues. The Bears still don’t have an interception and that has to change for this defense to be elite. If they take the ball away from Aaron Rodgers and company then I like the Bears chances to be 2-2 on Thursday night.
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Honestly, if there was a time when Packers are ripe for the picking it is now. They have their top four OT out, their best DL Mike Daniels is questionable, their best pass rusher Nick Perry is questionable and a starting CB is out. If the Bears can’t beat these guys now, they never will.