Three Things to Watch: Chicago Bears at Oakland Raiders

The Chicago Bears and Oakland Raiders meet in the Bay Area for some football and NFL writer Andrew Garda tells you what you need to watch.

As we hit Week 3 of the preseason, we expect to see something close to what should happen on the field on a regular basis for NFL teams this coming season.

For some teams that's good. For some - not so much. It's a little of column A and a little from column B for the Bears. It's been mostly column B for the Raiders.

Here are three things to watch when these two teams meet Friday night at 10pm EST.

1) Where is this up-tempo offense we heard so much about for the Bears? As it stands the tempo is more off than up. That's to be expected when you install a new offensive scheme but at some point you have to produce results and time is running short. If you're going to look good, it's going to be against a team like the Oakland Raiders.

2) While Matt Flynn is going to win the starting job for the Oakland Raiders, it's just as much his because he hasn't lost it as it is because he won it. Flynn has looked OK so far and now he faces a very tough Chicago Bears defense. Even without Lovie Smith and Brian Urlacher this is a formidable group. Flynn has to prove his one good game for the Green Bay Packers against the Detroit Lions wasn't a fluke or else the Raiders could be in trouble again.

3) While it might look as if the Bears got lit up by the woeful San Diego Chargers last week, the truth is their depth was lit up. It's still a problem, just a different and less critical one. Still, they have the chance to prove to their fans that just because Lovie left doesn't mean the defense will fall apart. The Raiders' offense should make them look good. If they can't here - if the starters have issues like the bench did last week - then the Bears have a big problem.

 

Andrew Garda is a member of the Pro Football Writers Association. He is also a member of the fantasy football staff at Footballguys.com and an NFL writer at Bleacher Report. You can follow him at @andrew_garda on Twitter.

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Bob's picture

August 24, 2013 at 08:58 am

Go Pack!

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