November
Around the NFC North in Week 11
Around the NFC North in week 11
Week 11 brings about some intriguing plotlines around the NFC North. The Chicago Bears and San Francisco 49ers both lost their starting quarterbacks for portions of this past Sunday’s game. The Green Bay Packers finally see a divisional opponent in old foe the Detroit Lions. The Minnesota Vikings have their bye this week after beating the Lions to complete the sweep in that series. Here is a breakdown of the two matchups in the Black & Blue division this week.
Chicago Bears (7-2) at San Francisco 49ers (6-2-1)
The storyline in this Monday Night Football contest is that in this past week’s game, 49ers quarterback Alex Smith and Bears quarterback Jay Cutler were both knocked out with a concussion. Each missed the entire second half of their game. Both Smith and Cutler will go through the league-mandated concussion protocol and need to be cleared before resuming football activities.
As of Wednesday, it was being reported that Smith was cleared to resume play and is expected to start on Sunday. If Smith can’t go for some reason, he would be replaced by Colin Kaepernick. The Bears have not yet commented on their expectations for Cutler’s status this week. Cutler’s backup is Jason Campbell. In such a crucial matchup, this is a situation to monitor as the week goes on.
Before last Sunday’s game (and besides mop up duty), Campbell had appeared for just one snap in an October 22nd game against the Detroit Lions. Cutler was viciously taken down by Detroit’s Ndamukong Suh and came out for just one play before returning.
