CHICAGO (AP) – As the new man in the middle of the Chicago Bears’ defense, Hunter Hillenmeyer will be calling the signals, trying to disrupt the NFL’s most potent offense while matching football wits with Peyton Manning today.

That means finding a way to contain Manning and decipher his line-of-scrimmage machinations, where he sometimes calls the play at the last moment and other times simply tries to fool the defense.

“He does a good job of getting people to worry about other things,” Hillenmeyer says.

Considering that the Indianapolis Colts (6-3) have not scored fewer than 24 points in any game this season, Chicago’s improving defense should be worried.

With 31 touchdown passes, Manning is on pace to break Dan Marion’s NFL-record 48 set in 1984. He also needs 251 yards passing – easily within his reach – at Soldier Field to reach 3,000 yards for a seventh straight season.

Two more TD passes give him 200, making him the second quickest to reach that number behind Marino.

And if that isn’t enough for the Bears’ defense, Edgerrin James needs just 123 yards – easily within his reach – to hit 1,000 for the fourth time in his career. The numbers go on and on. The Bears (4-5) are riding a three-game winning streak, but as has been the case most of the season, they will be without one of their top players. Linebacker Brian Urlacher, the four-time Pro Bowler, is sidelined four to six weeks with an injury to his left calf that required surgery. Hillenmeyer, who filled in at middle linebacker earlier when Urlacher missed two games with a hamstring injury, will move back to the position from the outside. His responsibility is to put the Bears in the right coverages – if there are any to stop Manning and his assortment of receivers, led by Marvin Harrison.

“No, it’s not easy. I’m calling the checks, but everybody is looking for things,” Hillenmeyer said.

“Just from watching the film it looks like he completes every single pass.”

Manning scatters the ball and five Colts have caught at least five TD passes this season. And he’s mastered line-of-scrimmage play calls for an offense averaging 33 points a game, one that has helped cover up any defensive deficiencies.

“It’s obviously a system we’ve been doing for a number of years. It’s just kind of controlled chaos out there, as I call it. And it’s just sort of what the quarterback is required to do in this offense,” Manning said.

The Bears’ defense has been carrying the team the last three weeks as rookie quarterback Craig Krenzel struggles. Krenzel’s quarterback rating after three straight wins is a minuscule 49.4, compared to Manning’s eye-popping 122.7

No wonder the Bears need their defense to be their offense, just like last week, when Michael Haynes lugged an interception back for a TD and fellow defensive ends Alex Brown and Adewale Ogunleye combined on a sack for a safety in overtime to give the Bears a 19-17 win over the Titans.

A key for the Bears will be to somehow control field position, if not with their struggling offense then with the punting of Brad Maynard. That’s because once Manning gets the Colts into the red zone, Indianapolis converts for TDs, not field goals.

The Colts lead the NFL at 76 percent, getting a TD on 26 of 34 trips inside the 20.

And sacking Manning is next to impossible. He’s gone down just six times all season while attempting 296 passes.

“We got to sack him,” Brown said. “We got to put pressure on him and make him throw it earlier and when he doesn’t want to.

“We have to beat some blocks and do things right and make some plays on him. He rarely makes mistakes out there. He’s smart, like a coach.”

AP-ES-11-18-04 1938EST