The Bears are in utter disarray. They are missing more than 50% of their defensive starters and have lost some backups as well, like Kevin Payne, to make matters worse. They may have lost their best Tackle in John Tait, meaning that they now have two sieves on both sides of the line to allow rushers to blow past them and kill whoever is the QB of the hour. They have no running game and have gotten one solid quarter of running from Benson all year. The QB is a story unto itself and our receivers aren't doing them any favors.

Right now, it is time for some wholesale changes if the Bears lose to the Packers. Even though Berrian is getting open, dropping passes when we need them is unacceptable. I don't care if he got to 8 catches for 100 yards by catching passes against a prevent defense. He dropped them when we needed them caught. Griese was all over the place, missing reads left and right. Muhammad is too old to get open, but does at least catch it when its thrown his way.

I'm one more loss next week from saying that we sit Benson down and throw Peterson and Wolfe in as a 1-2 punch. Peterson is the feature back and Wolfe is the 3rd down back. We need to continue from the shotgun. Berrian needs to sit down if he doesn't immediate start playing better - problem is, there's nothing behind him, despite keeping 6 WR's. He needs to get his head back into the game and out of his... Let's start working our double TE sets. Where was Olsen again? Where was Hester again? Why can Hester only get a pass thrown his way on a bubble screen? I can see that coming, so any DC worth his salt can, too. We're not using that play to set anything else up because Griese lacks the arm strength to go deep, so let's get Hester running routes. Let's get Mark Bradley into the mix because what we've got isn't working.

On defense, prepare to weather the storm. Our starters (what's left of them) played awesome. Even our backups held up for 75% of the game. In the end, it all fell apart, but that had a lot to do with turnovers and offensive mistakes (as usual), and not as much to do with our defense. They shut Roy Williams down for most of the game, got to Kitna, forced turnovers, and held the top passing offense in the league to 225 yards passing. That's pretty impressive.

All in all, the 1st half is going to be bad. Can they stay healthy and recover in the 2nd half of the season is the $50 million question. This team needs to go 7-1 or 8-0 to close out the season to have a shot at the division and probably something similar for a shot at the playoffs. Good luck. If they lose to Green Bay, you'll get your first NFL Draft preview next Monday.

You may get that starting next Monday with my NFL Draft Preview.

That was the one positive I took from this game. I was expecting the defense to be shredded to bits, but they did a good job for most of the game.
That said, is anyone else concerned that the Bears defense is giving up 3 points in the first half, but getting torched in the second?

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You cannot make me care about the WNBA.

The theme of the 2007 Bears. The offense can't sustain drives to keep the defense off the field and as much as the Bears need that 7 points from Hester on a return, it brings the defense right back on the field again. I feel horrible for these guys. What the hell else can they do?