Bears vs. Chiefs -- Pride vs. Homefield advantage

The Chicago Bears end their season this Sunday against the 12-3 Kansas City Chiefs.

The Bears are coming off a 27-24 victory over the Washington Redskins, while the Chiefs suffered a 45-20 defeat at the hands of the Minnesota Vikings.

Kansas City needs the win to stay in the hunt for home-field advantage throughout the playoffs, while the Chicago Bears are out of the playoffs and are playing, not only for pride and a .500 record, but also to try and save the job of their head coach Dick Jauron.

On paper, this game really looks like a mismatch, but the Bears are playing pretty good football right now.

Meanwhile, the Chiefs have stumbled a little lately, mainly because their defense has played poorly, especially against the running game. Luckily, their high powered offense has made up for their lack of defense and remains one of the most dangerous in the NFL this season.

No question about it, the Bears are the underdogs and definitely will have their work cut out for them.

Rex Grossman, who is 2-0 as a starter, will start his third game in a row for the Bears.

In his first two games, he has shown a knack for being careful.

He has avoided making mistakes, including throwing the ball away instead of forcing throws into coverage when he has no one open, and has clearly outperformed his predecessors, Kordell Stewart and Chris Chandler.

One problem that Grossman has had is that he has trouble with the snap, fumbling once in each of his two starts. He will have to be correct that this week to avoid giving the Chiefs defense any opportunity to recover turnovers.

He also will have try and sustain long, ball-controlling, clock-eating drives to help keep the Chiefs' offense on the sidelines.

This means that the Bears should try and utilize Anthony Thomas, much like they did against the Redskins, against the porous Chief's defense.

Thomas is coming off of big game after rushing for a season high 141 yards against the Redskins last Sunday.

The Bears also have Stanley Pritchett, who had a decent game running the ball as well as catching the ball last week and should be used often in this game.

The Bears offense has only recently begun to use their backs as receivers, perhaps to give Grossman another option in the offense, and both Pritchett and Thomas have proved that they are effective pass catchers.

Currently, the Chiefs are giving up an average of 150 yards rushing per game.

If the Bears can hand the ball off early and often, Thomas could have a big game and the Bears will have a better chance of winning this game.

Grossman might also find an easy time passing the ball, as the Chief's defense has been somewhat ineffective against pass this season as well.

The Chiefs are allowing 213 yards per game passing, which should put the Bears a little at ease in throwing the ball and might offer a chance for Grossman to have a big day.

Although the Bears should run the ball as much as possible, Grossman needs to try and complete some short passes to help keep drives going, or even throw some passes down field like he did with that 59-yard touchdown pass to Marty Booker last week.

Grossman might also find himself having to air it out a lot more if the Bears find themselves behind in this game.

The Bears receivers match up pretty well against the Chief's secondary. There are a couple of height mismatches in Chicago's favor.

In addition, KC will be minus one of their better cornerbacks, Eric Warfield, and the Bears should look to throwing at his replacement.

The Chief's secondary has been burned often this season, especially in games against Cincinnati and Minnesota, so they will have to be careful of the Bears' speedy receivers and backs.

If and when they break into the secondary, the Chiefs must make those tackles. If they can't, it will be a long day for the KC secondary.

The Chiefs have suffered several injuries to their defense that has damaged their effectiveness.

Their linebackers and secondary have been injured and have been playing hurt throughout the season.

The Bears offense could have a big game against this Chiefs defense if all the chips fall into place.

The strength of the Chiefs' has been their offense. Through 15 games, the Chiefs are averaging 122.8 yards per game rushing.

KC is led by running back Priest Holmes, who is not only a scoring machine but also a great rusher. He is averaging 4.6 yards per carry.

To try and stop him, the Bears have a couple of options.

They could choose to key on Holmes and let the Chiefs use their other weapons in the passing game against them, or they could just play an overall defense and try to cover all the Chiefs as best as they can.

The latter would probably be the best, as the Chiefs have so many good players that it's hard just to concentrate on one person.

Their biggest go-to receiver is tight end Tony Gonzalez, who has 10 touchdowns so far this season.

The Bears will have to be aware of where Gonzalez is at all times, which could be a job for either Brian Urlacher or Jerry Azumah. Both are very capable of covering Gonzalez and provided they don't have any mistakes, are good enough to shut Gonzalez down.

This should be an interesting match up and one to watch closely throughout the afternoon.

With Holmes' ability to break for long runs, all three levels of the Bears defense will have to be aware of where he is at all times and not let him break tackles. If they don't wrap him up fast, Holmes will have a big game.

Some of the Bears defenders who will try to wrap up Holmes include Urlacher, Lance Briggs, Bryan Robinson and Jerry Azumah. It's important that these players, along with the other Bears defenders, have a big game against Holmes.

They also have to be aware of Holmes catching passes out of the backfield. It is something he is very good at and leads the Chiefs in catches.

Possibly the biggest offensive weapon the Chiefs have is quarterback Trent Green.

Green is smart, very talented and makes very few mistakes. He seldom throws an interception, so opportunities for a turnover will be few and far between.

Green also seems to be able to make something out of nothing when the situation calls for it and he is very good at finding an open receiver.

The Bears will need to look at blitzing Green if they want stop him, as he didn't react too well to pressure last week against the Vikings.

Unfortunately, pressuring the quarterback is something that the Bears haven't done too well this season, but if they want a chance to win this game, they will need to step up and do it this week.

Special teams also will play a factor in this game.

The Bears will want to pay special attention to Dante Hall, a return man who is very dangerous, not only scoring touchdowns, but also breaking long runs to set the KC offense up with good field position.

The Bears should try to kick away from Hall as much as possible rather than risk the big return.

When the ball is kicked to them, it is also important that the Bears get better field position for their own offense, which they have not been doing lately.

Field goals might also become important in this contest, so Paul Edinger needs to prepared and ready to go.

End Notes:

* The Bears receiving corps is banged up as Dez White and Justin Gage will miss Sunday's game with injuries.

* Bobby Wade will start and could have a big game.