The Clock is Ticking

Time is beginning to run out on the 2009-10 Chicago Bears. In a second consecutive night game, the Bears host the Philadelphia Eagles in Sunday evening affair. Chicago hopes they can take advantage of the absence of Eagles stud RB Brian Westbrook, and take down the 5-4 Eagles.

The Bears enter Sunday night’s contest having dropped four of its last five games. At 4-5, the Bears are in grave danger of falling out of Wild Card playoff contention. The Vikings are in charge of the NFC North at a sterling 8-1, and have all but locked up the division title.

For the struggling Bears to have a shot at knocking off the Eagles, the defense will need to play 60 minutes of shut-down football as they did in San Francisco last Thursday. The challenge this week is containing a much more potent offense than the Niner squad. Even with stud RB Brian Westbrook a post-concussion scratch, Philadelphia has enough play-makers to do some serious damage to a reeling Chicago defense. Donavan McNabb has one of the NFL’s brightest young stars in DeSean Jackson. The young wide-out has the ability to break the big play at any time. Filling in for Westbrook is rookie RB LeSean McCoy, who is a competent replacement. TE Brent Celek is another young emerging weapon at McNabb’s disposal.

The Bears offense, which was listless all night last week against the Niners, must find the gear that it was in when it scored 48 points against Detroit and 30 against Cleveland earlier this season. The challenge for Chicago this week, is putting up those kinds of numbers against a playoff-caliber team such as the Eagles. It will be a tall task.

If the Bears can somehow generate a few turnovers on defense, move the ball on offense, and protect the pigskin in the red zone, maybe they will have a chance to snatch this one.

I for one, think this is the beginning of the end.

Eagles 21 Bears 10