Bears vs Steelers means a full week of cliches and platitudes that vary on these themes: “the most dangerous animal is a wounded one,” “NFL teams with their back against the wall/nothing to lose/a chip on their shoulder/painted into a corner/something to prove are extremely dangerous.”
And since it’s a national game on Sunday Night Football it means, 1.) we get to see Carrie Underwood. Meaning we have reason to post a lot of Carrie Underwood pictures 2.) more media hype than usual for this one, so you’ll probably hear “Chicago is catching Pittsburgh at the wrong time,” about Bears vs Steelers over and over and over.
Truth is, the Steelers suck. Yes, it’s an extremely proud franchise and this uncharted territory for them. But it doesn’t take away from the fact that they’re just bad at playing football.
Bears vs Steelers
SPREAD: Bears -2.5
TV: NBC Cris Collinsworth, Al Michaels, Michelle Tafoya 7:30 CDT
Hashtags: #Bears #SNF #NFLonNBC #CHIvsPit
Chicago Bears Analysis:
Jay Cutler finished up the Chicago Bears win over the Minnesota Vikings a fullback screen pass shy of 300 yards passing. Making it 16 games in a row that Cutler has not thrown for 300+ yards. So that’s a whole season’s worth of sub 300 yard games. Which is nuts considering what no-name QBs hit 3 and even 400 yards these days.
There’s this idea floating amongst the NFL Punditocracy that Chicago Bears QB Jay Cutler could be this generation’s answer to Jeff George. It’s an interesting comparison, as Jeff George was signed by the Bears in 2004; but never took the field. I shot that down after week one of this season here.
And this week I actually asked a former Bears player, who also played WR when Jeff George was at Illinois about that.
But after the first two weeks, kudos to Cutty for quieting the skeptics among the NFL pundits.
That’s enough about Cutler for this Bears versus Steelers preview. Moving on,
At 2-0, there’s still tons of room for improvement. As you already know.
They could just as easily be 0-2 right now, but this parity is what makes the NFL great isn’t it?
On to the issues that need to be fixed heading into Bears versus Steelers. No pass rush at all. That’s going to absolutely kill them when they take on Aaron Rodgers (or “Adam Rodgers” as WSCR overnight co-host Les Grobstein refers to him), Matt Stafford and all the elite passing offenses in the NFL. This issue needs to be fixed immediately. But if Julius Peppers is sick what can you do?
Peppers is to this DL what Justin Timberlake was to N Sync, Beyonce to Destiny’s Child, Gladys Knight to the Pips, Huey Lewis to The News or Tom Petty to the Heartbreakers.
Also, pretty much every pass has been targeted to: one TE, 2 WRs and 1 TB. Can’t do that in today’s “passing league.” You need a more diversified portfolio of pass-catching than that.
Pittsburgh Steelers analysis:
Whoever thought that Ben Roethlisberger would be a sympathetic figure? Grow into a mature leader?
Ok, he’s still not either of those things, but he’s gotten a lot closer to becoming both given how terrible things have gotten around him. And that fact that he’s stayed out of trouble for awhile now. Big Ben pretty much is the Steelers now. Sure, they still have Polamalu and Woodley, but who would have ever thought they would miss James Harrison THIS MUCH?
Harrison is phenomenal talent, but wow that defense really has holes now; holes that he used to fill.
You’ve got to be selling the Steelers right now. The current running back situation and their offensive line playing terrible and without Mike Wallace the offense is just putrid. The OL can’t block, and they have a Cowboys cast-off in Felix Jones as starting tailback. That just sounds wrong, Bears vs Steelers, and the starting tailback in Pittsburgh is Felix Jones. ICK.
Maybe they should try and bring back local Chicago product, Illini, one time Bin Laden apologist and amateur structural engineer Rashard Mendenhall?
Brutally Honest Prediction: Bears 27, Steelers 17
Brutally Honest Record: 50-21
I actually went 4-0 last week with my picks. That won’t happen again! Still I hope you got some insight for Bears vs Steelers from this.
Catch me every Friday at 7:30 AM CDT talking Chicago Bears on WAOR 95.7 The Fan, Michiana’s home for Bears football
Paul M. Banks is the owner of The Sports Bank.net, an affiliate of Fox Sports. An analyst for 95.7 The Fan and 1620 The Zone, he also writes for Chicago Now. Follow him on Twitter (@paulmbanks) and Facebook