Tonight's matchup pits two teams desperately clinging to slim playoff hopes.  Both the Bears and the Redskins sit at 5-7 and need to win out—and get a lot of help from the rest of the wildcard hopefuls—to make it to the post season. 

Both teams suffered difficult losses last Sunday in games they should've won, so the mindset of each team will be interesting in this one.

Offensively, the teams stack up rather evenly—but the Redskins hold the defensive edge with the Bears having the obvious special teams advantage (although Washington's cover team is pretty darn good).  The Redskins are still grieving over the tragic loss of Sean Taylor, and there are a handful of Bears players who are former teamates of his—it should be interesting to see how both teams react.   

The Redskins have had a difficult week preparing for this game after attending Taylor's funeral in Florida, and then traveling back with only a few days to prepare. 

With a lot on the line tonight, I think the Redskins will come through in this one. the Bears have failed to come up big this year when they really needed to, and the defense is too banged up and inconsistent to make the impact needed to win out the rest of the season. 

Redskins win it by 6-10 points.