While watching Monday night football, as the Bears played the Packers, similarities between the Bears and Eastern started springing up in my mind.

Granted one’s mind does start to wander when Monday Night Football turns out to be such a bummer of a game. There is only so many times one can watch Ahman Green rush through a hole that could fit three, maybe four men in it.

But the similarities are there between the two struggling football clubs. The offenses are both stalling to the point that the punter becomes a very crucial part to the offense, and the term “field position” starts springing up a little more than it should.

Also, Eastern’s defense has been solid, for the most part, but there have been holes that have begun to be exposed by opponents’ offenses.

The first commonality between the two offenses is the quarterback situations and the lack of production from the two teams’ through the air.

The Bears have settled for Kordell Stewart at the helm, but how many times did the Monday Night Football cameras lock onto the figure backup quarterback Rex Grossman waiting on the sideline with his trusty clip-board under his arm?

The mind then starts to wonder how long it will be before Grossman’s clip-board will be replaced with a football, and Stewart will be the one on the sideline.

Ask either one of Eastern’s two quarterbacks and they will understand what the Bears quarterbacks are going through because the Panthers can’t seem to make a decision on which one it is going to be the starter yet either.

Junior Andy Vincent and sophomore Andrew Harris have been competing for the starting job ever since last year’s quarterback Tony Romo left town. But neither of the two new quarterbacks have found out which one has gained the confidence of his coaching staff.

The next position that has seemed to struggle for both teams has been running back, in which big names were supposed to be big time players.

For the Panthers, this was supposed to be senior Andre Raymond’s coming out party in 2003 with the departure of former Eastern running back J.R. Taylor.

But Raymond has been stalled with a gimpy ankle, and watched the seemingly unknown red-shirt freshmen Vincent Webb come out of nowhere and get playing time throughout the second half of the Indiana State game last Saturday.

At the same time, Anthony Thomas hasn’t been in the good graces of any of the the Bears’ upper management since his rookie year.

Since then, there has been more time spent with Adrian Peterson and the ever-popular Rabih Abdullah in the backfield. The smile that creeps across Bear fans’ faces when there is an Abdullah sighting is priceless.

On the defensive side of the ball, cornerbacks have been struggling for both teams.

The Bears have watched as R.W. McQuarters has been burned time and time again. Things have gotten so bad with the cornerback situation in Chicago that one Tribune columnist is calling for David Terrell, the disappointing wide-receiver, to get some playing time at cornerback.

As for the Panthers, the undersized cornerbacks who lineup against the opposition have had a tough time too.

Never was this more apparent then during the Indiana State game when the five-foot-nine inch Terrance Sanders was abused by all six-foot-three inches of Sycamore wide-out Mike Logan.

Three pass plays, all of them fade routes down the sideline, were caught by Logan for large gains. Logan was covered well by Sanders all three times but the height advantage took its toll.

So that leaves us with two teams that have problems that are pretty similar. Right now it comes down to how these teams respond.

The whole nation saw how the Bears responded on Monday Night Football. Eastern fans will see how the Panthers respond Saturday when the team starts conference play against Southeast Missouri State.