Chicago Bears: 5 Players who must shine vs. Rams in Week 11

Buster Skrine, CB

There was a collective groan coming from Bears fans when the team signed Buster Skrine to replace Bryce Callahan. Skrine had his problems on the field when playing for the New York Jets.

What some analysts said about Skrine was that he was asked to do too much in New York and he put too much pressure on himself. With an elite defense like the one the Bears have, he wouldn’t have to try to make all the big plays. There are plenty of playmakers on this defense. He’d just have to worry about the man in front of him.

So far, the analysts have been correct. He’s been a solid slot corner who hasn’t given up many big plays. He’s given up just one touchdown and quarterbacks have just a 72.5 passer rating against him. Opposing quarterbacks have completed just 55.6 percent (25 completions on 45 attempts) of their passes against him.

Also, remember when the knock on him was all the penalties he committed when he played for the Jets? Well, this season he committed just one penalty so far, an offsides penalty when he was in on a field goal attempt in the Bears’ Week 2 game against the Denver Broncos. He’s been a solid signing for the Bears this season.

This week, Skrine matches up with Cooper Kupp. Kupp has 792 receiving yards and 5 touchdowns. He has five games in which he had over 100 receiving yards, one of them for over 200 yards.

He hasn’t played as well in his last four games, however. He did have a 220 receiving yard performance, but it was against the Cincinnati Bengals. In the other three games, he garnered 67 total yards, including zero last week against the Pittsburgh Steelers. It was the first time in his career in which he had no catches in a game.

You know after last week’s performance the Rams will feed the ball to Kupp. Their top receiver, Brandin Cooks, is out with a concussion. They need Kupp to play well for them to have a chance to score. Without Cooks, the Steelers took out Kupp and dared the other receivers to beat them and the strategy worked for them.

The Bears need to do the same this week. Skrine needs to be ready to have the busiest game since he became a Bear.