Troy & Chief Show, Week Four, Monday Edition

[Chief Rum]

All right, here we go. It's Monday now, and you know what that means!

No, no, not that you have the rest of the work week ahead of you! Well, yes, you do, but that's beside the pont. It's time for Monday night football!

Nothing fancy today. Here's my pick.

Green Bay at Chicago

Will the ghosts of Soldier Field past rise up to help the Bears overcome the Not So Mighty Green Bay Packers? Could the NFL and ABC have miscalculated worse for a Monday Night game? Actually, I am looking forward to a good game, because with the history involved and the longstandinbg rivalry and, of course, the tendency of either team to do its darnedest to keep the other team in it, it should be a fun, close game. The Bears are outclassed here, even by this year's version of the Packers, but you have to figure they are going to get a boost from returning to Soldier Field. Now if only they would replace Kordell Stewart with Rex Grossman. The Bears remain the worst offensive team in football, and even with the Pack's horrible run defense, they should be able to handle the Bears. Expect to see a lot of green and gold jersies in the box tonight, as the Packers challenge Stewart to beat them in single man coverage. He won't be able to do it (and neither will Grossman--too new). On offense, the key will be which Brett Favre shows up. Traditionally, he does well in these primetime affairs, and we may see a bit of the old Favre tonight. Still, even on his best bights, he was prone to mistakes and he will be again this week. Figure Favre will force a throw or two too many into triple coverage on Donald Driver and give it up enough for the Bears to keep it close. The key is AHman Green. He should have a field day, assuming he runs away from Brian Urlacher for as long as he can. The Packers take this one, 24-21.

[TroyF]

Green Bay at Chicago

Well, I thought the Packers would be 2-2 after tonight. I figured they'd beat the Cardinals and Lions and lose to the Bears and the Vikings. The fact they are 1-2 will give them some desperation that I didn't think they'd have. So the question is, just how bad is this football team? I think they are pretty bad. I didn't see anyway they'd cover that 10 win over. The defense cannot generate a pass rush. They aren't really that good stopping the run either. The Bears are a mess. They've had a bye week to think about their trouble. It'll be the last bye week Dick Jauron will ever have as their head coach. The dink/dunk pass technique is worthless. It's not the way to beat the Packers either. I think the Bears can win this game, however, if they take some shots downfield and keep the Packer defense loose. I look for the Pack to jump ahead and stay there until the fourth quarter. That's when the Pack defense wears down for good. Kordell leads a fourth quarter comeback drive for the W, Bears 24-23.

TroyF

[sabotai]

I didn't think the Bears did THAT bad tonight. The defense needs a lot of work, but their offense showed a few signs of "getting there".

They need to run it to Thomas more. In 3 games, he's still only ran the ball 29 times. Other running backs rush that many times in a single game.

Kordell needs to sense the rush better. Even though the game was pretty much over, that last interception happened because he didn't take enough steps away from the rush. He needs to develope that "sense" for where the defense is...it's probably too late for that now.

Continueing the above...it may be time to end the Kordell experiment and try Grossman for a few games. At this point, it couldn't hurt and the playing time may help Grossman develope more. He needs it, it's too late for Kordell.

Is Urlacher really that good? Well, I think he is probably as good as peopel make him out to be. BUT, defense can not stand on just the legs of an ILB. Urlacher's supporting cast from the last few years got too little credit, IMO. Now, he has less talent around him. He can't do it all himself. This defense is horrendous right now.