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The Chicago Bears have played three straight weeks of uninspiring football, and the pressure is on Lovie Smith and company to take care of business this week when the Arizona Cardinals come to town. What are my keys to victory this week?
Defense, defense, defense. Arizona's high-flying offense will look to jump out quickly on Chicago's recently soft pass coverage, so the Bears will have to play solid defense for four full quarters of football. The front four will have to generate pressure on the QB, the linebackers will have to be fast in covering the middle of the field, and our DBs will have to be on their "A" game to compete with the talented WR corp of Arizona.
Certainly, we need more consistency and productivity from our offense, but if the defense doesn't show up, it won't matter. The Cardinals will be looking to exploit Lovie's suddenly ineffective Tampa-2, and with a guy like Kurt Warner leading the charge, it could get ugly in a hurry.
I'm hoping that we hear more from Gaines Adams this week, as he should be getting more comfortable in his new environment.