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It’s hard to say that a victory over one of the worst teams in the NFL is a cure for all there ills but it should at least help shake off the hangover of the debacle in Green Bay. Sunday in St. Louis the Bears manhandled the Rams and finally did all the things we’ve been waiting for this season, like rushing the passer.

While the cries of victory should be tempered by the quality of the opponent it was certainly satisfying to see Brian Urlacher making plays and Tommie Harris and Adewale Ogunleye get to the quarterback. The Bears defense finally played with the passion fans had become accustom to, now the hope is the injuries coming out of this game don’t prevent a repeat performance in Minnesota.

So with a battle for first place against the Vikings on the horizon, we look back at the Bears and Rams in five:

1) It starts and ends with Forte
Everything the Bears have been able to do this year has started and ended with Matt Forte. Now fifth in the NFL in rushing with 909 yards and leading in total offensive touches with 270 the offense doesn’t go unless Forte makes it go. With 132 rushing yards Sunday he allowed the Bears to coast through the second half.

There is still some concern that he’ll hit that inevitable rookie wall, but if he could hold it off for just one more week he could give the Bears a serious leg up in the chase for the NFC North division crown. The Vikings commitment to stopping Forte the last time these two teams met allowed Kyle Orton to shred their secondary en route to 48 points. The Bears will need more out of Forte this time in an attempt to control the ball and keep his counterpart off the field.

2) The snap to Hester…
Sunday marked the long awaited debut of the Bears version of the “wildcat” formation. While the play wasn’t quite the homerun that it had been in other places around the league Hester still managed to work his way towards a first down and give opposing defensive coordinators a lot more to think about.

While Hester continues his struggles as a returner, even being relieved of his kickoff return duties, his nearly 90 yards of total offense Sunday shows the kind of contributions he can make. Ron Turner did an outstanding job of using Hester successfully in a variety of ways that should put all the Bears remaining opponents on notice.

3) Slow but steady
That’s the mantra Kyle Orton needed to have against the Rams. The play of his defense and Forte made sure that Orton had to do little more than dink and dunk and keep the offense moving. The ankle injury appears to have limited his ability to get the ball deeper down the field, but his accuracy was vastly improved from the game against Green Bay.

Now as the Bears travel to the Metrodome Orton will need to find his deep touch again. Four weeks removed from the injury against Detroit the Bears will need the QB who was creating all sorts of long-term extension buzz before the bye week to return.

4) Did the real Bears defense just stand up?
We’ve seen 1-game aberration from this group before and it’s hard to overstate how terrible the Rams are, but success has to start somewhere. It’s obviously unreasonable to expect this team to return to a top-5 or even top-10 defense given the body of work they’ve put out this year, but improvement is the key. The defense needs to avoid the drop-off they experienced after their last dominant performance in Detroit.

Then again the return of a pass rush from Tommie Harris and Adewale Ogunleye make pretty much anything possible. If the Bears can return to getting pressure with just their front four it allows them to get more creative in disguising their coverages. Perhaps most important though was the return of the run defense going into their second match-up with Adrian Peterson.

5) The injury bug
The only significant injuries the Bears had going into St. Louis were Marty Booker, who hadn’t caught a pass in three weeks, and Kevin Jones, who’s been ineffective all season. Now coming out of that game the Bears could be down half of the starting secondary. Mike Brown’s lower leg injury and Nathan Vasher’s hit to his surgically repaired wrist could likely keep both out next week.

The silver lining here is that both of their back-ups have seen playing time and played well. Corey Graham was already on the verge of taking Vasher’s starting spot and his superior tackling probably would’ve had him on the field most of the time anyway.

Craig Steltz for Mike Brown on the other hand should be more concerning. While Brown is not the playmaker he once was in coverage he is still excellent at playing downhill and attacking the line of scrimmage, that’s something the Bears could sorely miss in Minnesota.

Bearscast will return with brand new episodes this week. We have to much to discuss after the awful drubbing in Green Bay and the awesome drubbing in St. Louis. Stay tuned!

- The Bearscast Crew

This season has been a little different for Devin Hester. After shattering return records and elevating himself to an elite level as the best return man in NFL history after only two years, the ride has gotten a bit bumpier.

On many occasions Superman has looked frighteningly human. Fumbling returns, tackled for no gain, losing yards inside his own 10, and even sustaining a rib injury. He just doesn’t seem to be the same guy back there — too much hesitation, too much back and forth and perhaps just flat out trying too hard.

Early on the theory was he was pressing too hard, trying to justify his new contract by taking every return the distance. But as the season has worn on the theories have turned elsewhere:

“There’s only one deduction that make sense: The experiment of turning Hester into a fulltime receiver has failed miserably, and should be scrapped. Maybe then Hester’s rare return magic will return.” (Don Banks, SI.com)

Don Banks of Sports Illustrated is not the only one to propose such a theory. He joins pretty much every color analyst covering Bears games, several writers and radio personalities in Chicago, my occasional Bearscast co-host Mr. Payne and probably most fans.

That’s a lot of people who know a lot about football who think Devin Hester’s additions on offense have not offset the diminished returns on special teams. So with respect to most of those people, allow me to disagree.

Admittedly Hester’s first season as a full time contributor to the offense has not been ideal. He started slow as a WR, still doesn’t have a reception longer than 32 yards and hasn’t seemed like the dynamic and dominant force we all envisioned. But there has been improvement. His production over the last five weeks would put him on pace for about 900 receiving yards in a season, better than Bernard Berrian in 2006 and about on par with what Berrian did in 2007.

Considering he’s only in his second year playing a position that generally takes three years to master at the NFL level. The last two weeks have also shown that the deep strikes are coming as Hester was overthrown twice on passes that should’ve been touchdowns by a rusty backup QB.

Hester is playing a key role in an offense that is now scoring more and passing the ball better – prior to Orton’s injury – than Bears fans had seen since the days of Erik Kramer. Part of that is the fear that Devin creates when he’s lined up out wide. Teams are forced to respect his speed and game-breaking ability and it’d be foolish to think he has not done a lot to open things up for Rashied Davis, Marty Booker and Greg Olsen.

The Titans game also provided a glimpse that the Hester magic is not gone in the return game, as he came the closest he’s been all season to breaking a kickoff and punt return. Teams are doing everything they can to slow him down and he set a pace that was unseen in NFL history his first two years. The law of averages states pretty clearly the opposition was going to catch up with him a bit; the pendulum is just swinging the other way.

When criticizing Hester’s returns, Banks and others have referenced his return average “a mind-boggling 31st in the league in kickoff returns, with a 20.9-yard average and a long gain of 51.” It does sound horrible when you put it like that, but not nearly as bad when you consider Hester’s average last year was only 21.7 yards per kickoff return. The average is down because teams do not treat Hester like a normal kick returner, regularly send kickoffs much higher and shorter to give him less room to work with. The key stat is average starting field position on kickoffs, which is out near the 30 yard-line for the Bears and still among the best in the NFL.

I am not foolish enough to think that his play at WR hasn’t had any effect on his return game. The additional plays and hits have to take something out of him. However, turning Hester into a wide receiver is a long-term investment. It can’t be scrapped after nine games especially as it appears he’s making progress.

I miss the event that was watching Hester return a kick for a TD as much as anyone. It was the most exciting 15 seconds in sports and I should stress that it’s not gone forever. But over the next five years it’ll be more important that Hester turns into a threat at WR. As nice as his returns were, if the Bears don’t see a significant drop in starting field position, they are better off with sustained drives that eat up clock and protect there defense than waiting for lighting to strike.

It’s amazing how sure Bears fans and pundits were just two years ago or a year ago that Hester should be on offense using his gifted return ability to break big plays and revolutionize the Bears offense the way he did the return game. Then when it doesn’t come easily or quickly it needs to be scrapped so the Bears can return to the old safe ways that probably weren’t going to hold up anyway.

2008 has not been the year we all dreamed of for Hester, but it’s all a work in progress. Those looking to get out now are the kind of people who sell stock at its lowest point, right after it plummets. For those brave enough to ride out the storm there are much bigger returns still to come.

As the Bears face their toughest test of the season almost certainly without starting QB Kyle Orton, the odds will be stacked against them. The Titans defense will look to feast on mistake-prone Rex Grossman and turn what could’ve been a close game into a blowout.

Still, the Bears are not without hope. This is a team that has played its best football against its toughest opponents with wins over the Colts and Eagles. The Bears will need to rise to that challenge again and play their best game of the year this Sunday.

For a look at how they might do it Bearscast sets the over/under on five key topics for this week:

Over/Under: 1.5 turnovers for Rex Grossman
Turnovers have always been Rex’s biggest issues. In games he’s committed one or zero turnovers the Bears are 17-6, and it will likely take one of those games for the Bears to eek out a victory this week.

Unfortunately it’s hard to imagine Rex standing up to the constant pressure of Albert Hansworth and Kyle Vanden Bosch and not making a few mistakes. Rex could still play a solid game, but the odds of him making a few mistakes especially given his lack of playing time are too great to go under.

Over/Under: 115 rushing yard for the Titans
The Titans average nearly 150 yards rushing per game and the Bears average giving up about 80, so 115 is right in the middle. Stopping the run is what the Bears D has done best all season holding 6 of 8 opponents to under 100 yards for the game,

But one of the two opponents to go over 100 was the Carolina Panthers and the Titans feature a similar two-back system. LenDale White will handle most of the between the tackles work and rookie speedster Chris Johnson is their home run hitter. The Bears should keep them contained most of the day, but one big run from Johnson could easily put the Titans over 115.

Over/Under: 7 tackles for Brian Urlacher
For the season Urlacher is only averaging 5.5 tackles per game. While that still has him second on the team it’s also far from the production we’ve come to expect. One reason for the low total could be how quickly teams abandon the run against the Bears, limiting opportunities for Urlacher and the entire front seven.

But this week they face a team that will not abandon the run. With Kerry Collins under center the Titans need to consistently pound the ball to take the pressure off of him. This should be and needs to be the game that Urlacher regains his form. He finished last year playing outstanding after taking some criticism over his early play; hopefully this season will pan out similarly.

Over/Under: 35% 3rd down conversion rate for Titans
For the year the Bears D has been great on 3rd down holding teams to a measly 32% conversion rate. However, they have still had a tendency to give up prolonged drives, which wears the defense out especially against a physically team like the Titans.

The Titans offensively have not been all that great converting only 39% of their 3rd downs on the season. The Bears ability to stop the run should put the Titans in lots of 3rd and 6+. Getting off the field then will be crucial to avoid breaking down in the 4th quarter against Tennessee’s running game.

Over/Under: 125 all-purpose yards for Matt Forte
Last week Forte showed the same flashes he had week-one against the Colts and reaffirmed that he was capable of carry the Bears to victory. If the Bears are going to get to 6-3 this Sunday he’ll need to do it again and should get plenty of opportunities.

With Hansworth clogging up the middle expect to see a lot of swing passes and stretch runs with Forte. He’s the Bears best and most consistent playmaker on offense and more than likely he’ll need to create something from nothing several times this week. If Forte can consistently get positive yards and keep the offense out of 3rd and long he’ll have put the Bears in a position to compete.

This Sunday the hapless Lions will visit Soldier Field, and amazingly they will be even more toothless than they were in Detroit five weeks ago. But even without Jon Kitna and Roy Williams no team in the NFL is a complete pushover.

Still the Bears somewhat maligned defense unit should be able to feast on a back-up QB, Dan Orlovsky, who leads an offense with only one legitimate weapon in Calvin Johnson. Aiding the cause should be the return of starting CBs Charles Tillman and Nathan Vasher who both appear to have recovered over the bye week.

The real test, at least in my eyes, is to see if the Bears offense will come out of the bye week without missing a beat. Kyle Orton had been playing like a Pro Bowler over the last three games and it’ll be important to the Bears second half that he immediately squash any potential doubts that it might have been a fluke. He should have default #1 wide receiver Brandon Lloyd as well as Devin Hester on the field to help.

So now for those and more keys to the game we turn to the Bearscast Over/Under:

Over/Under: 100 yards rushing for Matt Forte

The last time these two teams met the Lions stacked the line, shut down Matt Forte, and paid the price. This game should signal a change in that trend as more teams, especially the Lions, respect Orton’s ability to beat them through the air.

This should hopefully mean a reemergence of Matt Forte as a more dominant running threat. As he sees fewer and fewer 8-men boxes he will need to break tackles and get into the second level. If Forte can’t pick up his performance to compensate for the extra attention Orton is going to get the Bears are in trouble.

I think he will.

Over/Under: 2 sacks for the Bears defensive line

Here we are, another week into the season and still wondering if the Bears’ pass rush is ever going to show up. Tommie Harris and Adawale Ogunleye are by far the biggest culprits and if we are to see an appreciable improvement in the overall defensive performance it will start with those two.

What does it say that the Bears are paying them nearly a combined $17mil for 3 sacks at this point? Probably that the team and fans are getting ripped off. We’ve seen that Harris, Ogunleye, and Mark Anderson all have the talent to get to the quarterback, and yet if it were anyone other than Detroit I’d be going under here.

Over/Under: 10 snaps for rookie Chris Williams

I’ve already made my case for Chris Williams to be starting as soon as this Sunday, but now my fear is that he probably isn’t even going to see the field. For all those who cry out about line continuity, the counter is the incomparable value of live NFL action. Williams hasn’t seen any yet and he needs to get his feet wet.

The one hope is that this Bears/Lions game is as lopsided as the last so Williams can protect Rex Grossman’s blindside for most of the fourth quarter. Unfortunately the odds are against that and Lovie Smith and Co. will likely squander the opportunity to get him even as little as a dozen snaps. Why such blatant disregard for game action that could advance his development by lightyears? Because they’re the Bears.

Over/Under: 140 combined receiving yards for Lloyd and Hester

As fun as the approach by committee has been for the Bears passing game they eventually need true leaders to emerge there. Prior to his injury Lloyd looked as if he was well on his way to becoming Orton’s favorite target, as evidenced by the fact that he’s still third on the team in receiving despite missing 2.5 games. Additionally Hester has shown flashes that he’s starting to get it and it would be huge if he could build on his earlier success against the Lions.

Still you can’t argue with the ability the move the ball the Bears have shown without Lloyd and that could mean he is worked back into the offense slowly. With Hester his injuries, though both have been sustained while returning kicks, could make coaches a little gun shy.

These two will probably still be the source of most of the big passing plays while they are healthy but for the time being they will have to settle for playing a smaller role.

Over/Under: 250 yards of total offense surrender by Bears defense

400 yards and 41 points are way too much for the Bears to give up any Sunday. To make matters worse they got an extra week to think about it and an extra week’s worth of question from the media digging at them about it. If they can’t come out motivated for this game then they really have become fat and complacent.

There is still enough pride on this D to muster a big time performance. With the return of Tillman to help slow down Calvin Johnson the Bears should thoroughly out-man Detroit. Not that dominating the Lions will really serve as a barometer for the second half, but the healing has to start somewhere.

Thankfully for the Bears, the Lions are just what the doctor ordered.

The next two weeks are the turning point of the Bears season. They already salvaged a potentially positive season with a goal line stand against the Eagles. Then they started to forge their identity by dominating the Lions in Detroit.

But now the journey really begins. The road leads to the playoffs and playing off 2007 as a fluke. At 3-2 and with a string of winnable games ahead the Bears get the chance to establish themselves as a forced to be reckoned with in the NFC (again).

Their defense can be dominant and opportunistic. Their offense can be efficient and dare I say explosive. And by putting it all together the Bears can rescue themselves from the fate of other fading teams like the Seattle Seahawks.

And so with over/under we look at the keys, the storylines, and the match-ups of week 6.

Over/Under 100 rushing yards for Michael Turner
So far this seems to be the magic number for the Falcons. In their 3 wins this season Turner has averaged nearly 150 yards and 2 TDs, but in the 2 losses he’s been held to 50 yards per game and no TDs.

Mutually the 4th ranked Bears run D and Turner present the biggest challenge either has faced all year. But a motivated Tommie Harris and Co. can dominate along the line and allow Urlacher, Briggs, and Kevin Payne to slow “the Burner” down.

Turner and Jerius Norwood will likely combine to go over 100 on the day, but keeping Turner himself under the century mark should key a Bears victory.

Over/Under 4.0 yards per rushing attempt for Bears
The Bears have struggled running the ball the last few weeks but when finally looking at the numbers it more than a little startling. Things had gotten so bad that last week against the worse run defense in the NFL the Bears actually passed nearly 50% of the time on first down.

Personally you can’t complain about the balance or the effectiveness, but it is seriously disturbing to see Forte not even capable of cracking 3 yards per carry. It’s also disconcerting that Forte hasn’t broken off a run of longer then 20 yards since his week 1 gallop against the Colts.

Orton’s performance last week should finally loosen defenses up, but can this line consistently open the holes? While the running game should get back on track, 4 yrds/att is too lofty a goal.

Over/Under 270 yards passing for Kyle Orton
It’s absolutely amazing to think that Orton has averaged nearly 270 yards a game for the last 3 weeks. A big part of that is simply taking what the defense gives him, but coming into the season how sure were you that he could even do that?

He should have a decent chance against a secondary that is 3 parts young (S Eric Coleman, CB Brent Grimes, CB Chris Houston) and 1 part old (Lawyer Milloy). But the pass rush and the need to keep the ball away from the Falcons and their bruising running style might limit his attempts.

It’ll all depend on how they try to defend him. Will the Falcons blitz and try to force turnovers giving Orton the chance to make big plays? Doubtful and that’s why he comes in under 270 yards, but still has a good game

Over/Under 100 return yards for Devin Hester
It’s always quietest before the storm. Atlanta Falcons you have been officially warned. Devin Hester’s relatively meek start to the 2008 season should not embolden you to feel confident or cocky (but as Bears fans we sure hope it does).

A lot has been written about the fact that Hester hasn’t run one back at and at times has looked indecisive and tentative. But given that he missed most of the Carolina game and all of the Tampa game the drought is over stated. Others like ESPN’s Kevin Seifert do not though and even questioned whether or not teams should still fear Hester.

For anyone who wonders about that you should speak with: Brad Childress, Mike Shanahan and Tony Dungy. Ask them how kicking to Hester worked out. In the Georgia Dome this could be Hester’s break out game, and if not watching what Reggie Bush did to the Minnesota Vikings makes me salivate for next week.

Over/Under 1.5 sacks for John Abraham
There is no more important 1 on 1 match-up in this game than Falcons DE John Abraham vs. Bears LT John St. Clair. Abraham is the NFL leader in sacks with 7 and St. Clair is a journeyman tackle who’s been filling in admirably for injured rookie Chris Williams.

If anyone can disrupt the role that Kyle Orton and the Bears passing game has been on recently it’s Abraham. He has an ideal variety of speed and strength moves that can overmatch an athletically limited St. Clair.

The odds are that Abraham is going to Orton or flush him to his teammates, probably more than once. The key will to make sure that those sacks and hits don’t turn into turnover. Kyle Orton, watch your back.

After coming down from the high of that tremendous goal line stand against the Eagles I started thinking about next week against the Lions. The first thing that jumped to mind was “3-2 here we come!” and something tells me that might have jumped to mind for a few Bears players too.

So you know what that makes this? A classic trap game. A presumed win against a down and out opponent the inevitably proves the old saying about “any given Sunday”.

Someone suggested to me, can a 2-2 team really have a trap game? And it’s a fair point. Don’t you need to have risen to some level beyond mediocre before you can get “trapped” by anyone? He’s probably right.

Still the Bears do sit atop the NFC North and have to be feeling pretty good after beating a team like the Eagles. But after watching the 2007 team fail to win back-to-back games until the final two games of the year, then compounding it with the letdown that was the Panthers game coming off their season opening win, it becomes pretty evident that this team might have some issues with momentum.

Then you look at the Detroit Lions. An inferior team that somehow managed to beat the Bears twice last season. Two games that had they gone the other way would’ve put the Bears right in the thick of the playoff race.

They’ve had the bye week to prepare for the game. They’re still looking for their first win of the season. And they finally jettisoned albatross Matt Millen, which might remove a huge emotional burden (or at the very least raise the average football IQ at Ford Field).

There’s also the added caveat of a few Bears’ injuries that could make for huge mismatches. Charles Tillman’s injury leaves Corey Graham covering either Calvin Johnson or Roy Williams. And Brandon Lloyd’s injury could leave no one for the Lions to cover at all.

So before you get too excited and start wondering what sort of defensive fronts the Bears will use to confuse rookie Matt Ryan down in Atlanta, don’t forget about the Lions. Because the Bears saved their season Sunday night along Lake Michigan, but they can just as easily throw it away when the travel to the other side this weekend.

Over the past two years the Bears have proved to be an incredibly maddening team no matter who is under center. And in typical Bears fashion they did not disappoint last night on the lakefront with an up-and-down affair against the Philadelphia Eagles.

I am not sure if I should be more overjoyed at a win keyed by a goal-line stand with the game on the line in the fourth quarter, a stand that effectively saved the Bears season, or more upset that this team isn’t 4-0 right now.

But then again, they just wouldn’t be the Bears if they made this easy on us. So as we do after every game we look at the keys in five…

1) Not this time!
Late in the fourth quarter, the opposing team with first and goal inside the Bears 5 and the Bears on the verge of needing a game tying drive… I feel like we’ve seen this before.

But unlike two weeks ago against the Panthers the Bears defense rose to the occasion and stuffed the Eagles on four straight plays. Not enough can be said about what might turn into a season defining set of downs. The play of the entire defense was inspired, with the most credit going to Alex Brown whose effort to catch Correll Buckhalter from behind on 4th and goal saved the game.

It’s evident that the injury to Tommie Harris and a still somewhat unsettled secondary situation may keep this unit from being as dominant as they once were. But what they proved Sunday night is that they are more than capable of being dominant enough to win.

2) Yes, this time!
Late in the fourth, the Bears facing third and short and needing the conversion to seal a victory… I feel like I’ve seen this before too.

But once again unlike last week where the Bears ran Kyle Orton out on a bootleg, they gave it to their best player Matt Forte. Forte proceed to shed a tackler and put a move on Pro Bowler Brian Dawkins that allowed him to pick up the first down and effectively seal the game.

When the game is on the line you need to put the ball in your best player’s hands. That’s the mistake the Bears made in Carolina when they threw an ill-fated WR screen and then handed the ball to Jason McKie. It’s also the mistake they made against the Buccaneers when they left the ball in Orton’s hands.

When it’s crunch time Matt Forte gets the ball. Period.

3) See-saw Orton
So much for that mistake-free game-manager image Kyle Orton had, huh?

During the second half of the Buccaneer’s game and the first half against the Eagles Kyle Orton threw for over 300 yards, five touchdowns, and just one interception. But during the other two halves in those games he threw for under 150 yards and turned the ball over five times. Yikes!

I thought Orton was supposed to be the calm, ball-security answer to Bad Rex? Instead about the only difference I see so far is that Orton is capable of playing really good and really bad within the same game.

Orton has made obvious strides since 2005, but his inconsistencies and turnovers right now can still cost the Bears games. That is going to continue to hold him and the rest of the team back.

4) Injuries taking hold?
Fresh off the injury-decimated campaign of 2007 it would be fair for Bears fans to be a little over sensitive to the team’s current injury situation.

Far and away the most concerning injury is that of Tommie Harris, who was inactive Sunday night. The Bears just invested four years and $40 million in Harris and I’ve long maintained he is the second-most important player on this defense. If he is going to have knee problems all season long it’s going to be a serious issue.

Also concerning were the in-game injuries to Brandon Lloyd and Charles Tillman.

Many of the Bears defensive schemes were altered last year after Nathan Vasher went down with a torn groin muscle, and the same could hold true if the Tillman injury is serious. Without him the Bears have to dial back the aggressiveness and play their more conventional Cover-2, a move that was widely criticized last year. Tillman’s absence really could prove to be critical given everything he does on defense and special teams.

The loss of Lloyd could be equally crucial to the Bears offense. Lloyd was the only wide receiver that opposing defenses truly had to respect, and his budding connection with Kyle Orton created a legit passing threat. Now the Bears must rely on a collection of third and forth wideouts that won’t scare anyone. For the entire offenses sake, Lloyd needs to make a speedy recovery.

5) The view from the top?
Given the preseason hype of the Vikings and the early play of Aaron Rodgers it’s hard to imagine that 2-2 is good enough to have the Bears tied for first in the NFC North. And with half of their remaining games against divisional rivals the Bears will have a lot of say on if they remain there.

Still the next few weeks heading into the bye are crucial. Because of a brutal closing schedule that includes at Vikings, Jaguars, Saints on a short week, Packers, and at Texans the Bears need to build up a cushion now against some weaker opponents.

It all starts with a trip to Detroit where the Bears can avenge two inexcusable losses to the Lions last year. But the Lions are coming out of a bye week and just removed albatross Matt Millen. The game sets up to be a classic let-down game, so if the Bears are going to make that goal line stand mean something they have to carry it with them to Detroit.

What the hell was that? Honestly!

The Bears blow another late game lead and a team that is only a handful of plays from being 3-0 instead is 1-2 headed into a nightmare match-up with the Philadelphia Eagles.

So let’s break down this debacle from all sides:

Offense:

It was a tale of two halves.

In the first half Kyle Orton couldn’t do anything right. The offense squandered great field position and settled for field goals. And to top it off they managed to give up as many points as the defense when Orton threw on straight to Gaines Adams…. I swear sometimes I wonder if they test for color blindness in the NFL.

Then in the second half Brandon Lloyd decided to play a little football. He made several amazing catches in combining with Matt Forte to finally provide the Bears with two options as they moved down the field put up 15 points. It was by far the best the offense had looked all season.

But once again the Bears came up short on a crucial 3rd down when on a 3rd and 2 immediately after the two minute warning Orton refused to throw it on a naked bootleg and was stuffed for no gain. If you can’t convert 3rd and short in crunch time you can’t win in the NFL.

Defense:

They stuffed the run. They forced four turnovers. They did pretty much everything they wanted to for 50 minutes Sunday. But after that a few things finally caught up with the Bears, like 67 passes from Brian Griese.

First was the fatigue of trying to keep up with the Bucs hurry-up offense. Brian Griese and Co. kept them off guard by rushing to the line and creating mismatches with quick personnel changes. The Bears were regularly left with Hunter Hillenmeyer out in coverage or other equally undesirable one-on-one match ups.

Second was the fact that they couldn’t get a pass rush without blitzing. It’s one thing to blitz occasionally, especially given the quality of the Bears CBs. But Vasher and Tillman can not be left on an island all day without eventually giving up plays.

So Bob Babich was left to decide between blitzing to apply pressure or giving Griese time to pick the Bears apart. To his credit he stayed aggressive and the Bears nearly made several game ending plays, including an almost INT by Vasher. But in the end you can’t run an effective Cover-2 without getting a pass rush with four. A lot of this has to fall on Tommie Harris, Adewale Ogunleye, Alex Brown, and Mark Anderson.

Special Teams:

They survived without all-world Devin Hester. Manning was effective on kick offs and looked like he could’ve broke one all the way on several occasions. And Vasher was more than serviceable returning punts.

Overall this group performed well as usual. The only minor complaint you could make was Gould’s missed 49 yard field goal. If he hits that the Bears probably win the game, but you can’t expect your kicker to be perfect, especially at that range. I am sure well hear plenty about how much he’s paid and how he’s never hit one over 50, but Gould is the last person who should be scapegoated for this debacle.

In conclusion it’s nearly 24 hours later and I still feel sick to my stomach. On the plus side I finally have my voice back so Herman and I will be back tonight to cover two pretty gut wrenching losses.

In last week’s Over/Under I picked out a bunch of things I thought the Bears would need to go over on to stay close. Well, they won the game and only went “over” on 1 of 5 (thank you Matt Forte!).

In my own defense the Bears got two sacks when I set the line at 2.5, and both sacks came at key times. They also forced only one turnover which Lance Briggs took back for a touchdown when I set the line at 1.5. So perhaps my over/under’s will be another case of close but not quite this week, but they will still be key factors if the Bears are to get off to a 2-0 start.

Bears 3rd down conversion percentage: Over/Under 50%

Over: A HUGE key for the Bears against the Colts was converting 10 of 16 3rd downs. The Bears made sure not to put themselves in 3rd and long. It opened up lots of options for picking up the first and kept the defense on the sidelines. The Bears offense isn’t explosive so if they are going to score and control the ball they need to convert on 3rd down. With how well the executed in week 1 I expect them to do it again.

Combined rushing yards for DeAngelo Williams and Jonathan Stewart: Over/Under 125

Under: These two backs combined for nearly 140 yards against a highly respected Chargers defense. The Bears D on the other hand limited Joseph Addai to just 44 yards, but that was against a suspect offensive line. I don’t expect the Bears to shut down the run like they did last week, but especially with a healthy Dustin Dvoracek these two backs should struggle to break 100.

Sacks against and negative rushes for the Bears: Over/Under 4.5

Over: Last week the Bears were able to limit their pass attempts and Orton was only sacked twice. Also, Matt Forte did a great job slipping through the smallest crevice and making sure to pick up at least some positive yardage on every carry. I just find it hard to see this line playing that well two weeks in a row. Negative plays are a part of football and the Bears are going to have to show they can overcome them.

Receptions by Bears’ WR: Over/Under 8.5

Over: With the Bears up big early and running the ball well Kyle Orton never needed to open things up. As a result the Bears’ WRs made only six catches in the entire game and no WR caught more than two. I’m still confused what exactly Marty Booker is doing on the field, but that aside the wideouts are going to need to step up. Orton and Co. need to prove they can throw it this week. I am guessing Devin Hester makes a couple of big plays and leaves Panthers’ fans longing for Steve Smith.

Receiving yards for ex-Bear Moose Muhammad: Over/Under 50

Under: The Bears facing off against Mushin Muhammad is by far the most compelling story line this Sunday. And as I wrote Wednesday, while the Bears have said publicly very little about his comments it has been reported that off the record they are not particularly pleased with him. Moose came across as a me-first sort of player his entire time in Chicago, and I am sure he feels like he proved some people wrong with 56 yards receiving in week 1. I expect the Bears D will be highly motivated to shut him down and shut him up. If they can slow down Marvin Harrison, Moose shouldn’t be a challenge.