The Bears D line did look better last night but is that due in large part to Green Bay's terrible offensive line play? At least in small part. Nathan Vashar shouldn't be on the field and I don't want to see Hunter Hillenmyer become the new starting middle linebacker. Let's hope Derek Brooks still has something in the tank and can come in and play the WIL with Briggs moving to the middle.

The offense should get better the more familiar Cutler becomes with his receivers. Forte and Olson were this team's best receiving options last season and Cutler needs to find a way to get the ball to them. Hester may be their best wide out but he's a number 3 on a good team. I'm hoping Bennett and Aromashadu step up. Also, Omiyale looked terrible at left guard and if he is this bad Josh Beekman should move back into the starting lineup.

I'm not quite as pessimistic as I still think the Bears can get a wild card birth and make the playoffs. The Vikings are the favorite as far as I'm concerned but they have a suspect secondary and Favre can still implode on them.

Anyone care to offer their predictions for tonight's game?

I say Bears win it 27-24.

It will be Kevin Kolb, I'm curious to see what will happen in game 3 when Vick becomes eligible. I think Reid will probably stick with Kolb but it makes for an interesting dynamic.

I would be curious to know how much of those numbers relied on data collected when Manning was actually playing nickel. He played a lot of nickel back last season and not as much free safety.

I don't think Manning is a good free safety regardless of what number of tackles he accrued. The Bears have tried to play him there his first 3 seasons and he can't stick at the position because he seems incapable of making the necessary reads. A free safety can't get beat over the top in the cover 2 but Manning would routinely bite on fakes and get beaten deep. The Bears are going to play a strong safety at free because Manning is so poor at the position and everything we've seen in games backs that up. Manning is fast and possesses athleticism but hasn't shown that he can grasp the mental aspects of playing the free safety position. Lovie had to personally tutor him so that he could play the nickel position and that seems like where they should leave him.