Twenty years after the Bears released the entertaining Super Bowl Shuffle music video one month before they even made it to the Super Bowl, Da Bears are back in business.
The Bears have won eight in a row and like the team's only Super Bowl champs, they are doing it with an intimidating, relentless defense. It was a moral victory for anybody to even get in the end zone against the '85 Bears. It's that way again. The problem with these Bears is their offense, led by rookie quarterback Kyle Orton, the lowest-rated passer in the NFL. The Bears offense looks as though it's playing the Bears defense.
"I just see this as a blueprint we have for our football team: A great defense that takes advantage of turnovers and an offense that is able to run the football. We play in the elements this time of the year," Bears coach Lovie Smith was saying from his office in Lake Forest, Ill. "We know we need to score more points offensively. But the blueprint has taken us to eight wins in a row.
"If we had a more productive offense, what would have happened? We would have won nine games in a row? If we had lost half the games, I'd say I wish we could have gotten more from our offense. We have gotten just enough to win the last eight. What else can you ask for?"
The '85 Bears were an outrageous bunch. They had incredible personalities and big names: Mike Ditka, Buddy Ryan, Walter Payton, Mike Singletary, Jim McMahon, William 'Refrigerator' Perry, Dan Hampton, Richard Dent, Wilber Marshall, Otis Wilson. McMahon, who mooned a television helicopter during a Super Bowl practice, was on center stage in New Orleans during one of the most eventful and hysterical pre-Super Bowl weeks in history.
Although the '85 Bears were known for their defense, they could score, too, averaging nearly 30 points per game. Ditka even made Perry into a folk hero by playing the 335-pound defensive tackle at fullback and letting him run the ball on goal-line plays. They were a team that thrived on controversy right down to their 46-10 Super Bowl victory over the Patriots when Ditka gave the ball to Perry instead of Payton at the Pats 1, allowing Perry to score the TD that made it 44-3 in the third quarter. Payton did not score in that game and was not happy about it.
The '05 Bears are completely one-dimensional and relatively unknown. They are just like the 2000 Ravens, who won the Super Bowl with a defense that set the record for fewest points allowed in a 16-game season with 165. "We like to think with them winning the Super Bowl, we are similar to them," Smith said.
The Ravens hoped their offense wouldn't score for the other team. Chicago has allowed just 127 points in 12 games, which is a pace for 169, just off the Ravens' record. Indianapolis, at 162 points, is the only other team that has allowed fewer than 200 this season. The Bears have permitted just 11 touchdowns so far.
"I thought we could have a special defense, I will say that," Smith said. "We were saying that in training camp. We thought this group could be a special defense."
Brian Urlacher is this team's Singletary, but unlike Hampton, Dent, etc., who were established stars in 1985, this Bears defense is just now making a name for itself.
"I would say that Brian is a legitimate superstar. Everybody knows about him," Smith said.
Cornerback Nathan Vasher put his name in the record books with a 108-yard touchdown return of a wind-blown field goal attempt last month, the longest play in NFL history. The front four of Adewale Ogunleye, Tommie Harris, Ian Scott and Alex Brown has helped the Bears get 37 sacks, tied with Jacksonville for third in the league behind Seattle and San Diego. Vasher has seven INTs, tied for the NFC lead, and cornerback Charles Tillman has four, including a 22-yard INT returned for a touchdown in OT to beat Detroit.
But can the Bears win the Super Bowl by just playing defense? They've scored a measly 22 touchdowns, only 17 by the offense. That doesn't compare to the offensive TDs put up by the other NFC division leaders: Seahawks (39), Giants (32) and Panthers (32). But they can run the ball - No. 5 in the league - which helps in a Windy City winter.
Rex Grossman, ready to play after suffering a broken left ankle in the preseason, could get his job back if Orton doesn't pick up his play. "Everybody is on a short leash," Smith said. "But Kyle is our starting quarterback, the same guy that led us to eight straight wins."
Smith, who coached with Herm Edwards in Tampa, then went to the Rams to straighten out their defense, is in his second year in Chicago. He interviewed for the Giants job last year that went to Tom Coughlin and was a runnerup along with Charlie Weis and Romeo Crennel. "In my case, it couldn't have worked out better," Smith said.
12-11-2005, 08:18 AM
Linear Mode
Similar Threads
