Thursday Night Saints / bears

Saints / Bears

Okay let's dissect this puppy---first things first its going to be cold in Chicago tonight so much so that it is being addressed by the teams as they head into the game tonight.

So let's look at the weather....

Right now..

Temperature: 32° F Feels like: 22° F--looks like it will drop to about 25 F around kick and get lower through the night. It is the Windy city so....

Wind From the West Northwest at 13 gusting to 18 mph and that is across the field so to me that may make it tough for FG's and whoever is kicking this week for the Saints.

So there we have it cold and windy got it, but if we know it so do the Bears and the Saints and I am sure they will dress warm so let's move along....

Both of these teams need this game so the motivation is there---Bears in a dead heat in the division and the Saints clinging on to a Wild Card spot....

The Saints have one just once outside the state of Louisiana and are even ATS and the Bears are even ATS at home so that's an even pull, so what about the pure numbers?


When it comes to offense and passing the Saints are at the top of the heap in the league, which is hard to ignore but to me that means the Bears can read the papers too. When it comes to total defense they drop to 21st in the league but the Bears are just 17th so not too great there either. The thing that should worry Bear backers is that they are 28th against the pass, so how do you back the Bears with that information? Well the Bears are 6th against the rush which will make the Saints one dimensional (like they are not already) and they can put extra focus on the pass--the Saints meanwhile struggle against the run so if the Bears want to win this they may want to get into a game of keep away and hit the ground with Forte.

The wind will also help defend the pass and when the Saints try to mix it up on the ground they will run into the strength of the Bears. Stopping the run maybe more important than stopping the pass. When New Orleans runs the ball 30 or more times during the tenure of coach Sean Payton, they are 14-0.

Chicago wants to take away the run (the Bears are No.6 in the NFL, yielding 91.2 yards per game) and put consistent pressure on Brees. Stopping the runs on early downs can get the Saints gunslinger in third-and-longs, where turnovers are more likely to happen.

Saints backers will talk about how well Brees has played against Chicago but the rarely talk about the results. The Saints have been outscored 72-39 in their last two visits to the Windy City and in those two losses they threw 109 passes and ran just 32 times.

How about the intangibles? The Bears field is bad and heard to play on literally....

MY Plays:

okay let's quit babbling and get to playing ball

UNDER 46

I am going to wait and see if I can't get the hook or even 47----

Bears -3 +100