The Bears’ defense took a big hit earlier this week when Matt Eberflus announced defensive end Yannick Ngakoue would miss the rest of the season. He fractured a bone in his ankle late in Chicago’s win over Detroit. Two surprise names hit the injured list beginning Wednesday. Jaquan Brisker and D J Moore began the week on the injury list and remained on the report all week.
Brisker, who had perhaps his best game in his career, is nursing a groin injury. He was limited in Wednesday’s practice and did not participate Thursday. He returned to the practice field in limited action and is questionable for Sunday.
D J Moore tweaked his ankle on his third rushing attempt against the Lions but was able to finish the game. Moore began the week without participating on Wednesday. He was limited on Thursday and was a full participant today. Moore is also listed as questionable but is trending up for Sunday’s game.
Equanimeous St. Brown (pec) and Noah Sewell (knee) have already been declared out for the game.
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Cleveland is also battling injuries; their offense will be severely tested this weekend. The Browns put both starting offensive tackles on injured reserve, and will miss the rest of the season. Several other players have been downgraded to out and will not play Sunday.
Starting center Ethan Pocic is out with a shoulder injury. The Browns must play Sunday without three of their starting five offensive linemen. Defensive end Ogbo Okoronkwo is out (pec), as is ILB John Kunaszyk (calf)
Star running back Kareem Hunt has been nursing a sore groin but is expected to play.
Forty-eight hours before game time, the weather forecast is calling for a 90% probability of intermittent rain showers throughout the game. It is also going to be breezy, with 15-25 MPH winds.
With those weather conditions, the footing will be less than ideal. The Bears need to take advantage of the Browns’ depleted OL and put constant pressure on veteran QB Joe Flacco. Justin Fields’ ability to run should provide an edge when the Bears have the ball.
The Browns’ defense is not the elite unit it was earlier in the season. Opposing teams have averaged 31 points over the last three games. Conversely, the Bears defense has greatly improved in recent weeks.
Prediction: The Bears’ defense forces some takeaways, giving the offense some good field position. The Bears rushing game should do well against the Browns.
Bears win 27-13
Sounds like it’s gonna be good old fashioned Bears football. Bad weather. Pound the rock. Get after the QB. On another note, I’m concerned about Brisker. He’s starting to remind me of Mike Brown. Brown was one of the best safeties the Bears ever had. He was smart, instinctive and never made a business decision when tackling. The problem was Brown had the mentality of a linebacker but the body of a corner. His body just couldn’t keep up with the pounding and he was injured too often. To this day I still believe we could’ve won the SB against… Read more »
I agree with you Dr. Also can we please stop using DJ Moore as a running back when we have 3 (Herbert, Foreman, Johnson)and if you count Fields 4 very capable people who can run the rock.
Want to win, but if the Bears lose, and Fields plays mistake free football despite foul weather and a strong defense, that would be something. We’ll see.
Should be a good and hard fought game. So my prediction is: Bears 57 Browns 12. Daaaa-Bears.