Walter Brzeski, Bears Superfan

Finally, football is back!!

After watching the Cubs and White Sox, I couldn't wait for the Bears season.

The Chargers game could be called the Turner Bowl with Ron (Bears Offensive Coordinator) and brother, Norv (head coach of the Chargers) both coaching in the game.

I'm sure both are considered good coaches in some coaching circles. But, in my opinion, both are underachievers. Both brothers are poor judges of talent and not very good in determining what their personnel can do for them. (Links to their coaching careers are at the end of this post.

And, this will help the Bears Sunday more than the Chargers; as the Chargers have a new staff which is still trying to figure out the team Marty Schottenheimer put together.

My biggest keys for the Bears (-6.5) to pull an upset offensively, will be to:

1. Allow Rex Grossman to 'nickel and dime' the offense down the field when they have poor field position and avoid a turnover or easy score for the Chargers.

2. Use the screen play and quick dump-off passes to Cedric Benson to take away the Chargers pass rush and catch them in late blitzes.

3. Use a combination of Adrian Peterson and Cedric Benson in the running game to utilize each player's strengths (Peterson inside and Benson outside).

4, Audible out of running plays designed for the 'A' & 'B' gaps if/when the Chargers cover Olin Kreutz and the two guards (Rueben Brown and Roberto Garza) with down lineman.( This would be an attempt made to force an undersized Kreutz to try and handle a bigger nose tackle by himself)

5. Not allow the Chargers to get back into the game, if they take a big lead, by going 3-and-out and forcing the defense to play big minutes in the second half.

Defensively, the Bears need to:

1. Contain Ladainian Tomlinson and hold him to less than 135 all purpose yards and only two TDs.

2. Pressure QB Phillip Rivers up the middle and make him scramble and throw 2-3 yard passes.

3. Take TE Antonio Gates out of the game with good coverage by Adam Archuleta and force Rivers into bad throws.

4. Stay in their gaps and force Tomlinson to the outside and have the CBs provide good run support; also try not to overpursue to prevent against cutbacks and reverses.

5. Force 2 fumbles and 2 interceptions, which will give the offense a shorter field. Though, I PREDICT a defensive touchdown for the Bears (likely for one of the CBs)

On special teams:

1. Stay in their lanes on coverages and pin the Chargers in with an average start of the 20-25 yd.line on kickoffs and 30-35 yd.line on punts

2. Put two returners back on returns, Devin Hester and Danieal Manning, to eliminate 'squib kicks' and kicking away from the lesser of two returners

3. Robbie Gould needs to average kicking off inside the 5 yd line and make 2/3 or 3/4 of FGs.

4. Brad Maynard needs to get good hang time and have a net-punting average of 39.0 yards

5. No fumbles on returns.


If the Bears can hit 3/5 of each of these areas, expect the Bears to win 30-20.

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http://www.pro-football-reference.com/coaches/TurnNo0.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norv_Turner

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ron_Turner_(football_coach)