Moving on...Atlanta Falcons are next.

[JoeyTourettes]

New week...Check
New opponent...Check
New "should" win game... Check

Will Hester return a punt on our Bears?... Hmmm with our ST I wouldn't be surprised. I say NEVER kick it to him. EVER... (I don't want to add to the adjustments on ST any more- but I've always wondered why Robbie is kicking KO's instead of The Thunder Leg... I mean he can't kick it out of the endzone off a tee?)

Falcons D is in shambles too. Of course we said that against Carolina and GB too.

On turf... no weather, no shitty Soldier Field grass... speed can help. Hope.

GO Bears.

 

[cubzzzfanincali]

the Falcons are slight favorites to win this game, and this time I agree with them. Hopefully, since I am usually wrong, this means the Bears will win.

 

[anotheridiot]

Matt Ryan plays great against the bears.

Dont know what the injury situation is with Bostic. He was missed. Jackson is a bull of a runner. Fuller cant cover Jones and White. Nobody is gonna be able to keep up with hester.

No doubt Conte is held out by the league this week.

Ola is still lost out there, any word on Bushrod?

DLP had his worst game of the year too.

Kinda ironic that Eric Weems ends up behind Hester again lol.

If everyone that was out last week is out again I dont see alot of hope and another Ryan late drive heriocs. I still dont know how he was able to put that team in position for a field goal with next to no time left on the clock.

We gotta get some bodies back to win.

 

[cubzzzfanincali]

The Falcons are more decimated by injuries than we are, particularly their offensive line and linebackers. Look Gabe Carimi is their starting right tackle! I haven't heard if Blalock is playing. But regardless we should blitz the Falcon right side mercilessly. I agree that Jones and White present a huge matchup problem for us...if we don't get a good pass rush it's going to be another loss.

 

[NCChiFan]

It really comes down to our D line play, plain and simple. They are non existent right now.

 

[toooverbearing]

Guys... is this a must win in your opinions?

If we go 1 for 2 against our two remaining AFC opponents, we will need to go 7 for 9 against our remaining NFC opponents to get 10 wins. We still have the Packers in Lambeau, Detroit at home and on the road, Dallas at home and New Orleans at home. I don't see us making the playoffs with 9 wins... in fact, 10 wins may not do the trick. So does a loss to the Falcons begin the avalanche of draft talk?

 

[nebearsfan70]

This is a must win game if the Bears want to salvage this season. After ATL they play Miami at home (I hope they can win that game), and then it's two tough road games against the Patriots and the Packers. The playoffs are a possibility if they are 4-3 going to NE. I don't see them beating NE or GB, but the schedule becomes much easier after that point. A 4-5 record after the first nine is about what many of us expected. If they lose this game to ATL, I think they miss the post season.

 

[JoeyTourettes]

I can understand the logic of- "must win" games... But can't say that yet, this early in the year.
I think we had about 7 "must win" games last year- and we STILL could have made the playoffs if they won the final game against GB last year.

Injuries and the out comes of other teams will greatly determine the Bears future too. I didn't think the Lions would lose, and they did. Both "undefeated" teams lost.

THEY def. need to win the games they should- I'm not sure they can...now. My optimism is fading after that game. I'm thinking they will surprise a team like the Patriots or Lions again this year. HOPE.

 

[NCChiFan]

For me, last week was a must win. We will be lucky to hit 9 wins, the D is really bad and with the O line injuries, Cutler isn't having an easy time in the pocket, he's having to rush passes.

 

[richig07]

Guys... is this a must win in your opinions?

If we go 1 for 2 against our two remaining AFC opponents, we will need to go 7 for 9 against our remaining NFC opponents to get 10 wins. We still have the Packers in Lambeau, Detroit at home and on the road, Dallas at home and New Orleans at home. I don't see us making the playoffs with 9 wins... in fact, 10 wins may not do the trick. So does a loss to the Falcons begin the avalanche of draft talk?

It always looks like "10 won't get you in" early in the season. I've noticed this quite often. Generally, teams fall off, and 10 gets you in. But the NFC is tough, so who knows?

I kind of think 10 may actually win us the division, as long as we can take care of our divisional opponents.

We need to win 2 of 3, and go into the bye at 4-4. After GB, our second half schedule is far more favorable and jam packed with home games. TB and MIN at home follow GB. Those are two games we should win. This is definitely close to a "must-win". Winning this game allows us to split the following two with Miami and New England. More than doable. But winning at NE at 3-4? That would be tough.

I hope this team is as desperate for a win as I am. I feel like we are the better team, but we will lose. Atlanta is better at home.

On paper, the matchup looks good. I really wouldn't be surprised by anything. We NEED to put a full game together. For the love of god… show up in the second half.

 

[cubzzzfanincali]

Must win? Well, no....not exactly. Before the season I wasn't banking on the Bears with a road win in Atlanta. But a win here would stave off the real "must wins" until a little later this season. If they lose here, and it's Week 13 and the "must wins" have started, you can partly thank a loss here.

A 4th loss is no playoff dealbreaker. Yet. I suspect given all the parity in the league that 10-6 earns a wild card spot. So theoretically we could go 8-2...which since the back half of our schedule is not totally out of the question. But our margin of error becomes quite small. After this week we have two tough road games, both winnable but both tough, against GB and NE, and one road game at Detroit on T-day that's on a short week. So theoretically we could drop two of those, but we'd have to sweep at home.

A win isn't vital, but it sure would be nice.

 

[toooverbearing]

We're getting to the point where for every loss to a team like the Vikings we need to steal one from a team like the Patriots on the road. I'm not sure if we're there YET, but we're in the zip code.

 

[wood20ks]

The way this team has been playing,yes its a must win.
After the huge win in SF,its been nothing but a let down.
Jay needs to play mistake free.Defense needs to step a bit and quit giving up so many damn pts.
Our qb is not capable of getting them back.
i expect Ryan with easily over 300 and s-Jax with over a 100 rushing.and i sure as hell antone Smith does not have one of his patented long runs for a td either.

The only free rides this team gets from us fans should be Forte,BM,AJ and bennett.Rest of them get your asses in gear,or Ryan and co. will light our ass up.
And if Cam had some wrs othe than our castoff Olsen along with a running game,we`d of gotten smoked.

I tend to think 42- 30 Atlanta.

 

[Mikefive]

It always looks like "10 won't get you in" early in the season. I've noticed this quite often. Generally, teams fall off, and 10 gets you in. But the NFC is tough, so who knows?

I kind of think 10 may actually win us the division, as long as we can take care of our divisional opponents.

We need to win 2 of 3, and go into the bye at 4-4. After GB, our second half schedule is far more favorable and jam packed with home games. TB and MIN at home follow GB. Those are two games we should win. This is definitely close to a "must-win". Winning this game allows us to split the following two with Miami and New England. More than doable. But winning at NE at 3-4? That would be tough.

I hope this team is as desperate for a win as I am. I feel like we are the better team, but we will lose. Atlanta is better at home.

On paper, the matchup looks good. I really wouldn't be surprised by anything. We NEED to put a full game together. For the love of god… show up in the second half.

We agree!

The whole 10 win thing can be overblown. I haven't researched it, but 10 wins gets you in 80% of the time, I'd say.

2-4 would be really bad.

I'd pick us to win at home vs. Atlanta. On the road is a whole 'nother story.

 

[averagejoe]

Are we salivating over the Falcons D? Is ours much better? Our starters on D are mediocre. And banged up. (Ratliff, Bostic, McClellin & Conte) And to think it gets worse as we have to reach deeper into the defensive depth. We resign DJ Williams (who remained unemployed), and have to scrape up Ahmad Dixon who was released by the 'Boys.

I'd like to be optimistic, but the Falcons offense scores the 3rd-most points in the NFL (30.2). I'm worried.

 

[cubzzzfanincali]

a lot of those "third place" numbers were logged when they destroyed the terrible defenses of Tampa and Nola, and before they suffered the current depth of injuries. Yeah, they have some good players, and if the Bears play like shit, they will beat us. but they are beatable. If I was betting, I'd bet on the Falcons, since they are at home, but I wouldn't bet with confidence or cockiness.

 

[Aussie77]

If we try to cover Julio Jones with Jennings he might beat us by himself unless Jennings steps his play up a lot from where it has been so far this season. This is a winnable game for us but it could very easily be a loss to we need to get consistent pressure on Matt Ryan just to slow them down a bit it not we are going to be in trouble.

 

[cubzzzfanincali]

I don't know what they are going to do. You use your one tall CB (Fuller) on Jones I think, since Jones is a better and more physical receiver at this point and also less experienced than White. A crafty veteran like White is exactly the type that can probably exploit the rookie, all the more reason to put Fuller on Jones instead. But alternatively, they could simply plan to do more double coverage on Jones and use Fuller on White and hope it works out?

I'm really torn on whether they should blitz a lot or not. Heavily injured lines are particularly vulnerable to blitzing, and the Falcons don't have a genius TE or receiving back, so it seems like blitzing should be OK. But man if we could saturate the field with coverage, we could try to play jam/press the receivers more and hopefully get some sacks. I am sort of leaning towards using Fuller a lot to press White but less so for Jones. Then when he is on White just send a safety to his side in case White snakes him. I'd worry less about that with Jones and just take your chances. Gulp.

 

[cubzzzfanincali]

by the way...games like this....REALLY glad we drafted Fuller!

 

[Wounded Bear]

by the way...games like this....REALLY glad we drafted Fuller!

Yeah, I thought at the time of the draft that DLine, Linebackers, or even Safeties should have been the priority positions for round 1. I don't know how it would have turned out if we went any of those directions, but I am sure pleased with Fuller. Really didn't expect him to play this well this soon.