East Rutherford, NJ – Week 3 of the preseason continues tonight in MetLife Stadium with the Super Bowl champions hosting the Chicago Bears. Tonight will be the longest either team will have to look attheir starters with many first stringers projected to play into the 3rd quarter.
Both the Bears and Giants are teams with clear strengths and question marks. Lost in their impressive run to the Super Bowl was the Giants 9-7 record, which was due largely to an underperforming run game and a rash of injuries. The injury bug seems to have struck again with notable Giants unavailable tonight including Hakeem Nicks, Ahmad Bradshaw, and Jason Pierre-Paul. None of these injuries are thought to be serious, however. What might be interesting to watch is the how the Giants secondary is able to contain the Bears newly reconfigured offense.
With a healthy Jake Cutler teaming up with his old battery mate Brandon Marshall some believe the Bears have a receiving core diverse
and strong enough to wreak some havoc this year. While the Bears have some shiny new toys on offense their defense may be starting to look old. The secrecy surrounding Brian Urlacher’s knee surgery (USA Today reported the Urlacher underwent the same controversial surgery made famous when it was performed on Kobe Bryant) along with the Bears having the second oldest defense in the league is something that could become a potential problem the deeper they go into the season. That said, Chicago’s defense is anchored by the likes of Julius Pepper and Urlacher two of the best in the game.
Tonight’s game could be telling in what we can expect out of these teams during the regular season. Both are going into the year with high hopes. The Giants are mounting their title defense while the Bears are trying to surround their core with enough pieces to keep
their championship window open a little longer.