If we get another week of upsets, this could definitely be one. The Bears have been very good against the pass and are at home while the Rams are only 1-3 on the road and coming off a bad offensive show. But the Rams defense should be enough to keep the Bears in their cage and Marshall Faulk is quick enough again to make the game tilt towards the Rams.

St. Louis Notes

The Rams rise to 6-3 after beating the Ravens in possibly the ugliest win in franchise history.

Quarterbacks: Last week Marc Bulger turned in a horrific game - the worst of his career. He completed only 13 of 26 passes for 110 yards and two interceptions. It was his first non-scoring game of the season and his first below 226 yards (make that well below). What made it more incredible was that it happened at home where he had been almost flawless. Though repeatedly prodded by reporters, HC Mike Martz said that there is no chance that Kurt Warner is considered again. The knock against Bulger is that he gets too rattled when he throws an early interception or has too much pass rush pressure, both of which happened last week.

Running backs: Marshall Faulk won the offensive player of the game last week even though he only had 48 yards on 20 carries. He did score two very early touchdowns and in reality, no other offensive player did anything positive the entire game. Faulk had one run for 16 yards and otherwise was held below two yards per carry. It is notable though that Faulk did not share a single carry in the game.

Wide Receivers: After a blistering run for the previous six weeks, Torry Holt only had 38 yards on three catches against the Ravens and two of them were in the first offensive series of the game. With Bulger clearly rattled, the passing game never took off.

Tight Ends: Even worse than the wideouts last week. Brandon Manumaleuna had two catches for 15 yards.

Match against the defense: The Bears come off a defeat by the Lions which will sting. Their secondary has tightened up well this season and in four of the past seven games they have not allowed a passing score. The best game an opponent has had against Chicago has been only 238 yards passing which was last week.

The Bears corners have done a good job in spite of what the run defense has been. The best any receiver has done against them was Bobby Engram's 73 yards as a #3 receiver. Joe Horn only had 30 yards, Robinson had 65 and Moss only had 27. This does not bode well for Tory Holt.

Marshall Faulk should do better here though, since the Bears have almost always been susceptible to the run and the Rams need to control the game with running to have hopes of getting Holt and Bruce open.

Chicago Notes

The Bears fall to 3-6 with the loss to the Lions but are 3-1 at home.

Quarterbacks: Chris Chandler will remain the starter even though he only managed 148 yards and one score against the normally porous Lion secondary. Chandler still has yet to throw for over 224 yards in a game or score more than one passing touchdown.

Running backs: Anthony Thomas ran into an upset-week buzzsaw in Detroit and only managed 61 yards on 21 carries. This week he faces a top ten rush defense so look for more of the same.

Wide Receivers: Marty Booker finally got back to the playing field but only turned in 36 yards on four catches. He was assisted in the futility by David Terrell who only had two catches for 17 yards which all came during the first seven plays in the game. It was almost inexplicable how poorly the wideouts did last week but considering none of them have ever gained 100 yards this season, it is not shocking.

Tight Ends: Dustin Lyman remained in a Detroit-area hospital under observation after suffering a bruised spleen and Desmond Clark had the lone touchdown in the game.

Match against the defense: This could be a problem area. The Rams have been great against the pass when facing an average or worse attack and the Bears are not near average. The Rams have forced a turnover in every game this season and had a ridiculous five against the quarterbacks last week. The Bears do not want to get into a passing war against St. Louis and will produce lower passer numbers because of it. The defensive ends for St. Louis have been doing a great job with pressure and sacks and even though DE Leonard Little missed last week and likely this week, Tyoka Jackson played great in his place. Grant Winstrom continues to play very well.

The Rams rush defense has been very good this year and have allowed only Jamal Lewis to exceed 100 yards in the past two months (and he did that with some early big runs). Thomas will get plenty of carries unless the score gets away from them and could have a decent game but it would be from volume of carries more than big runs.

* Fantasy point rankings calculated using standard Huddle fantasy points