What to look for tonight….

Tonight the Giants will play the Bears in the home opener for the Pre-Season. It will set up a short week of practice with the Giants playing the Jets on Saturday night.
The Offense: Look for the O- line to gel a bit more. The running game has been difficult to practice, since their is limited hitting during the week. Bradshaw and Jacobs should get a good look for at least the first half tonight. Look for the increased usage of Domenik Hixon and Devin Thomas in the passing game, along with Bear Pascoe. Eli will have to start trusting someone other than Nicks and Manningham, and this would be a good night to get into a rhythm with the other receivers.
The Defense: The Giants will pick up where they left off last year against these Bears. The Bears have already had to make changes in their O-Line and it looks like it will be a work in progress all year. Marion Barber will get some runs to test the Giants interior run defense. The Bears run a “No Audible” offense, which means their is one call, and sometimes only one read on passing plays. Look for Cutler to make some quick throws to avoid the pass rush, but if he hesitates a split second, chances are the outcome will not be good for the Chicago offense.
Special Teams: The competition will continue between Matt Dodge and Steve Weatherford for the punters position. The return game has yet to show any signs of explosiveness, and the coverage units seem to be very tentative and afraid of making a mistake. There needs to be more aggressiveness, but it needs to be the controlled kind, with everyone covering their responsibilities.
Lots of decisions will have to be made in the next two weeks, and with two games in 6 days, it all starts tonight.