Lions and Wolves: Schedule preview: Should the Lions fear the Bears at all?

I will have a good look everyday at the Lions schedule prospects for next season. I know we still have the draft ahead, and we may not even get a 2011 season right now but there are enough blogs chatting lockout that I will keep this one a lockout free zone! Let's start with the Chicago Bears...

I'll come out and say it with as little bitterness as possible: I think the Bears got more than their fair share of luck last year and are kidding themselves if they think they are that good. Last year I picked the Bears as my crash and burn team of the year and instead they ran to the NFC Championship game. But wow didn't they just have the craziest ride there. Just when you think they are actually good they turn in a performance like they did against the Patriots, Giants, Seahawks and Redskins. Then while you are still laughing they go and beat the Jets and Eagles with solid defense. Will the real Bears come out and show themselves?

I will try and not be disrespectful as I do have some Bears fans I call friends, but I really don't see much reason to fear the Bears. They are simply not the division winning, NFC Championship team they think they are. They faced more backup and replacement Quarterbacks than any other team last year. They began the season with 'the catch that wasn't' (you knew that was coming) and then when they came to Ford Field later they got first and goal for the winning TD on the push to Cutler's back by Suh which again confounded us all.
En route to that they managed to destroy a flagging Minnesota and Miami in the midst of utter turmoil while labouring to victories over Buffalo and Dallas themselves in a downward spiral. They then turned in abominations against New York (sacked 9 times in the first half) Washington (6 turnovers including a TD) even while the Redskins did their best to give the game away. But in all this they could do no wrong; even with Todd Collins awful showing against the Panthers they still couldn't lose that one! Green Bay gave them an early division win by giving up 13 penalties, that shocked us all, but again the Bears got a hugely lucky ride last year. Can it happen again?

I think in many ways the Bears 2010 season is the best thing that could have happened to their NFC North rivals. Jerry Angelo, Lovie Smith and co were retained and Lovie got an extension, flaws will be masked and all will carry on. The Bears now pick 29th in the draft and since then have cut Tommie Harris from an already needy defensive interior, Hunter Hillenmayer from an aging linebacking core and Devin Aromashadu from a who's who of wide receivers in Mike Martz' system. Not a bad start to the offseason! On top of this Bears fans will all say they need an O-Lineman with their first round pick. While it is a good crop of prospects the Bears now have a lot of needs to cover and not the resources to sort them.

The Lions should have swept the Bears last year and with Stafford back should be able to make up for missed opportunity last year. I cannot in any world see the Bears repeating their 2010 success and see them finishing no higher than 3rd in the division. While their defense did well last year (4th overall and 2nd in run defense) they have a lot of needs in the middle and secondary and the age problem to deal with. The offense was 30th in yards per game and finished low in the pack on every category. They have big needs across the O-Line, at Wide Receiver as well as a competant backup QB. Too much for one year and they will need to pull out plenty of surprise victories and shock performances next year to cope. They won't surprise the Lions after last year though. They'll finish 6-10 maybe 5-11, but hey at least they are better than the Vikings :)