VS.

NFL Sunday Night Football and NBC bring a battle on the NFC Conference. Philadelphia Eagles with a record of 5-4 travel to the Soldier Field to face Chicago Bears with a record of 4-5. Philly is trying to catch Dallas on the first place of the NFC East while the Bears struggle on the NFC North trying to catch Green Bay because they won’t be able to catch Minnesota anymore.

8:20 PM ET, November 22, 2009
Soldier Field, Chicago, IL
NBC

Philadelphia Eagles biggest blow this week is the fact that RB Brian Westbrook is scheduled to meet with a specialist in Pittsburgh this week — likely Wednesday — to determine if and when he can resume playing football after a series of concussions. Most NFL players battling concussions visit the same clinic and hospital in Pittsburgh. Previous visitors include former Dallas Cowboys QB Troy Aikman, former San Francisco 49ers QB Steve Young and former Denver Broncos and Oakland Raiders LB Bill Romanowski, each of whom saw concussions end his NFL career. This represents a big change in the plans of the Eagles, they just don’t a good enough replacement for that position so they will have to redo the whole strategy against the Bears. QB Donovan McNaab will count on the grown with RB LeSean McCoy who is not as experienced as Westbrook but he can do the job just fine. WR DeSean Jackson and TE Brent Celek will be catching everything McNaab throws so it could be a good chance to concentrate on the passing game for a while.

Chicago Bears need to essentially “run the table” in the final seven games to make the playoffs. The Bears stood at an identical 4-5 mark after nine games in 2007 — they went 3-4 the rest of the way. We should also point out those final two victories against Green Bay and New Orleans occurred after the Bears were officially bounced from playoff contention. So much for finishing strong. Now the Bears have to go at least 5-2 (possibly 6-1) to have any shot to extend their season. That seems like a major long shot when you look at the remaining quality opponents on the schedule: Philadelphia, Minnesota (2), Green Bay and Baltimore. This sounds reachable if only the Bears had a healthy squad and that is also not the case here, The Bears had Desmond Clark, Kevin Payne and Olin Kreutz missed practice on Monday. it looks like these guys are questionable and the Bears couldn’t need them more at this moment, it is a live or die situation and this team is a freaking hospital, tough luck. QB Jay Cutler will miss these players, RB Garrett Wolfe was an important part of the bears offense and now he is out for good. Cutler will count with RB Matt Forte, WR Devin Hester and WR Earl Bennett but he has a lot of holes to fill this week, will they be able to survive this one?

GAME ODDS

PHILADELPHIA EAGLES -3 EV
CHICAGO BEARS 45

THE PREDICTION WILL BE TOUGH, PHILLY ON THE ROAD IS JUST OK BUT THE FACT THAT ALMOST HALF OF THE BEARS ARE PROBABLE OR QUESTIONABLE MAKES ME WONDER IF THEIR BENCH IS CAPABLE ENOUGH. MY PICK WILL BE PHILADELPHIA EAGLES -3 EV.

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