Three final thoughts:

• If the Bears don’t win today they’ll face a mighty difficult road to the postseason so an argument can be made on today being a must win. If the Bears lose the focus will immediately shift to Lovie Smith’s future with the club.
• No excuses from either side of the ball today. Cutler and the offense need to put up 28 points or more and the defense needs to mildly contain AP while limiting Christian Ponder’s connections with Kyle Rudolph. If those three things don’t happen, folks start receiving blame.
• I like that Brandon Marshall wants to “carry a bigger load” but how in the hell is that possible? Cutler-to-Marshall is already the entirety of the Bears offense. How about a running game emerge and dominate the line of scrimmage?

Big game. As always you can follow my thoughts throughout the day and during tonight’s Lions v. Packers game by checking out @dabearsblog on Twitter.