Scouting Report: Chicago Bears Week #1

Enough talk about these meaningless preseason scrums. The real action will open up on Sept. 12th on the mean streets of the windy city against the Bears.

The NFC North is a division that will be dominated by two legitimate super bowl contenders, but sadly neither of those teams are the Lions or the Bears. Most likely, Chicago and Detroit will make up the also-rans of the division, which will be very sad for Lovie Smith, the Chicago Bears head coach who currently sits on one of the most flaming coaching hot seats in the NFL.

Lovie has to win and win this season in order to keep his job. He is far too removed from the Bears super bowl appearance five years ago. The NFL is a what have you done for me lately and as Jerry Glanville once said, "NFL stands for not for long."

In order for the Bears to improve to a respectable record, they'll need to do it on the backs of the Detroit Lions. An opening day loss to our Leos would be a really big coffin nail in Smith's tenure in Detroit.

Chicago has made some major league changes in hopes of salvaging this season.

1. Mike Martz. Smith has brought in the mad scientist to overhaul the offense and potentially get every drop of potential out of last year's huge acquisition, Jay Cutler. Smith has a history with Martz, both having coached on the "Greatest Show on Turf" teams in St. Louis.

Martz's offense has shown that it can be very, very effective with an ultra accurate quarterback like Kurt Warner, a mega versatile running back like Marshall Faulk, and three exceptionally speedy and precise receivers like Isaac Bruce, Torry Holt, and Az Hakim.

The biggest problem with the offense in Chicago is that Jay Cutler is nothing like Kurt Warner, Cutler is a big armed erratic thrower, neither Chester Taylor or Matt Forte would ever be confused with Faulk and the Bears don't really have any receivers.

Not to mention, Martz's uber-complicated offense is not a quick and easy to install. I don't want to jinx anything, but let's just say that the offense the Lions will have to contain late in the year will be nothing like what they see on opening day.

Furthermore, the Bears are playing behind a total makeshift offensive line....

2. Rod Marinelli. Remember the Prophet of Pad Level? Smith has turned his defense over to him. If that wasn't bad enough, the Bears biggest offseason acquisition, Julius Peppers has a history of disappearing for several years after signing a big contract.

3. The Chicago secondary is barely a step up from Detroit's.

Having said all that, sadly I think the game will be a toss up. That's how bad Detroit will likely be this year. This should be the year the Lions finally jump the Bears into third place in the NFC North, but I'm not going to hold my breath either.

The Bears do not feature cheerleaders either--in fact, the Vikings are the only team in our division that do...