The Frozen Tundra of Soldier Field

The Guru was 3 - 1 on his lines and totals yesterday, but one of the wins was not an official play. Therefore, we only picked up 1.7 stars yesterday, but nothing like cutting the deficit...huh W? Our analysis now takes us to Soldier Field...

Seahawks @ Bears

The Seattle Seahawks travel to Chicago to face the Chicago Bears. The Seahawks come into this game limping. They escaped last week's game after Tony Romo fumbled the snap on a FG that was as long as an extra point. They went 9 -7 in the easiest division in football and barely made the playoffs. They are really beat up in the secondary, which Dallas didn't attempt to exploit at all by only throwing 6 passes each to Terry Glenn and Terrell Owens. So, they basically don't have a shot in this game, right? Not so fast my friend.

Matt Hasselbeck has struggled since coming back from his knee injury. His passer rating has been over 90 in only two of those 7 games and over 100 only once. On his career he has completed over 60% of his passes, but since the injury he has done that only once. This game will clearly hinge on his ability to make plays. The Bears weakness on defense, if there is one, is against the pass. They have had to go to more blitzing since Tommie Harris went down with a season ending knee injury. The onus of this game is going to be on the OL of the Seahawks and Matt Hasselbeck to not make mistakes.

Defensively, the Seahawks have one thing going for them...they can pressure the QB. Rex Grossman has not handled the pressure well of late. Seahawks rank 6th in the league in sacks. They love to blitz the LB's up the middle, which is where Rex handles the pressure worst. The Seahawks need to pressure Rex into mistakes and get the Soldier Field crowd booing early. On the other hand, they cannot allow Rex to hit the bomb to start the game and get the crowd into it with the patch work secondary they have out there.

For the Bears, the keys are simple...run the ball and don't make any stupid mistakes. The offensive line has the potential to dominate this game with the bad weather that is being predicted and Thomas Jones and Cedric Benson running behind them. They must protect Rex Grossman and give him the time to pick apart the beaten up secondary of the Seahawks.

On defense, they need to find their swagger. Since Tommie Harris went down, they have given up almost 27 points a game over their last four games...and that is not Bears football. Seattle has plenty of weapons to go to and a great leader in Hasselbeck. This game comes down to two things: 1) How many mistakes will Rex make and 2) can the Bears find their once vaunted D.

"The Man" has Chicago giving 9 and the total at 37. Based on Rex's recent troubles and Hasslebeck's leadership, I just think this is too many points to give the Seahawks. I honestly think the Seahawks can win this game, so you have to take the points for 2 coins. Based on the bad weather report, I wouldn't touch the total, but would trend to go over this relatively small number. I think there will be at least one defensive score and that is always bad for a total bet. No official play on the total, but trend to over.