The NFC Championship Game is a great matchup this season. The Bears have been the best team in the NFC all season as they sport a 14-3 record and get the game at home in Soldier Field where it should be nice and cold. The Saints are the new “America’s Team” as almost everyone whose team has been knocked out of the playoffs is jumping on the underdogs bandwagon!

The Bears will be content to run the football alot to control the clock and keep the ball away from the Saints offense. It’s also the best way to attack the Saints defense as they’ve had problems all season stopping the run. The Saints gave up an average of 128.9 yards rushing per game and 4.9 yards per carry during the regular season and they did a terrible job against Brian Westbrook and the Eagles last week as they allowed 123 yards rushing and 6.2 yards per carry. The Bears will probably split the carries between Thomas Jones and Cedric Benson to keep both of them fresh. The Bears will probably use alot of play-action when they pass the ball to try to freeze the DBs of the Saints. Also look for Mushin Muhammad and Desmond Clark to be a much bigger part of the offense with the short passing game to help keep the ball away from the Saints and to build Rex Grossman’s confidence. The Bears will take a few deep shots probably against whoever CB Fred Thomas is covering as he had big problems last week.

The Saints will also try to run the ball alot with the idea of dominating time of possession. They did exactly that last week when they held onto the ball for 35:24 in their win over the Eagles last week. The Bears linebackers are going to have their hands full with Deuce McAllister and Reggie Bush. McAllister is the banger between the tackles and he rolled up 143 yards on 21 carries (6.8 ypc) and a TD last week. Brian Urlacher and DTs Tank Johnson and Ian Scott will be responsible for stopping his inside runs. Reggie Bush also had a good game running the ball and he’ll likely handle the outside runs for the Saints. He will put huge pressure on OLBs Lance Briggs and Hunter Hillenmeyer to contain him in the running game. The Saints also like to throw to their RBs on screens and flat patterns, so Briggs & Hillenmeyer will also have to worry about that. Drew Brees is a master at play action and he will take a few shots deep to Devery Henderson (who’s likely to start in Joe Horn’s spot). Henderson averaged 23.3 yards per catch during the regular season so the Bears defense must respect his speed. The Saints passing attack will mostly be of the shorter variety to Rookie WR Marques Colston and the TEs who suddenly have become a big part of the Saints passing attack. Also, look for Sean Payton to have some kind of secret weapon on offense like he did last week when he used TE Billy Miller as a big part of the attack which was a huge surprise!

Both teams have been great on special teams as they both have solid kickers (Robbie Gould, Bears and John Carney, Saints). But it’s the returners that could have a say in the outcome of this game. Devin Hester has been a fantastic kick returner all season long and can break one at any time. Reggie Bush is the punt returner for the Saints and he also can take one to the house in the blink of an eye. Michael Lewis did a great job returning kicks last week for the Saints and he’s also capable of breaking a big one.

This should be a great football game. The team that protects the football better will win this game and advance to the Super Bowl. The feeling here is that the Saints are a little better equipped to do that.