America's Number One Threat:

Bears! God, Colbert can bust out some funny crap. Seriously, my hope was that the Bears would be injury-riddled coming into Sunday night's showdown, but alas, it looks like several of their key defenders are on the mend. In last weeks' debacle against the Lions, the Bears' defense was missing Pro Bowler Lance "Rance!" Briggs, and starting corners Nathan Vasher and Charles Tillman. And this was on top of losing their starting safety Mike Brown and one of their top defensive tackles, Dusty Dvoracek, for the season to knee injuries.

However, their most recent injury report only lists one player as "doubtful"-- Vasher, their ballhawking corner. Briggs and Tillman are listed as "questionable" as is Tommie Harris, one of the best defensive tackles in the league. This designation doesn't mean much though since Harris played against Detroit last weekend. Assuming that Vasher is out for this weekend, this doesn't create that much of an advantage for the Packers. The Bears nickel back, Ricky "Don't even look at me when I'm in a Denny's" Manning, Jr., is actually pretty solid, and can sub over easily for Vasher. The Bears have also grown accustomed to playing with out Mike Brown since he's been dogged by serious injuries the past few seasons. So with Tillman back, the Bears' defensive personnel, particularly their secondary, should be ok.

In summation, Packer fans should not expect to see the same Bears' defense that rolled over in the 4th quarter against the Lions. Some of their top talent will likely be back on the field, and since the Bears' season is on the brink, I expect Sunday night to be a very tough battle. The Packers may struggle to score points, and Favre could very well have one of his overdue bursts of turnovers. But you'd think the Packers D has a serious advantage over a struggling Bears offense, if the team's secondary can get healthy. (A recent report questioned whether Nick Collins would be able to play, and Woodson and Al are perpetually banged up.) And of course, the team should not punt the ball to Hester. My hope is the Packers will be solid enough on both sides of the ball to take the win against a flawed, but fired up Bears team. However, strange things happen in night games, and the Bears have owned Lambeau lately. I'm antsy about this one. Wait, I'm antsy about all of them. Oh hell, I'm especially antsy about it.