Bears Chargers keys to victory

This week San Diego comes calling and the two teams are going in different directions.  The Chargers losers of four strait and the Bears winners of their last four meet in what is a must win game for San Diego.  For the second week in a row the Bears are facing a team that is extra rested with San Diego's last game coming 9 days ago when they lost to Oakland 24-17. Phillip Rivers leads the NFL in turnovers with 15 interceptions and 4 lost fumbles.  The Bears defense has nabbed 13 INT's along with forcing 8 fumbles and recovering 7 of those.  The Bears are tied for the league lead with 4 defensive TD's.  Now on to the keys:

Turnovers


This is the first key for many of the points I made above.  You have a quarterback who has been giving the ball away against a defense that has been thriving on taking it away not a good combo if you are San Diego.  This trend needs to continue this week.


Matt Forte




San Diego comes in with the 23rd ranked rush defense yielding 127.9 yards per game and 5 TD's on the year.  Opponents are averaging 4.5 yards per carry against them.  A steady diet of Matt Forte on Sunday and this trend will continue.  Especially considering that San Diego is the 6th best against the pass this year only allowing 203 yards per game.


Keep Cutler clean




For those of you who follow my blog this is familiar.  Give him time he is as good as there is.  If you don't then he tends to be a lot less effective.  If the Bears can get Forte going this will open things up in the passing game when that happens we need to protect him.  Cutler has been great during the Bears current winning streak, even if the numbers are not eye popping.  It comes as no coincident that he has only been sacked 4 times during that stretch.


Keep Rivers dirty




And not Detroit Lions dirty either.  The Chargers have a world of hurt on their offensive line with the potential to be down three starters.  Guard Kris Dielman was put on the IR this week, Guard Tyronne Green has yet to practice this week with a hand injury and tackle Marcus McNeil has yet to practice with a neck injury.  All said the Chargers are banged up at best and thin on the depth chart at the worse.  The Bears need to take advantage of this and get pressure on Rivers and make him make bad decisions.  This will lead to turnovers and a win.

If the Bears can hit on these points we will be celebrating five in a row on Monday.  Jay Cutler is 1-4 lifetime against the Chargers I think he will get one win closer to .500 this week.  My prediction for this week is the Bears in a romp (back to back) 34-13.  Give my your picks below, and as always BEAR DOWN!