Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Obviously by now you know that Cutler is out due to his thumb injury and Hanie is getting the start this week. The Bears also picked up Josh McCown, who hopefully will not see the field whatsoever except in pre-game warm ups. The Bears should know where they stand in the wild card race by kick-off on Sunday, but either way, this is an extremely important game. If the Lions lose and the Bears win, they’re 1 game up in the division and would be sitting comfortably in the 5th seed. If the Lions win and the Bears lose, they’re in a race for the 6th seed. If the Lions lose and the Bears lose, they’re still in the 5th spot. Obviously, a win and a Lions loss is the best possible result. On to the game breakdown.

This weekend our beloved get to travel to the left coast to do battle against the Raiders. The Raiders are an interesting team, they remind me in a lot of ways of our Bears. They’re currently 19th in the NFL in passing yards, (Bears are 22nd) but 3rd in the NFL rushing the ball. (Bears are 14th, which is rather surprising) They, like the Bears, use the run to setup the pass. They also can gash you for huge chunks of yards, just like Forte can. They are capable of grinding out wins by simply matriculating the ball down the field using the run and the occasional mid-range pass. They don’t take a ton of shots down field, but their receivers are much like the Bears in that they’re young, raw, and make mistakes. The Raiders defensive line is somewhat underrated, they get good pressure on the QB in obvious passing situations, but like the Bears can be chewed up for yardage down the field.

That’s where I see the similarities ending though. The Bears defensive unit is much much better at stopping the run, they get a lot more turnovers than the Raiders (24 for the Bears versus 17) and do more with it once they’ve forced a turnover.

Those are my keys to the Bears winning this game. They must stop the run, they must run the ball effectively, and they must force turnovers. If they cannot, then Hanie is going to get the snot beat out of him, as the Raiders will dial up blitzes and rush the passer like an overweight mother at Walmart on Black Friday.