Pittsburgh Steelers (1-0) at Chicago Bears (0-1)
The biggest story line heading into Sunday’s Steelers-Bears game, which looked like a potential Super Bowl preview in the preseason, is who won’t be playing.
Pittsburgh star safety Troy Polamalu was injured in the Steelers’ season-opening win last Thursday against Tennessee and is out for a least a few weeks. He will surely be missed, as he was the glue to that unit and able to make plays literally anywhere on the field. Meanwhile, Chicago lost by far its best defensive player in linebacker Brian Urlacher. He dislocated his wrist in last Sunday night’s loss to Green Bay and will be lost for the season. That is a devastating blow to Chicago.
The Steelers are 3-point favorites for Sunday’s game on WagerWeb.com.
That Packer loss was crushing for the Bears, as they led late in the game despite Urlacher leaving with the injury and Jay Cutler throwing interception after interception. Chicago had the ball with a chance to win on the final drive, but Cutler finished his night with pick No. 4. Now the Bears face a must-win game because both Green Bay and Minnesota seem likely to start 2-0 at a minimum. Chicago could be out of the NFC North race by the end of September if the Bears don’t come up big Sunday.
Obviously the pressure is on Cutler to bounce back from arguably the worst game of his career. He says he will.
“It’s not going to keep me down,” said Cutler, who was 17 of 36 for 277 yards with a touchdown. “It really isn’t.”
But the Bears need to get something from the running game to help him out. Matt Forte, who had 1,711 total yards last year as a rookie, had only 55 total yards and averaged just 2.2 yards per carry in Week 1 against the Packers. Now he sees the league’s best defense from last year. The Steelers have not allowed 100-yard rusher in the past 19 regular-season games.
That Steeler defense is expected to get back starting linebacker Lawrence Timmons. He hurt his ankle during a preseason game against the Redskins and wasn’t in uniform for the season opener.
Look for Chicago’s defense to blitz often, as pass protection has been a problem for the Steeler offensive line. Ben Roethlisberger was sacked four times last week, but if he gets good protection his team wins: The Steelers are 29-2 all-time when Big Ben has a 100-plus passer rating. Roethlisberger threw for 363 yards last week, the most by a Steeler in an opener since 1970.
The Steelers have won three straight from Bears but are just 1-11 against them in Chicago, although last trip there was Nov. 5, 1995, and they won.
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