Bears vs. Bucs in London: Game Time and Analysis

Compare the city of Tampa to Chicago and obvious differences come to mind. (Chicagoans, I will refrain from talking about the weather). But look at their respective football teams and not much separates the two NFC foes.

Both teams have beaten Atlanta and Minnesota to go along with a loss to Detroit this season. The Bears squeaked by rookie Cam Newton’s Carolina squad while Tampa edged an Indianapolis team that was led by Curtis Painter, who was making his first career start. In fact, if Drew Brees completes his standard fourth-quarter comeback against Tampa Bay last week, the Bears and Bucs would look nearly identical.

The Week 7 matchup in London is a big game for each team. Both are looking to carry some momentum into the bye week with two-game winning streaks and both are fighting to establish themselves as playoff candidates in the NFC. So who holds the edge in a game where there is no home-field advantage? (Technically this will be counted as a Tampa Bay home game.) Even odds makers can’t decipher much of a difference between the two teams as the betting line is set with the Bears as a one-point favorite.

Defensively, the Bears looked stellar against Minnesota, a total reversal for a unit that still ranks in the bottom-half of the league in total defense, giving up close to 400 yards of offense per game. Was the defensive performance against Minnesota a turnaround point or merely an outlier in a string of bad games to start the season? We should see the answer today.

Tampa Bay’s defensive statistics are hauntingly similar. They struggle in pass defense – giving up 276 yards per game – and aren’t stellar against the run either. If the Bears run more packages of six, seven and eight blockers, Jay Cutler should be able to stay on his feet and pick apart a suspect Tampa secondary.

Everyone has been quick to shower accolades upon QB Josh Freeman, but the young signal-caller has had turnover issues with six interceptions compared to only five touchdowns. That’s as many interceptions as he had all of last season. But Freeman had his best game of the season against New Orleans last week, throwing for more than 300 yards and two touchdowns with no turnovers. The Bears are lucky to avoid LeGarrette Blount, who is out with an ankle injury and the Bucs’ running game suffered another blow with center Jeff Faine out as well. Although Earnest Graham may not be the type of powering runner that Blount was, he filled in admirably with 109 yards against the Saints.

With a win Chicago goes into its bye week in better playoff position and potentially will be only a game back of the Lions for second place in the division with Detroit hosting Atlanta. Call it important; call it significant; call it a swing game if you wish. This game will go a long way towards determining whether the Bears are a contender or pretender, even if the London football fans don’t’ know it. 

Game Time

The NFL's London game will start at the usual 12 p.m. Central Time for Chicago and 1 p.m. for Tampa Bay. For those watching in London, the game will start at 6 p.m.

The games will be aired on Fox domestically.

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