The Chicago Bears (3-1) are on the road Sunday night against the Atlanta Falcons (3-1).  Both of these teams play pretty good football and it should be a close game.  The Bears are rested up after a bye week, so they should be fresh and ready to go.  The Falcons are coming off a big 45-10 win in San Francisco, and are looking to ride that momentum into this contest.  Both teams are pretty even in most stats, but the Falcons defense looks to be the weaker of the two.  They give up 127 rushing yards per game, and with Matt Forte coming off a break out game of 121 yards on 12 carries (10.1 avg) the Bears should be able to do some damage on the ground.  They also have Jay Cutler and his super fast receivers in Johnny Knox and Devin Hester for some deep threats.  Cutler has thrown 901 yards, eight touchdowns, five interceptions, with a 64% completion percentage.  His number aren’t the greatest, but he has been a good leader and has proven he can come through in the clutch.

The Falcons have a pretty good quarterback themselves in Matt Ryan.  He has thrown 977 yards with seven touchdowns and two interceptions and a 67% completion rate.  The Bears need to focus on shutting Ryan down, and if they can do that they should be able to slow down running back Michael Turner and Falcons 106 rushing yard average.  These are two evenly matched football teams, but the Bears have the better defense so they should win.

FINAL SCORE PREDICTION:  Chicago Bears 30, Atlanta Falcons 24

The Chicago Bears (2-1) are hosting the Detroit Lions (1-2) at Soldier Field Sunday.  The Lions are coming off their first win in 20 games after beating the Washington Redskins, and the Bears have a two game winning streak after beating the Seattle Seahawks last week.  The Bears passing offense has looked solid the past two games, but the running game is still struggling.  The Lions running game has looked pretty good the past two weeks and their passing game looked much improved last week.  Their rookie quarterback Mathew Stafford had a turnover free game after throwing five interceptions in his first two games.

The Bears should win this game pretty easily, but it could be close with Bears defense hurting and the Bears running game struggling.  The offensive line and running back Matt Forte have struggled to get much going in the first three weeks and Forte injured his knee last week.  It’s not serious though and he is listed as probable so he should be fine Sunday.  In three games so far Forte has rushed for 150 yards on 59 carries (2.5 avg)  and has no touchdowns.  The Lions defense has given up an average of 111 yards per game on the ground, so maybe Forte will finally have a big game.

The Bears defense is hurting, especially at the linebacker position.  With their star and leader Brian Urlacher out for the year, Hunter Hillenmeyer has done a solid job of filling in for him.  Now Hillenmeyer is out with a rib injury and Nick Roach will most likely start for him.  The Lions will probably look to attack the Bears with a lot of short passes and try and take advantage of their depleted linebackers.  Lions’ quarterback Stafford has a lot of talent and a strong arm, and had a much improved game last week.  The Bears’ defensive line has been playing very well and have been getting a lot of pressure on the opposing teams’ quarterbacks, so I think they will be able to pressure the rookie Stafford into some mistakes.    He is capable of making some big plays though, and has often been compared to the Bears quarterback Jay Cutler.

Overall, I think the Bears are a much better football team and the Lions are over-matched.  The Bears do have some key weaknesses though that the Lions can take advantage of, but I don’t think they will do enough.  Cutler will be able to eat up the Lions secondary and Forte will at least be somewhat effective against the Lions weak run defense and could have himself a breakout game.  The Bears will win this won convincingly.

FINAL SCORE PREDICTION:  Bears 31, Lions 17

The Chicago Bears (1-1) are heading up to the Seattle Seahawks’ (1-1) Qwest field Sunday and are going for their second win in a row.  Chicago Bears’ quarterback Jay Cutler had a very strong game last week against the defending Super Bowl Champion Pittsburgh Steelers, as he lead them to a 17-14 win at home.  Cutler bounced back very well after throwing a career high four interceptions in the Bears’ opener at the Green Bay Packers.

The Bears’ running game has not gotten going yet, and Matt Forte has been very ineffective so far.  He is only getting 2.2 yards per carry and has a fumble through two games.  The 49ers’ Frank Gore was able to run all over the Seahawks’ defense last week though, so I think Forte will be much more effective this week.  The Bears passing game is looking good now that Cutler seems to have settled in.  He found a new talented receiver to go to as well, in the speedy rookie Johnny Knox.

The Seahawks’ quarterback situation, on the other hand, is not very good.  Their starter Matt Hasselbeck left in the Seahawks loss last week to the San Francisco 49ers with a broken a rib.  The cracked rib will probably keep him out of this game as well, so look for Seneca Wallace to start at quarterback for the Seahawks.  Wallace has been in the league for seven years now and this will be only his 13th start.  Wallace is a very athletic quarterback though, and is capable of making some big plays with his legs.

I think the Bears defense has been looking very good in the first two games though, even without their leader Brian Urlacher, and I think they will force the inexperienced Wallace into a lot of mistakes.  The Seahawks are tough at home but I think the Bears are the better team and are going to win this won pretty easily.

FINAL SCORE PREDICTION:  Bears  27, Seahawks 17

The Chicago Bears are taking on the Pittsburgh Steelers at Soldier Field in their week two match-up and both teams will be without their star defenders.  The Bears lost linebacker Brian Urlacher for the year when he dislocated his wrist last week in the Bears 21-15 loss to the Green Bay Packers.  The Steelers are without safety Troy Polamalu, who injured his MCL in the Steelers week one 13-10 win against the Tennessee Titans.  The Bears are really looking to rebound after their debacle in week one, when Bears quarterback Jay Cutler threw a career high four interceptions.

Hunter Hillenmeyer will be the man trying to fill Urlacher’s shoes, as he will be starting in Urlacher’s middle linebacker position.  Hillenmeyer usually plays outside linebacker, and is an effective player at that position as he has made 49 starts there for the Bears.  Middle linebacker is a different story though, as he has made only seven starts at that position, with all of those starts coming in 2004 (once again replacing an injured Urlacher).  So, look for the Steelers to attack the middle of the Bear’s defense with their tandem of running backs, Willie Parker and Rashard Mendenhall.  The Steelers relied heavily on quarterback Ben Roethlisberger’s arm in their win over Tennessee, as he threw the ball 43 times.  The Steelers know that they wont win most of their games if they have to rely on Roethlisberger throwing the ball that many times, so I’m expecting a lot more carries for Parker and Mendenhall against the Bears than they had against the Titans (17 combined).

Tyrone Carter will be filling in at safety for the injured Polamalu and although Carter has been in the league for 10 years now, he only has 10 starts.  It would be smart for the Jay Cutler and the Bears to attack Carter early and often, as he looks to be a chink in the armor for the Steelers stellar defense.  Possibly another deep touchdown to a streaking Devin Hester?  Just like the 36-yard touchdown he and Cutler connected on against the Packers in week one, one of the few bright spots for the Bears offense last game.

I’m expecting a much different Jay Cutler than what you saw in week one, as he looked more like Rex Grossman in that game.  Hopefully Chicago can establish the run a little better than in week one, where Matt Forte only had 55 yards on 25 carries (2.2 avg).  I really think not having Polamalu is a big difference maker in this game, more so than Urlacher, as I foresee Carter struggling.  Cutler will have a much easier time without the blitz of Polamalu or the athleticism he brings to the secondary, and I think he will take advantage of that.

Even though the Steelers defense is still very strong, and still better than what the Bears saw against the Packers, I think the offense will be much sharper.  That first half against the Packers was a wake-up call for Jay Cutler and the Bears offense, as they looked much better in the second half.  This will be a close one against the Steelers and I think the Bears will edge out the defending champions with a late Robbie Gould field goal to win it.

FINAL SCORE PREDICTION:  Bears 27, Steelers 24

I can’t see any reason to recommend taking the Bears to win more than 8 games.  They have the same lousy QBs that they did last season and they have running backs who are not the most talented guys around.  Special teams and defense will not be enough to carry the Bears to a winning record in 2008.

I would say the under would be the bet here but I don’t see anyone in the NFC North that can beat team. With that in mind the Bears would only have to go 5-5 to make the over the winning side so that’s the way I’ll go. They still have a fantastic defense as well as superb special teams units. So it all comes down to Cedric Benson and Rex Grossman. I think Benson will make everyone forget about Thomas Jones as long as he stays healthy. Grossman however has a knack for giving away points and he must protect the football. Still, the over is the play here.

1. Take the Bears over 121 yards rushing…….they might get 200!
2. Take Rex Grossman to throw for under 218 yards……..he won’t need to throw the ball
3. Take Robbie Gould over 7 points…….I see a couple of field goals in his future
4. Bet that no team will score three consecutive possessions and you get 5-8 odds!
5. Bet that Cedric Benson or Thomas Jones will score a TD…… they both might score one and you get 2-3 odds.
6. Take Robbie Gould +2 points over Adam Vinatieri……..The Bears are going to score a lot of points on Sunday
7. Definately take the Bears -5 yards to rush for more yards than the Colts……..easy money

The over/under is 9 1/2 wins for the Bears.

October 8th, at home against the Buffalo Bills.