Chicago Bears head into Kansas City banged up

The Chicago Bears travel to Kansas City to face the Chiefs on Sunday afternoon. Both teams have a record of 1-3, and are looking to get some positive momentum going. The Bears are dealing with various injuries on the offensive side and are going to need players to step up if they want their second win of the season.

The Bears head into their game vs the Chiefs a banged up group. Quarterback Jay Cutler, who is recovering from a hamstring injury, said he will push through some discomfort and play for the second consecutive week.

“I feel better, I do”, Cutler said. I’m still not exactly where I want to be, but it is what it is, and we have a lot of guys banged up out there. I’ll just make do.”

Cutler’s play makers are also hurting and their availability for Sunday is unknown.

Wide receivers Alshon Jeffery (hamstring) and Eddie Royal (ankle) were both limited all week in practice, and are most likely game time decisions.

Royal is more likely to play than Jeffery since he finished the game last week vs the Raiders. Jeffery has been out since week 1. It appears the team is taking a cautious approach with Jeffery and his injured hamstring, so who knows when he will be back in the lineup.

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The Bears have to hope that Royal can suit up and play. He stepped up and had a nice game against the Raiders with Jeffery out, and will need to do the same going forward. Royal has good chemistry with Cutler from their days in Denver.

The Bears offensive line is also dealing with injuries, as starting center Will Montgomery was lost for the season after injuring his leg vs Oakland, and right tackle Kyle Long is dealing with a hand and ankle injury. Left tackle Jermon Bushrod sat last week with a concussion and his status for this game is unknown. Long will be playing.

With a re-shuffled offensive line, the Kansas City defensive line must be licking their chops.

Justin Houston and Tamba Hali are two of the best defensive players in the league, and can knock the quarterback down hard. The Bears are hoping that Cutler’s mobility will be better this week so that he can extend plays with his legs. Protecting Cutler is going to be a challenge vs the Chiefs, especially since it will be a reshuffled o-line.

Kansas City is one of the loudest places to play in the entire NFL, so that doesn’t make things easier for the Bears. The noise is definitely going to be a factor, so it wouldn’t be surprising if the offense has multiple false start penalties. Communication has to be there from the start, and Cutler is aware of that.

“It does get challenging,” Cutler said about playing with a new o-line. “The communication has to be good. Mistakes are going to happen out there, but we’ll just try to eliminate them.”

The Chiefs rank 28th against the pass and have given up a lot of explosive plays early in the season. The Bears have to protect Cutler from Houston and Hali, and keep him upright so that he can move the ball down field.

The Bears are going to struggle running the ball against the Chiefs since it’s a new offensive line going against a physical, talented d-line. Matt Forte will have to do his damage in the passing game and he is fully capable of doing that.

The passing game has to be in motion for the Bears to have any success on Sunday and Cutler has to protect the ball and make smart decisions.

It’s going to be awfully tough for the Bears to pull this game out. Kansas City is a difficult place to play. A couple of things will need to happen for the Bears to escape with the victory.

The defense has to force some turnovers on Chiefs QB Alex Smith and give the Bears short fields to work with. As always, Martellus Bennett will need to be huge in the passing game and just like last week, Marquess Wilson has to make plays again and increase his play making abilities.

It is fair to say that the Bears would shock their fans if they were able to win in Kansas City due to the circumstances at hand.

On any given Sunday any team can win however. Here’s to hoping the Bears can pull out the upset win and improve to 2-2.