ATLANTA, Ga. -- Sunday Night, the Chicago Bears are in town visiting the Atlanta Falcons and fireworks could be in order inside the Georgia Dome. Both offenses can be prolific and they will be throwing against weaker defensive secondaries.
So expect the scoreboard operators to get a workout. When all is said and done, if the result is going to favor the Falcons, here's what they'll need to do.
• The Bears rank 4th in the NFL with 14 sacks. Adewale Ogunleye has 4.5 and Alex Brown has 2.5 to lead the pass rush, but seven other players each have a sack. The bring the heat well and frustrate the best of opposing quarterbacks. The Falcons, on the other hand, have the best offensive line in the league when it comes to protecting the quarterback as Matt Ryan has only been sacked twice this season. The offensive line must continue to protect Ryan on Sunday night, giving him time to find any of his plethora of receiving targets.
On the strength of hard-hitting defense, Jay Cutler's right arm and Robbie Gould's clutch kicking, the Chicago Bears won their home opener in an extremely tough fight with the defending Super Bowl champion Pittsburgh Steelers.
The Steelers outgained the Bears 308 to 275 in a gritty defensive battle. They had 21 first downs to the Bears' 17. They, unlike the Bears, were able to effectively run the football. In the end, though, the Bears won on the strength of something the Steelers lacked: the ability to hit a big field goal.
The increase in popularity of Individual Defensive Player (IDP) leagues was easy to see coming. After all, why break down offensive players individually by position yet group all defenders as a team? Of course, when IDPs come into play, the defense can't be just an afterthought.
Sleeping on defenders while other teams amass high-sack guys like James Harrison and DeMarcus Ware, or consistent 100-tackle linebackers like Patrick Willis or Ray Lewis could leave you high and dry at critical positions. You wouldn't be stuck with Donald Driver and Devin Hester as your top two receivers, would you?
However, it'll get to that point in the draft where 20 or 30 defenders are off the board at a certain position, and you need to add a sleeper or two to your IDP core, someone who has the ability to finish in the top ten at their position. Today, I'll examine a few potential breakouts at each position -- hopefully, you'll add one or two of the good ones on draft day.
After the Bears made the announcement of their franchise-shattering acquisition of Jay Cutler, they didn't rest. Within a few hours, they announced they had also agreed to terms with venerable left tackle Orlando Pace. I'll admit, I was overly excited about the two new Bears, as were all my Bears fans friends -- which is weird, usually at least one of us disagrees about player movement. Make no mistake about it, though. We aren't delusional. This team is far from complete and the die-hards know it.
With the team still a decent amount below the salary cap and several holes left to fill for 2009, here's what I think the Bears should do.
I've taken time to check out many message boards and comments sections across the internet. What I'm finding, for the most part, is that fans of teams other than the Bears think this is a terrible deal. Their "evidence," though, is usually incredibly flawed. Here are some of the reasons people think the deal is poor for the Bears, followed by my rebuttals.
Because the NFL season never ends, we present our 2009 Offseason Roadmaps for front offices to navigate through the summer.
The Bears surprised everyone by being a respectable football team in 2008. Most expected them to completely unravel, winning maybe three of four games. Instead, they took down the Colts in Indianapolis to kick off a winning season.
Along the way, though, they blew several key games and ended up severely disappointing their own fans by not winning a very winnable division -- not to mention one additional win would have garnered a wild card.
It would be easy for me to sit here and discuss the virtues of playing hard all 16 games and how that overtime win at home last weekend still wasn't enough momentum for the playoffs -- not to mention the fact that the Giants will have a bye next week anyway and that everyone keeps discussing how hard they played in Week 17 last year.
I'm not gonna do that. Instead, I'm going to tell you that the Chicago Bears are not near the playoff team the Minnesota Vikings are at this point. The Giants should be wanting a victory this weekend over the Vikings -- and hoping for a Bears win as well -- because the Vikings could be a scary NFC Championship game foe. That third week in January is one game for the chance to go to the Super Bowl.
Before yesterday's season ended with a 33-25 win over the Saints, FanHouse's Ryan Wilson cautioned Bears fans to expect some big changes on the team heading into next season. While there will certainly be new faces in the lineup next year, it didn't take Lovie Smith long to assure the masses that there wouldn't be any changes at the top. He was asked if he anticipated making a change at either coordinator position and you didn't need a linguistics degree to parse his answer.
''No, I don't.''
That settles that, I guess. If the Bears are smart, though, they won't be so complacent with their roster.
The offensive line needs to be upgraded, starting with Fred Miller at right tackle. Cedric Benson struggled as the starting tailback before getting hurt but the team wasn't exactly giving him wide open spaces to scamper through on his way to a good season. Obviously quarterback remains a position of uncertainty as well, but if they had All-Pros at both positions behind this line they would still be 7-9. At least Ron Turner finally got the message about getting Devin Hester more involved in the offensive game plan.
Last year at this time the talk was about the Bears' potential Super Bowl chances, the dominating defense, and the spectacular rookie season of fifth-round pick, defensive end Mark Anderson.
Twelve months later, Chicago has been a monumental disappointment, the team is no close to finding a legit quarterback, and the defense has struggled. And Anderson hasn't been immune. After registering 12 sacks in 2006, Anderson got off to a fast start this season -- he had four sacks in the first four games -- but finished with just five. He also struggled against the run, and in 13 more starts than last season, he has just three more tackles.
'I'll say Mark's year is like the rest of our year,'' coach Lovie Smith said. ''He played a 6-9 pace like all of us have. We would like for our entire football team, for all of us to improve next year, to get back where the Chicago Bears belong.''
And now Anderson's sophomore season is over; he was placed on injured reserve earlier this week after injuring his left knee on a Chester Taylor cut-block during the December 17 Vikings game.
Alex Brown, who lost his job to Anderson at the beginning of the year, will start his second consecutive game of the season.
In the last frenzied hours of shopping before the kiddies ramble downstairs and start tearing the wrapping off their gifts, the Dallas Cowboys will have to venture to the mall and pick out one last present. The Chicago Bears are worthy of a new bike or a Wii after beating the Packers 35-7 and clinching home field in the NFC for the 'Boys. As strange as it sounds, though, it might have been a gift for Brett Favre as well.
Favre looked completely unable to handle the elements and completed just 17-of-32 passes for 153 yards. He had just nine yards in the first half and had a passer rating of zero halfway through the third quarter. He also threw a pair of interceptions in the blistering wind and bonechilling cold, two things that are more likely to rear up at Lambeau Field than at Texas Stadium in late January.
He wasn't the only Packer to suffer in the wind. If they had punter ratings, Jon Ryan's would be in negative numbers. He had two kicks blocked, fumbled a snap on a third and had a fourth travel nine yards in what will probably go down as the worst performance in the history of punting. Unlike Favre, through, Ryan doesn't really have much else to prop up his resume.
ATLANTA, Ga. -- Sunday Night, the Chicago Bears are in town visiting the Atlanta Falcons and fireworks could be in order inside the Georgia Dome. Both offenses can be prolific and they will be throwing against weaker defensive secondaries. 
On the strength of hard-hitting defense, 
The increase in popularity of Individual Defensive Player (IDP) leagues was easy to see coming. After all, why break down offensive players individually by position yet group all defenders as a team? Of course, when IDPs come into play, the defense can't be just an afterthought.
After the Bears made the announcement of their 
Because the NFL season never ends, we present our 
C'mon, 
Before yesterday's season ended with a 33-25 win over the Saints, FanHouse's Ryan Wilson cautioned Bears fans to expect some big changes on the team 
