Giants (1-2) vs Chicago (3-0)
The Bears showed on Monday night that maybe they're more of a team to contend with than what was expected. Julius Peppers blocked a field goal in the third quarter, and in the fourth Devin Hester had a 62-yard punt return for a touchdown. Brian Urlacher forced a Green Bay turnover and the ensuing field goal gave the Bears a 20-17 win.
The Giants allowed the Tennessee Titans to provoke them into playing a bad game. It worked, and the Giants came away with a 29-10 loss after committing 11 penalties including five 15-yard personal fouls. The Giants only win has been against the Panthers, now an 0-3 team that has scored the lowest amount of points this season.

Chicago Bears
After going 7-9 last season, the Bears are somehow the only NFC team left undefeated with wins over Detroit, Dallas, and Green Bay. Head coach Lovie Smith got his team all the way to the Super Bowl in the 2006 season, but there's been no playoff games since and Smith said that changes would be made. They added former Rams head coach Mike ("The Greatest Show on Turf") Martz to be their offensive coordinator and work with quarterback Jay Cutler. They also brought on former Minnesota head coach Mike Tice to coach the offensive line. Lovie Smith stepped in last year to run the defense when things weren't working. Perry Fewell interviewed for the new defensive coordinator spot but he chose to do that job instead with the Giants where things would possibly be more head coach hands-off. Smith promoted his defensive line coach Rod Marinelli, another former head coach (Detroit Lions), to the defensive coordinator spot.

Bears Offense.
Under offensive coordinator Mike Martz's guidance quarterback Jay Cutler has thrown 6 touchdowns against 2 interceptions and he has a quarterback rating of 109.7. That's a far cry from last year when Cutler threw 26 interceptions, the most by a Bears quarterback since 1947 and the most in the NFL. The running game still needs lots of work and Jay Cutler's 16 scrambles have given him the top rushing average over the running backs. Matt Forte is the yardage leader with just 108 yards on 38 attempts in three games, but with an offense designed around the pass, Forte has the most receptions with 14 and 3 touchdowns. Johnny Knox has the most receiving yardage - 232 with his 11 catches that average 21 yards. Knox has no touchdowns but tight end Greg Olsen has 2 on his 10 catches for 140 yards. This offense ranked 29th in rushing last season and not much has changed, but that passing offense has climbed from 17th to 5th, so maybe they're not concerned.

Bears Defense.
Some doubted that middle linebacker Brian Urlacher could return to form since his production had slipped from 2007 to 2008, and he barely played last season (1 game suffering a dislocated wrist). It looks like he's back on his Pro Bowl track and he was outstanding last game. Julius Peppers is always a disruptive force, inducing false starts and holding penalties. This defense ranks first in the league in defending against the run which is a big improvement over last season when they were 23rd in that area. Passing defense is a weakness as they have slipped all the way to 28th and have come up with only 2 sacks even though their opponents have thrown 130 passes against them, nearly the most in the league to date.

Giants Offense.
The Giants passing game ranks 9th but their sloppy receivers have helped Eli Manning throw for 6 interceptions, tying the team with two others for the most to date. Ahmad Bradshaw is averaging 4.9 yards per carry and barely used Brandon Jacobs is raring to go. The fact is that teams have given up early and haven't tried to run on the Bears as much as the Giants will with their more evenly balanced offensive approach. Left tackle David Diehl hasn't been playing his best and he will be up against Julius Peppers. They need for him to have a good game and for the unit to avoid those costly mistakes they have been making.

Giants Defense.
The Giants will have to do a lot better than they did in game two against the Colts when they went all out to stop the pass and were crushed by the running game. It's certainly tempting since the Bears offense has averaged just 72 yards a game on the ground and that's with their quarterbacks 20 yards a game added in. Jay Cutler is the NFL's fifth-leading passer and he is on a roll, averaging more yards per completion than anyone in the league. He has a weak offensive line, but go after him and you have to honor his elusiveness and keep an eye on his key pass-catching running back Matt Forte. The Giants will be working without pass rusher Mathias Kiwanuka who has 4 of the team's 6 sacks.

Special Teams.
So far the Giants special teams unit has proven that they are not so special. Unfortunately the Bears are, and these units go against each other head to head. Matt Dodge is netting just 33.0 yards per kick, which is 25th in the league and the blocking on kick and punt returns has been poor. The Giants are 31st with their kick return average of 15.9 yards, and they rank 26th with a punt return average of 5.9 yards. Dodge will try to kick away from Bears returner Devin Hester, who returned a missed field goal 108 yards against the Giants in 2006.

Giants coaching and the team.
Safety Antrel Rolle put it this way about the controversies and the upcoming game, "It's not going to be because of any schedule. It's not going to have anything to do with Tom Coughlin, because we're more than over-prepared for the game and for our battle come Sunday. So if we come out as a team and do what we have to do, then you know we will see a 'W' at the end of the day."

Best to worst.
The number of undefeated teams is down to only three. There's the Pittsburgh Steelers (vs Baltimore Ravens 2-1) and Kansas City Chiefs (Bye week) in the AFC, and in the NFC it's the Chicago Bears. Pittsburgh is favored to win and Chicago is not.
Five teams have no wins as of yet, the Buffalo Bills and Cleveland Browns in the AFC, and the Detroit Lions, Carolina Panthers, and San Francisco 49ers in the NFC. None of these teams are favored to win.

From thirty two to three in three weeks.
Last season you had three 6-0 undefeated teams after 7 weeks (including one bye). Now it's already down to three teams after 3 weeks. Kansas City is on a bye so by the time the Giants get to play on Sunday night, they could be facing one of the last two undefeated teams of the season, if the Steelers lose their earlier game.

NFC East.
Aside from the Giants playing the 3-0 Bears on Sunday in the evening, one of the most exciting matches of the day will be the (2-0) Eagles playing the (1-2) Redskins at 4:15pm. Giant fans (as well as some Eagles fans) will have a hard time deciding which team and / or quarterback to root for or against. The Cowboys (1-2) are on a bye this week and Philadelphia is favored to win over Washington.

Check out.
The Team Giants Store, and see some of the really unique items we put together.
There are some items you certainly haven't seen elsewhere, and each sale helps out our site.

Notes.
Giants Eli Manning is tied for the NFL lead with Minnesota's Brett Favre with six interceptions

Giants have 10 turnovers -- tied for second-most in the league.

Giants offense is ranked 8th and Bears 11th.
Giants defense is ranked 10th and Bears 15th but they are 3-0 and the Giants are 1-2.
A high percent (80+) of teams that started a season 4-0 made it to the playoffs.

Giants have lost their last five regular-season home meetings against the Bears.
The winner of the last two meetings -- in 2006 and 2007 -- has gone on to the Super Bowl.

Bears last season ranked 27th in third-down defense and were last in third-and-long.

Bears Brian Urlacher is the only NFL player to record at least 30 sacks and 15 interceptions since he entered the league in 2000.
He was voted to six Pro Bowls in his first seven years with the Bears.

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