Bears @ Eagles Preview

Well this is it. These next two weeks are gonna be absolutely grueling as a Bears fan. But have to win this week to make next week's game against the Pack matter, so gotta win today in Philly. Can you feel the tension?

This is a HUGE week for the Bears. A win in Philly means both the Lions and the Packers have to respond with victories themselves. The Packers face off with the Big Bad Rapist Ben Rothlisberger and the Steelers today in Lambeau. Rodgers isn't playing but the Packers are playing inspired football and I think they pull it out to improve to 8-6-1. The Lions, meanwhile, should have no trouble facing Eli Manning and the Giants in Detroit, and should go to 8-7. All this means this is a must win tonight for the Bears. The Bears are 8-6 right now, meaning a loss bumps them down to second place in the North and would make the game against the Packers a winner take all scenario. So how exactly do the Bears look against the Eagles on paper?

The Eagles offense is scary good. Nick Foles is a QB that needs to be taken seriously week in and week out. 23 TD's against 2 INT's is an unreal stat line, and he has 3 rushing TD's to add to his totals. More importantly though, is the Eagles rushing attack. The Eagles rank 1st in the league in average rushing yards per game with 152.9, mainly because of LeSean "Shady" McCoy. Shady is filthy, averaging 5.0 yards per attempt and has 7 rushing TD's on the year. Coupling that with the fact that the Bears come in to Philadelphia sporting the penultimate rushing defense in the league (that means second to last) giving up on average 152.4 yards a game, their odds don't look good. The passing defense is fine, but expect Shady to have a big night.

But good news! Jay Cutler actually looked pretty good last week, and the Bears have two top tier wide receivers! On top of all that, the Eagles have an even worse defense than the Bears do! I mean, they just gave up 48 points to the Vikings (pause for laughter). The Eagles have the penultimate ranked passing defense, giving up 291.6 yards per game. Now that defense has to go up against Brandon Marshall, Alshon Jeffrey, and Jay Cutler at the helm. That's a huge advantage in the Bears favor. The Eagles also lay claim to the 16th ranked rushing defense in the NFL. This, again, means the X-Factor in this game is Matt Forte. Forte is averaging 4.7 yards per attempt and, much like McCoy, also has 7 rushing TD's this year. If Forte can put together a solid game with a TD, you know that Marshall and Jeffrey will do their job against this cupcake secondary and the Bears should come away with the W, making the Packers feel the heat coming into Solider Field next week.

Prediction: Expect this game to be high scoring. Both defenses aren't really great, and home field in Philly isn't really much because as soon as the Birds start doing poorly, the Boo Birds will be flying. On top of high scoring, this game is gonna be close. But at the end of the day, I think Marshall and Jeffrey are too much for the Eagles defense to handle and the Bears win this game.
Bears: 38 @ Eagles: 35 (-3) and I'm taking the OVER on the O/U of 56 points.

Wait a minute, what did I have again?