It’s time for the Bears to put up, so the Bears’ head coach Lovie Smith is going to shut up when it comes to the NBC pregame show Sunday night. That’s the message Lovie Smith delivered after practice Thursday as the Chicago Bears made final preparations for the Eagles in what amounts to a must-win game for both teams if either hopes to remain alive in the NFC playoff race. So reports the Chicago Sun-Times today as the Bears officially adopt a “silent act” and refuse to talk to the media about the upcoming NBC Sunday night contest. To quote Lovie again, “There’s nothing else to say..”, meaning, either
they get their 4-5 selves right and start believing in QB Jay Cutler again and beat the Eagles, or Philly will rise to 6-and-4 with a win, and the season for Chicago is virtually toast, essentially doomed by frustration and shattered hopes. Until that outcome is determined, ‘da Bears are officially not showing up for interviews and promo features with Bob Costas or anyone else on the NBC Sports staff prior to the game.

Ironically, the Eagles are talking to the media, but they are in a similar predicament to the Bears. At 5-4, the Eagles are treading water in the NFC East, and really need to win this game to keep pace with the 6-3 Cowboys and the 5-4 Giants.

Looming in the Chicago night air will be tales of frustration by the Eagles, who are 0-7 in their last seven Sunday Night games.

Some of the background news for the Bears is not good. RB Garrett Wolfe is expected to miss the remainder of the season with a lacerated kidney. He’ll probably be replaced by game time with the signing of running back Khalil Bell. Meanwhile, a nagging neck injury to TE Desmond Clark will probably keep him out of action Sunday night. All of which puts even more pressure on the Eagles to capitalize early in the game.

The Eagles have their problems, too. All-purpose star RB Brian Westbrook is probably lost for the season due to two concussions suffered over the last few weeks. There are other key injuries which have depleted the offensive line, LB corps, and secondary. So the Eagles are not at their best strength, either.

It gets even worse for the Bears, who will be without TE Desmond Clark (neck) and most likely without S Kevin Payne (back). Some good news for the Bears: veteran center Olin Kreutz returned to practice Thursday after missing two days, making it likely that he will run his streak of consecutive games started to 112 on Sunday night.

Meanwhile the tale of two cities continues, with Chicago QB Jay Cutler now under fire by the Chi-town press. After a fast start, Cutler has been throwing a lot of interceptions over the past 5 games, leading the media to criticize him as overvalued and a turnover machine. Only six weeks ago the Chicago press was singing the praises of Cutler as a premier strong-armed leader. Now all the noise is about his INT’s, his declining leadership skills, and the fact that he is signed long-term to a big-money contract until 2013.

Cutler will be seeing a lot of blitz pressure from the Eagles, which could only make things worse for his current malaise. Las Vegas oddsmakers favor the visiting Eagles by 3 in this Sunday night contest. But don’t count Cutler or the Bears out on such a desperado night as Sunday will be. As long as the Eagles’ sputtering offense and bending defense of late can be counted upon to show up at the worst possible times, Chicago has a chance to hang around and do some major damage to the Eagles’ playoff hopes.

The Eagles have lost 2 of their last 3 games and are looking to break out on the Bears on Sunday. They’ll probably have to establish a running game early, this week’s hope being they can push from the OL and open some big holes for RB LeSean MCoy and FB Leonard Weaver. Head coach Andy Reid must not lose his patience with McCoy and Weaver. Establishing a running game against the Bears is a must. That simply did not happen for The Eagles against the Chargers last week—-Reid called in 55 pass plays against the Chargers. Such imbalance cannot succeeed in the NFL,and it is sad to see the Eagles, with so much talent, have its franchise QB’s remaining years in Philly wasted away by Reid’s obsessive playcalling for the pass.

If the Eagles can jump out early by establishing a running game and get some consecutive stops on defense, the crowd at Soldier Field will inevitably turn against their home team, and Cutler will definitely be on thin ice.

But Reid must not underestimate the value of his RB’s and FB’s this time around. Establishing a running game is a must, even if it takes some time and patience on the part of Reid and McNabb. Everything else that needs to happen for the Eagles will take care of itself if the Birds can commit to grinding out a respectable running game. I hope the O-Line is up to the task.

Enjoy—should be a real good ball-game—kind of like a “mini-playoff” on Sunday night at 8:30 EST, NBC-TV.