After watching the Bears game last week, the main thing I was struck by was – Holy Cow, St. Louis is terrible.  Because of that, I have no idea how good the Bears actually are.  I know they’re not as bad as the team that showed up in Green Bay, but playing St. Louis is no gauge either.  This Sunday night will probably be the true test.  They have the chance to be all alone in the NFC North, and knock off a rival no less (who I vehemently hate, though I guess that doesn’t factor into the Bears preparation).

I have such a love hate relationship with this Bears season.  I have grown so tired of this coaching staff, I feel like we have some pieces for a very good team but are missing a few key pieces, and I feel like if we make the playoffs we’re just gonna get crushed.  Yet at the same time, they’re my team, and I want to see them succeed.  I keep hoping maybe this coaching staff will suddenly click, or a light will go off, but with each game I grow more and more skeptical.  I can’t remember a single game since Lovie and his staff have taken over where I’ve really thought “we just out-coached them.”  I’ve had several games where I felt we got really lucky, games where we were just clearly the better team, games where I felt we got robbed, and games where I felt we got out-coached.  But not once have I felt like we outcoached a team.  Hard for me to see that change.

And fantasy note:  I’m already out of the playoffs in one league, and I need to win this week in my other league to stay in the playoffs, and after Thanksgiving day, I’m already down 84 points.  So looks like I could be out in both leagues.  Though I will say that the league that I’m still in the playoffs at the moment, I so don’t deserve to be with the scrubs that I’ve been throwing out there.

San Francisco @ Buffalo

Well despite how bad KC has been, that was still impressive to go into Arrowhead and pull out a pounding like they did.  We’ll see if that turns their aggressive instinct back on (or turns off their Jauron instinct, if you will).

Baltimore @ Cincinnatti

Yeah, whatever, I could care less about this game.

New Orleans @ Tampa Bay

Thanks New Orleans for destroying Green Bay.  That was delightful.

NY Giants @ Washington

This would be the perfect game for Washington to somehow pull off, and then lose horribly the next week.  That’s how inconsistent they’ve been this year.

Miami @ St. Louis

Like I said before, St. Louis is really terrible.

Indianapolis @ Cleveland

Like my brother in law said, now the two teams coming to life and competing for the wild card are Indy and New England.  How boring is that?

Carolina @ Green Bay

I think Green Bay might get knocked out of it this week.  If they lose this game, no matter what they’re two games behind.

Atlanta @ San Diego

Yeah, why not.

Denver @ NY Jets

I think the Denver loss to Oakland has got to be the most embarrasing loss by any team this year.   And Denver still leads the division!  That’s just pathetic.

Pittsburgh @ New England

This is a really tough one to call.  I’m going with Pittsburgh because I think they’re the more talented team, but I really have no idea.

Kansas City @ Oakland

KC kills Oakland this week, so KC is better than Denver?  Sheesh, who even knows anymore.

Chicago @ Minnesota

Everyone for fantasy purposes has been saying “The last time these two met it was 48-41.”  Because of that, I could see this game being about 13-10, in which case I think the Bears win.  The Bears have figured out how to shut down the run recently, and I really do think that if Minnesota’s forced to pass, they lose this game.  I still think AP could have 100 or so total yards and a touchdown, but the Bears D is better than it was last time they met, and with the Green Bay wake up call, I think they’ll play inspired.  This team tends to play well in the face of adversity, and the D seems to step it up when they’re on primetime (in fact, that seems to be the only time they do step it up), so I could see them picking off Gus 3 or 4 times.

It’s also a battle of two sub-par coaches (in my opinion) so we’ll see which one coaches their way out of the game.  While I don’t like Lovie, Childress is even worse.

Jacksonville @ Houston

My prediction is that Jax loses this game and is officially the most disappointing team of the year.  Garrard virtually single handedly killed my fantasy season.