The Bears return to Soldier Field this Sunday to face their division rival, the Minnesota Vikings. In their previous meeting the Bears relied on a late Rex Grossman to Rashied Davis touchdown to beat the Vikings in Minneapolis.

The Bears come into this weeks game on the heels of a tough loss to the Patriots. Despite the loss in Foxboro, the Bears had a successful east coast road trip, finishing 2-1. Heading into the home stretch of the 2006 season, the Bears’ toughest tests are behind them. They have a relatively soft schedule over the last 5 weeks (facing the Vikings, Rams, Buccaneers, Lions, and Packers). They’re not necessarily easy (see week 9 against the Dolphins), but they are games the Bears should win. Now, onto this weeks game.

Everyone knows about the Bears defense. It’s tough, strong, opportunistic. Those things haven’t changed. The Vikings will have a hard time moving the ball against this squad. The real interest is the Bears offense. Can they (Rex Grossman) hold onto the football and put together sustained drives that result in touchdowns? The Vikings are allowing just 56 yards on the ground. This is not good news for Thomas Jones and Cedric Benson. I wouldn’t be suprised to see Ron Turner crank up the passing game against the 31st ranked passing defense of the Vikings. Look for the Bears to pass more than they run, to try to take advantage of the Vikings porous pass defense.

A big question in a lot Bears fans’ minds is, ‘Should Brian Griese be in at quarterback?’ I think that this is the week that we’ll find that out. I can’t imagine Lovie being able to stick with Rex through another awful game. Rex Grossman is horribly inconsistent right now. I know he’s still practically a rookie, but he needs to play with more consistency. Lovie cannot let him lose games like he did against the Patriots. If that continues to happen, it will be very easy for guys on the defense to start pointing fingers at the offense. That can do nothing but hurt this playoff team.

The Bears don’t have any major injury news, they come into this game fairly healthy. The Vikings also look pretty healthy. The only items on the injury report to note is Steve Hutchinson (knee), and Chester Taylor (wrist) are both listed as probable. Both are expected to play.

I think the Bears win this one impressively, 24-3 to lock up the NFC North division for the 2nd straight year.

This entry was posted on Friday, December 1st, 2006 at 7:42 pm and is filed under Chicago Bears, Football, NFL. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.