WCG Key Match-Up: Mike Martz vs. Dom Capers

77 completions/138 attempts, 4 touchdowns, 9 interceptions, 875 passing yards, 57.5 passer rating is Jay Cutler's career totals against Dom Capers. Mike Martz's record last season against Capers was 1-2 when you include the NFC Championship Game. Matt Forte has yet to score a touchdown versus Dom Capers' defense. The Bears offense has struggled mightily against Green Bay's defense ever since they made the switch to the 3-4 and you can make a very strong argument dating back to the '09 season that 4 of those losses have been on the offense.  If you wanted a reason why a majority of the Key Match-Ups have been offensive related during Packers week, it's because of those stats and records I mentioned. The defense plays the Packers pretty well enough for the Bears to come out with a victory, but the offense seems to never capitalize.

You are not going to shut down a high powered offense like the Packers for all 4 quarters, so the offense has to pull their weight this Sunday against the Packers defense. Martz will need to have a pretty good game plan together against a defense that's rank 6^th against the rush, but gave up 400 yard passing in back-to-back weeks to Drew Brees and Cam Newton.

Areas of the Bears offense that will be focused on

Play calling (Mike Martz)

Pass Protection/Run Blocking

Wide Receiver performance (Who's going to Step up)

Passing and Running the football (Jay Cutler and Matt Forte)

Play calling

Mike Martz took blame for his play calling that left Jay Cutler taking a lot of hits that resulted in 6 sacks. Saints went all out on blitzes bringing 5 and sometimes more than 6 people after Jay. Martz is definitely going to have to limit his love for the 7 step drops and mix in some 3 to 5 step drops especially when you have a line that is banged up and most likely will missed their starting RT and RG this Sunday. The Run and screen game needs to be incorporated more this week against a Defensive Coordinator who loves to confuse the QB with all kinds of different blitz looks. One key thing I want to see this Sunday is for Martz to STOP GIVING HIS TE'S 1 ON 1 PASSING BLOCKING ASSIGNMENTS AGAINST OUTSIDE PASS RUSHERS! It hardly ever works and it's just one of those blocking assignments that need to be torn out the playbook and sent through a shredder. Use your TE's to chip and double team block the Packers rush OLB.

Pass Protection/Run Blocking

The key to having success against the Packers defense is to have success against their defensive linemen. They lost one of their better defensive lineman in DE Cullen Jenkins, but still have one of the best DT's in the game in B.J Raiji and a solid 5 Technique DE in Ryan Pickett. They also have two pretty good OLB's in Clay Matthews and Eric Weldon that both LT J'Marcus Webb and RT Frank Omiyale will be responsible for. The Bears O-Line will need to do a much better job this Sunday in both pass and run blocking for this offense wants to get rolling.

Wide Receivers

This group needs to bring their game up to another level. Last week performance was flat out embarrassing as the Saints DB's bullied the Bears WR's for most of the game. All the controversy about Johnny Knox starting job being handed to Roy Williams in training camp, but Knox didn't show any reason why he should get his job back. Devin Hester was pretty awful last week against the Saints after a so-so performance opening week against the Falcons. Dane Sanzenbacher will be taking over Earl Bennett spot as the slot receiver this Sunday, and he should be a little more ready to play that position than he was Sunday. The key will be Roy Williams if he plays. Roy is a bigger receiver that is more discipline in his route running than the rest of the receivers.  If the Bears can get him back this Sunday, it should help Jay out some.

Passing and Running the Football (Jay Cutler and Matt Forte)

A lot of fans got on Frank Omiyale this week for telling Jay that he can help the line out some by getting the ball out his hands quickly. He's right for the most part as Jay was responsible for some unnecessary pressures last week. Jay of course will have to be extra careful with the football this Sunday against opportunistic corners Tramon Williams, Charles Woodson, and Sam Shields. Matt Forte wants to be paid like an elite RB and he has a legitimate case to get paid like one. Forte is an excellent receiving back, but the Bears need Forte to also do his damage on the ground in order for the Bears to have a good chance to pull out a victory against the defending champs. The Bears hope to get Marion Barber this Sunday to help Forte out on the ground as he can do some of the dirty work as a north south runner while Forte exploit the edges.