What to Expect Against the Bears

The Cowboys will be looking to put the Chicago Bears into an early hibernation with a victory, but the win will not be an easy one. The Cowboys are 0-2 at AT&T Stadium against the Bears, and Jason Garrett is 1-2 against the Bears.

There is some good news however, and it all starts with the Cowboys running game. The last time the Cowboys played the Bears was in 2014 on the road, and DeMarco Murray gashed the Bears to the tune of 179 yards on 32 carries.  Yes, that was two season’s ago, but look for the Cowboys to use this same formula with Ezekiel Elliott.

The Bears are coming to town with multiple key injuries up and down the defensive side of the ball. Looks like the Bears will be missing the talented Eddie Goldman and Danny Trevethan, those are big losses. Their secondary is quite banged up as well, so stopping Dez Bryant will challenge their group as well.

I would not sleep on their defense though, they do have Jerrell Freeman at ILB who has been a beast and he’ll punish you when he tackles. Akiem Hicks has been very stout against the run, so the Cowboys will need to figure out how to keep him out of the backfield. According to PFF, Bears DE Akiem Hicks has six run stops this season, tied for the most among 3-4 defensive ends.

Here’s what I expect from the game:

• Terrell McClain and/or Maliek Collins will sack Brian Hoyer
• Byron Jones will cover Zach Miller, and he’ll intercept a bad pass from Hoyer
• Look for the Bears to throw in some blitzes to test out the edge. Tyron Smith and Doug Free are a bit dinged up.
• Ezekiel Elliott will have a breakout game and go over 100 yards and 2Tds
• Terrance Williams will make an appearance
• Cole Beasley will have a score
• Dan Bailey will have 2 FGs over 50 yards
• Anthony Brown probably starts in Orlando Scandrick’s place
• Alshon Jeffrey will go over 100 yards
• Matt Barkley could see some playing time once Hoyer becomes ineffective
• Sean Lee will lead the team with tackles
• Ron Leary probably gets activated with Smith and Free not at 100%

Other thoughts

Jason Witten is 573 yards away from passing Michael Irvin for the all-time receiving leader in Cowboys history.

I’m interested in seeing what Tyrone Crawford does in this game. Was his sack against the Redskins a preview of things to come or will he be the same ineffective pass rusher we’ve seen for awhile now?

After next week (@49ers), we get Demarcus Lawrence back on the field against the Bengals.

Cole Beasley leads Cowboys receivers with a team high 13 catches and team high 140 yards

Two games that will be fun to watch: WAS@NYG and PIT@PHI; Who doesn’t want to watch Odell and Norman go at it? And Carson Wentz gets a true legitimate team when they face the Steelers, let’s see how he holds up.