We Got to Be Ready for Jacksonville

The Chicago Bears who are now 6-6 on the season have some catching up to do now that they are in second place in the NFC North. A good start to getting back on track is beating Jacksonville and carrying momentum against our division opponent Green Bay a week after this Sunday.

The Jacksonville Jaguars (4-8) are a tough team although their record doesn't show it. They have been having an off-year after entering into the postseason from last year. This just adds more opportunities for the Bears,

Jacksonville has two solid running backs and a mobile quarterback that always seem to give teams trouble. Their quarterback, David Garrard, runs when he has to and likes to sling the ball. What is more interesting is how he and Kyle Orton have very similar passer ratings. -Orton leads by 0.5 points. It is also pretty interesting how evenly ranked they are offensively and defensively in the league and yet their is a big record difference.

With that being said we Bears fans know that as of late the Chicago Bears have not been playing their best football and we are yet to see their best game, which hopefully will come starting with this game.

The Bears defense needs to be that Bears defense that made there presence felt the past couple years. Defensive coordinator, Bob Babich seems to enjoy pressuring the opposing quarterback on almost every play, but with that come the consequences of a more vulnerable backfield which of late has been exploited by the Bears' recent opponents. I say they should back off on blitzing the opponents quarterback and give the defensive lineman a chance to get their sac, especially now that Tommy Harris is coming back to full strength. The defense has to adjust and the safeties need time to react to throws in the backfield. Babich's aggressive play has done a lot better on defending the run, but their is a huge deficiency on defending the pass which has been the difference in every Bears' loss this season.

The Bears' offense has to get back to its original form. Brandon Lloyd needs to get active and catch all those great throws Orton threw up for him early in the season. Orton needs to get back to mixing plays with Desmond Clark and Greg Olsen needs to start catching the balls that are right in front of him. Devin Hester needs to keep distracting people and not think too much when returning kickoffs and just look for the open gaps. As for Kyle Orton he needs to clear his mind and learn from his mistakes that he made late in the game last Sunday. He should realize that he lost his focus and rushed throws that had no room for error.

The Bears can get this sorted out. I know they can. Before they started on a losing spell you could just see that they were on the brink of becoming the dominant team that we remember in 2007.

Predictions:
The must win this game. They have no room for a loss because it is win the next four games or stay home. This is the mentality they should have. Minnesota is in first place and we can't rely on them to lose instead the Bears should focus on winning the games that are left. Bears will win. Bears 27 Jacksonville 17.

GO BEARS!!!