Bears playing Redskins for pride

The floundering Washington Redskins come into Chicago on the heels of a crushing 27-0 defeat at the hands of the Dallas Cowboys last Sunday, while the Bears come into the game on a high, following an exciting 13-10 victory over division rival Minnesota.

Quarterback Rex Grossman will get his second start of the season against a team run by his old Florida Gators coach Steve Spurrier. Look for Grossman to be pretty excited and ready to play, but, hopefully, not too much, otherwise he could be susceptible to mistakes and play ineffectively.

Grossman will face two of the best cornerbacks in the league, Fred Smoot and Champ Bailey, which could make for very rough going. Both have had outstanding seasons so far for the Redskins. They both have a lot speed and a real nose for the ball.

Smoot has a tendency to just pop up out of nowhere and knock a pass down or haul in an interception, whereas Bailey provides blanket coverage on receivers and has a knack for out jumping a receiver and batting the ball away at the moment it arrives. Neither player has many interceptions, however, as Smoot has three and Bailey has two.

Grossman faced the league's interception leader last week in Corey Chavous and beat him soundly. Grossman did not make the mistakes that could have led to turnovers in the passing game against the Vikings, so look for him to take that same care into this game.

The Redskins pass defense is allowing 180 yards per game, which is respectable. Shorter routes, the kind that Grossman likes to throw, would be a good thing to counter the Redskins defense. Throwing the deep pass, much like he did last week, would work well for him too as that would allow him to stretch the field a little bit and keep the Redskins secondary off balance.

Washington's run defense is allowing an average of 129.5 yards per game this season, which should encourage the Bears to run more often on Sunday. They need to establish the run, not only to control the ball and the clock, but also to allow Grossman to be able have time to throw. That is the element that would help Grossman the most.

Offensive Coordinator John Shoop needs to call the same types of routes for receivers as he did against the Vikings. Those routes had the receivers catching the ball on the run instead of stopping and coming back for the ball.

Shoop also called plays that were caught either at, or past, the first down marker, which was a striking contrast to plays he had called in the past. Perhaps having Grossman as the starter helped, or perhaps the fear of losing his job had something to do with it. No matter, but more of the same this Sunday would be nice.

Desmond Clark has been an effective receiver for the Bears this season and had a good showing last Sunday, and he should be utilized again in the same manner against the Redskins. All of the Bears' receivers must be wary of Smoot and Bailey and do their part to not allow Grossman to have any interceptions.

The offensive line will have its work cut out for them as it faces a tough Redskins defensive line. So far this season, the Redskins defensive line has a total of 25 sacks, which isn't outstanding, but those numbers don't reflect the pressure that their defensive line can apply and the speed they posses. In addition, Bruce Smith, the new NFL All-Time sack leader, is still able to put a strong rush on the passer.

The Bears look to be starting Quasim Mitchell again and he will have to play a game similar to what he did against the Vikings this past Sunday. Besides pass blocking and allowing Grossman time to throw the ball, the offensive line also needs to block better for the run as well, especially if the Bears are going to control the clock and the ball. This is a key to a win for the Bears on Sunday.

The Redskins are going to start Tim Hasselbeck, who is coming off one of the worst games a quarterback could ever have last Sunday against the Cowboys. He ended up with just 56 yards on six completions in 26 attempts, and was intercepted four times.

Dallas used a lot of different blitzes and coverage packages to confuse Hasselbeck last week and it clearly paid off. The Bears should apply the same type of game plan, provided they can get enough pressure and make Hasselbeck run for his life. It all begins on the front line with Alex Brown and Keith Traylor. If the defensive line plays well, it could be a long day for the Redskins.

The Redskins running game is averaging 102 yards per game, which isn't that great, and the Bears, if you don't count last Sunday, have a pretty good defense against the run. The Redskins best running back, Trung Candidate has just 600 yards rushing this season, but has a 4.2 yard per carry average. However, there is a chance that Candidate might not play because he has a bad right ankle. If he can't go, the Redskins will start Rock Cartwright, a seldom-used player who has just 327 yards on 82 attempts for an average of 4.0 yards per carry. Cartwright started last week and rushed for 94 yards on 21 attempts. The Bears will have to be weary of the Redskins running game, but shouldn't have too much of a problem in stopping their running game.

The Bears linebackers will need to be very active to help stop the run and rush the passer. Look for the Bears linebackers to blitz from time to time, as it will be a big key in keeping Hasselbeck off balance.

The secondary also will be busy, as they will be covering one of the leagues best receivers in Laveranues Coles. Coles has 1,023 yards on 69 catches, but what is most impressive about Coles is his 14.8 yards per catch average. He has admitted this week that he has been playing with a broken foot for the past few weeks, but that hasn't appeared to affect his play too much. Look for the Bears to try single coverage on Coles until the Redskins complete a substantially long pass to him, then perhaps look for them to switch to double coverage.