Week 15- BEARS vs. Packers, Game Preview

I'm usually a pretty positive guy on here.  But let's face it, the Bears are probably going to lose this game.  The Packers are too good of a team that will have plenty of motivation on Sunday.  And the Bears are a struggling offensive team with several key injuries on defense.  After 51 points vs. Tennessee, the Bears have scored a total of 44 points in their last 4 losses.  Only a 28-point "outburst" and a late score last week get this team to an average of 14.4 points in the 5 games since destroying the Titans. So, there's really no reason to expect the Bears to right the ship and score enough this week to beat a Packers team they haven't been able to beat very much recently. 

On defense, the Bears will be without Tim Jennings and Henry Melton, 2 players having probowl seasons, in addition to the already ruled out Brian Urlacher.  If that's not bad enough, Briggs, McClellin and Hayes have also missed practice time this week due to injuries.  On offense, Earl Bennett is still out.  Michael Bush may be a no-go again with sore ribs.  And Jay Cutler has dual neck and knee injuries, though he is expected to play. 

If there is any positive to take from the last 5 (soon to be 6 weeks) of the season, it's the hope that history repeats itself.  Last year, the Giants started 6-2, before losing 5 of 6 games from weeks 10-15.  The Giants then won 6 straight, must-win games on their way to hoisting the Lombardi Trophy.  Like the Bears have/will, the Giants lost games against the NFL's elite during that stretch (SF, GB, NO), while also taking tough division losses to Washington and Philly.  In 2010, our good friends in Green Bay also had their season come down to must wins in their final 2 regular season games just to get into the playoffs.  The Packers blew out a conference foe in Week 16, followed by a hard-fought win vs. a division rival trying to play spoiler.  If the Bears season is to end in the playoffs, the Bears will have to do similar by winning @ Arizona and then vs. a Lions team that would like nothing more than to keep the Bears at home with them.  Also of similarity between the 2010 Packers and the 2012 Bears is the untimely injuries seemingly determined to end their seasons. 

Much was made of the Packers having 14 players end the year on IR, but most of those injuries were relatively insignificant.  The Pack had 15 weeks to replace Ryan Grant on a non-running football team.  They did lose an offensive lineman, a couple defenders, and Jermichael Finley, but none of them were huge parts of what made them successful.  The Bears may be in a similar situation with the most significant players on IR being Lance Louis and Robbie Gould.  Both are injuries the Bears can overcome.  But the Bears have also had key players such as Forte, Bennett, Jennings, Urlacher, and Jeffery miss multiple games (counting this coming week).  In fact after Sunday, only 6 of the Bears 22 starters will have played in at least 1/2 of every game.  The only star players that haven't missed at least 3 quarters of a game are Briggs (assuming he plays) and Marshall.  In another bit of Pack/Bears parallel, the Packers also received a scare mid-to-late season when Aaron Rodgers went down with a concussion.  That year, GB lost a close game to a good Detroit team by not being able to get the ball in the endzone without their QB.  The week after, wasn't quite the disaster that the Bears trip to San Francisco was this year, but the Packers also lost to a very good team with their backup QB. 

It is worth noting that the Bears did put up 438 yards of total offense last week, their 2nd highest total of the season.  Also, worth noting is the fact that it would have been over 500 yards with a couple more scores if not for dropped passes by pretty much everybody.  So, if you look at it as the offense starting to come alive, there is hope for this week and the rest of this season.  Of course if you look at it as a lack of talent on the offensive side of the ball, then there isn't much hope.  But even if the Bears lose this week, I'd like to think they can beat an Arizona team that hasn't won since September and a Lions team that should be just showing up just to get Calvin Johnson the receiving yards record.  That would get them to 10 wins, and a good shot at the playoffs.  Get in the playoffs, continue to build on something remotely close to 400 yards of total offense, and anything can happen with the way the Bears create turnovers.