Trying To Break Even

The situation that the Chicago Bears face right now is all too familiar to us. One year removed from the Super Bowl the Bears have been heavily disappointed with their poor performance at the start of this season, accumulating a 2-4 record to this point. A time like this reminds me of our 2005 season, coming off of a loss to the Patriots in the Super Bowl we had a little better of a start but eventually went on to go 6-10, looking drastically different from the team that was blowing opponents out of the water just a year prior.

Now the Eagles team we have now, sitting in the cellar of the NFC East at 2-3, has drastic improvements to make. The talent is here, the potential is here, it's just about putting together all of the phases of the game and getting some players back healthy is going to help with that.

Notably Lito Sheppard and Brian Dawkins are both expected to be back on the field today, the addition of these two Pro-Bowlers to our secondary is immeasurable. The in-active list hasn't been released yet so nothing is definite but Lito isn't even listed on the injury report anymore, so he will be around, there is still question surrounding Dawk because though he is listed as doubtful, he practiced on Friday. So it's going to be a waiting game to see who the starting line-up will be.

It's looking like the only guy that we're not going to have out there is L.J. Smith because the iron man Jon Runyan does have a tailbone injury, but he is more motivated than anyone to not miss a game, so odds are in his favor.

When thinking about the Bears defense, because of how good they have been in the past, you think of a dominating defense. Leading to the majority of their problems this year, that hasn't been the case and the Bears defense looks much different from the one that won them so many games last season. On the offensive side of the ball, making the switch from Rex Grossman to Brian Griese has paid off in comparison to what they had before.

No one is granting Griese an MVP trophy but his 7 touchdowns and 6 interceptions is much improved over Grossman's 1 touchdown and 6 interceptions. Though Donovan hasn't been putting up stellar performances, he limits the turnovers having only thrown 2 picks to this point.

Last week the Minnesota Vikings ran all over the Bears defense, humiliating them racking up 311 rushing yards, with that in mind, stopping the run is probably going to be their main focus today. If that's the case, we shouldn't have a problem considering we're never ones to run the ball much anyway. Though we still need that balance in play calling, if we are unable to get the run going, I have confidence in Donovan that he will be able to throw on this defense.

Today is very exciting, these are two teams that have been big let downs so far this year but each need this win enormously to not self destruct. There is plenty riding on the ability to get to an even record with a win today and with a lot of work to be done in chasing Dallas, New York, and Washington, there is no room to make any more slip ups.