Chicago Bears Insider: Bears Versus the Carolina Panthers Game Preview

The 1-2 Chicago Bears, coming off of a 27-17 loss to the Green Bay Packers, will host the Carolina Panthers—who are coming off of their first win of the year, a 16-10 game over the Jacksonville Jaguars.

The Panthers have actually been playing good football as of late, but they still have two losses in three weeks.  The Bears have been up and down on both sides of the ball and just can’t seem to get things put together on offense.  Carolina has been close (they were extremely close to beating the Packers a couple weeks ago) but weren’t able to close out the win.  The Panthers are a dangerous team despite their record. 

This game looked like it could have been an easy win for the Bears; after two losses, however nothing is going to come easy for Chicago.  The Bears a lot of issues that they need to take care of on both sides of the ball if they plan to win this game.  Can they get these things taken care of and beat the Panthers?

If they can’t, then it’s going to be a long season for the Bears.

The following is a full preview of the Bear’s upcoming home game against the Panthers this coming Sunday at Soldier Field.

When the Bears have the Ball

The Bears have been struggling a lot on offense.  Their receivers have had problems catching the ball, and quarterback Jay Cutler has had his problems getting it out there to them.  Whether it’s running the wrong routes, not catching the ball or being covered heavily, the passing game is broken and needs to be fixed.

The Packers defense exposed a weakness in the Bears’ offense, and that weakness is their ability to catch passes.  On several occasions, we saw receivers drop perfectly catchable balls that either could have went for first downs and helped continue potential scoring drives.  These drops signified the fact that the Bears need some help at the wide receiver position.

Cutler’s decision making needs to get better as well, but some of what appears to be his fault (when it comes to interceptions) has to do with his receivers.  They just aren’t on the same page.

In order for the Bears to win this game, they first need to protect Cutler.  They did a fairly decent job of that in their game against the Packers (Cutler was sacked a total of three times but not until the game started to get out of hand and it was no surprise that he was going to drop back to pass) and Cutler did have some time to throw.  The biggest issue was that his receivers weren’t running the right routes or catching the ball.  We saw two critical drops that could have helped extend drives, and we saw routes being cut off too soon.

The quarterback/receiver relationship on the Bears is broken and needs to be fixed.  If Cutler can get back into a rhythm with his wide receivers (and get Earl Bennett back from an injury, which won’t happen this week) then he should be much more adept at completing passes down the field.

Something that will help the passing game is the running game.  The Bears need to run the ball more often than they have, and that starts with offensive coordinator Mike Martz.  Martz has to realize that the offense doesn’t work without the Bears running the ball.  Hopefully, they will have Marion Barber to help them run the ball as he would add another dimension to the running game.

Running the ball and short passes should be sufficient enough to move the ball against the banged-up Panthers defense.  Remember that they are missing two of their top linebackers (Jon Beason and Thomas Davis) and their defense has struggled.  If the Bears can take advantage of this they can win the game.

When the Panthers have the Ball

Believe it or not, No. 1 draft pick quarterback Cam Newton has been having a pretty decent season.  He’s had some good games so far this season and has turned out to be much better than most anyone thought that he would be to start his career.

The first thing that the Bears have to do is get pressure on Newton.  The Bears' defensive line has been able to get pressure at times this season and has had some success getting to the quarterback.  If they can get to Newton and force him to make mistakes, then the Bears will be that much better off.

The Panthers' rushing attack has not been what it has been in the past as they don’t have a rusher over 100 yards so far this season.  The Bears are generally good at stopping the run, so in this case they could stop the run and focus in on Newton more which would give them a huge advantage.

Both Brian Urlacher and Lance Briggs have been having great games so far and help to keep this defense going.  It’s hard for anyone to run on the Bears because of what these two are able to do; as long as they stay healthy, the Bears' defense will be solid.

The secondary was tested last week against the Packers; even though they had their struggles, they still did a pretty decent job.  The pass rush will help them contain things on the outside so as long as the Bear’s pass rush is good then the secondary shouldn’t have too many problems.

Chris Harris probably won’t play in this game. 

Special Teams

You have to have noticed that the new kickoff return rule is hurting the Bears.  Thanks to the new rule, they have lost an average of 12 yards of field position this year.  There isn’t any way around a ball that goes through the end zone, so there isn’t much that the Bears can do about that. They can, however, try to return every kickoff possible to help gain better field position.

Punt returns don’t seem to be too much of an issue as they are getting some good distance on those returns.  Both Adam Podlesh and Robbie Gould are doing well in the kicking department.

Coaching

Panthers coach Ron Rivera, a former player and coach for the Bears, will be fired up to take on his old team and will try whatever it takes to win.  The Bears will be anxious to get back on track and even out their record in the first quarter of the season (remember that head coach Lovie Smith likes to break up the season into quarters and ending the first quarter on a high note would be big for the Bears).

The experience factor weighs heavily on the side of the Bears as Smith is a well-seasoned coach and should be able to out-coach the still new Rivera.  Rivera will help his team make things interesting but he probably won’t be able to out-coach Smith.

Analysis

The Bears really need to win this game to not only help keep their playoff hopes alive but also help try to keep pace with the undefeated Packers and Lions.  The Bears offense has been the real issue and Chicago will try to figure things out in this game.  With the Panthers defense missing some of its key players the Bears have a good chance of winning this game.

They can also lose it, however; if the offense plays like it has during the last three games the Bears will end up losing this game if they can’t put things together on offense.

Running the ball would help out a lot and the Bears should be able to run against the Panthers.  Getting Forte and Barber involved in the offense early will help and getting Cutler comfortable and well protected will bring the Bears offense a lot of success.

On defense, defending against Newton is going to have to be their first priority and getting pass pressure on him will do wonders for their ability to defend against him.  They also need to stop the running game because even though the Panthers haven’t had that strong of a rushing attack so far this season it’s not a good time for the Bears to allow them to have a breakout game.

The Bears can win this game and even their record.  They need the momentum as their next game, a Monday night game against the Lions, is going to be another tough game on their schedule.

Prediction

The Panthers are still a team that is rebuilding and trying to find it’s rhythm and the Bears got them at the right time.  As long as the Bears can move the ball on offense, limit their mistakes and keep Newton from tearing them up they should be able to win this game.

Chicago 24  Carolina 17