The Bears No Longer S......... (*grin*)

[jdcord]

Yes, "au contraire" to the popular song, the Bears no longer s___.  They are actually a very good team: one that I believe will defeat the Colts and win the Super Bowl next Sunday.

Here are five reasons why I think the Bears will win: 

1.    The Bears' defensive front can put plenty of pressure on Manning, without needing to blitz, and as they showed against the Saints their front seven is more than capable of stopping the run.

2.    The Colts' defensive front can also pressure the QB without having to blitz, however the Bears are not a team predicated on the passing game, so unless the Bears fall behind by at least 14 or more points, I don't see where the Colts' pass rush will have a big impact on the game.

3.    The Colts have only faced one team this season that has an offensive line that even remotely resembles that of the Bears (i.e., one that is built to run the ball, "smash-mouth" style, first and foremost):  that team is the Jacksonville Jaguars, and we all know what happened to the Colts' defense in their last game against Jacksonville - they literally got "run over"! 

4.    Dwight Freeney is a great pass rusher, but he can be had against the run, and with the best "smash-mouth" run blocking line in the league I believe the Bears are fixin' to have Freeney for lunch come Super Bowl Sunday.

5.    The Bears' linebackers won't have any trouble covering Dallas Clark, or any RB the Colts may choose to send out of the backfield either.  Brian Ulracher was on Reggie Bush like "white on rice" every time he was assigned to cover him, and he nearly chased Bush down from behind on Bush's sole good play in the NFC Championship game!  ( )    The rest of the Bears' linebackers are pretty fast in the own right, so shutting down Indy's passing game to its TE's and RB's shouldn't be that big of a problem for Ulracher and company.  And since Clark has provided about 50% of Indy's pass production in the playoffs, the fact that Ulracher and company can, indeed, shut him down (as the Ravens did with their speedy LB's) is a very big deal.   

[Nelle]

*cough*

[not my will but thine]

I think Manning was sacked once.....

Did the Bears forget their defense in Chicago

[natewasmundt]

Here are five reasons why I think the Bears will win: 

1.    The Bears' defensive front can put plenty of pressure on Manning, without needing to blitz, and as they showed against the Saints their front seven is more than capable of stopping the run.

Manning sacked = 1.  Colts rushing yards = 191. (Rhodes 21 carries, 113 yards; Addai 19 carries, 77 yards.

2.    The Colts' defensive front can also pressure the QB without having to blitz, however the Bears are not a team predicated on the passing game, so unless the Bears fall behind by at least 14 or more points, I don't see where the Colts' pass rush will have a big impact on the game.

Grossman sacked = 1, int 2, fumble 2.  Tough game for a guy harassed all season long by critics.  Too bad he didn't have a better game.

3.    The Colts have only faced one team this season that has an offensive line that even remotely resembles that of the Bears (i.e., one that is built to run the ball, "smash-mouth" style, first and foremost):  that team is the Jacksonville Jaguars, and we all know what happened to the Colts' defense in their last game against Jacksonville - they literally got "run over"! 

Chicago rushing yards = 111.  Jones 15 carries, 112 yards.

4.    Dwight Freeney is a great pass rusher, but he can be had against the run, and with the best "smash-mouth" run blocking line in the league I believe the Bears are fixin' to have Freeney for lunch come Super Bowl Sunday.

Wasn't too hungry . . . sore stomach or something kept him from having too big an appetite.

5.    The Bears' linebackers won't have any trouble covering Dallas Clark, or any RB the Colts may choose to send out of the backfield either.  Brian Ulracher was on Reggie Bush like "white on rice" every time he was assigned to cover him, and he nearly chased Bush down from behind on Bush's sole good play in the NFC Championship game!  ( )    The rest of the Bears' linebackers are pretty fast in the own right, so shutting down Indy's passing game to its TE's and RB's shouldn't be that big of a problem for Ulracher and company.  And since Clark has provided about 50% of Indy's pass production in the playoffs, the fact that Ulracher and company can, indeed, shut him down (as the Ravens did with their speedy LB's) is a very big deal.

Manning 25/38, 247 yards, 1td, 1int.  Clark 4 recept, 36 yds; Addai 10 recept, 66 yards.

Manning picked apart the Chicago defense.

Colt Coach Dungy was overheard after the opening kickoff return for the touchdown - "if you want to crown them, crown them!"  And again after the game, "We knew who they were!   They were who we thought they were!"
*(Dungy didn't really say that, just making fun of ex Cards coach Dennis Green's tirade after losing to the Bears earlier this season)

[jdcord]

I think Manning was sacked once.....

Did the Bears forget their defense in Chicago

Actually, the play of the Bears' defense was really mind-boggling.  They have what many folks have called the fastest defense in the entire NFL, while the Colts' defense is pretty fast in its own right (but not as big).  But while the rain sure seemed to slow down the Bears' defense, it didn't seem to slow down the Colts' defense at all!

I wonder if the Colts' players were wearing a better sized cleat on their shoes than the Bears' players? 

One of the little known facts of the 87' Super Bowl between the Redskins and the Broncos (Super Bowl XXII) was that in the first quarter the Redskins' players were slipping and sliding because the field condition was a lot softer than what they had apparently bargained for, and the cleats on their shoes weren't long enough.  The Broncos  (who's equipment staff had apparently done a better job of judging the field conditions) quickly took advantage and jumped out to a 10-0 lead within the first five minutes. 

So throughout the remainder of the first quarter the Redskins were shuffling their players in and out of the locker room in order to change their shoes to ones with a longer set of cleats.  The offense was the last unit to change over to the longer cleats because, being down 10-0 so quickly, getting the defense changed over naturally took priority.  That is why Doug Williams slipped and almost busted his ankle in the final minutes of the first quarter - he hadn't changed cleats yet.

Anyways, by the time the TV timout at the end of the first quarter was done, the entire Redskins roster had finally finished changing over to the longer cleats, and with that better traction the results in the second quarter are a Super Bowl record that may never be broken - five offensive drives for five touchdowns in just one quarter of play.  (The shortest drive was 60 yards, and three of them were drives of 74 yards or more!).

And BTW, none of that stuff about the cleats was ever even mentioned by the absolutely useless TV commentators - you had to be listening to the radio broadcast to hear anything about it. 

TV Super Bowl commentators are completely worthless when it comes to finding out anything interesting or important about the true "chess match" taking place down on the field:  they're too busy telling you how one of the players dreams of marrying Oprah Winfrey!       Meanwhile - as we are forced to listen to the drivel about said player's love and admiration for Oprah - Devin Hester is lined up in the middle of the kickoff return unit, at the 30 yard line (instead of back near the end zone where he normally lines up), but the TV talking heads are completely unaware of that fact, and fail to catch on to it at any point during the rest of the game!!     ........ Idiots!

...... but I digress, .....


Anyhoo, watching the Bears appear to be slowed down by the rain, while the Colts didn't seem to be slowed down at all, made me think of Super Bowl XXII and that whole "cleats" thing.  I wonder if it was something similar in yesterday's game?  Perhaps so, but considering the morons who report on the game, I doubt any of them will even think to ask about it (or otherwise look into it), so I doubt we'll ever know.

*siiiiiiiiiigh*

[natewasmundt]

What was with the challenge by Dungy early in the 2nd half - the Bears didn't have 11 players on the field.  I was surprised he was able to challenge something like that, since a flag should've been thrown if that were the case.

If he could challenge that, shouldn't you be able to challenge for holding or facemask penalties not called?

It was a dumb challenge I thought.

[BigUm]

What was with the challenge by Dungy early in the 2nd half - the Bears didn't have 11 players on the field.  I was surprised he was able to challenge something like that, since a flag should've been thrown if that were the case.

If he could challenge that, shouldn't you be able to challenge for holding or facemask penalties not called?

It was a dumb challenge I thought.

yeah, I thought so too...if you can challenge THAT, then pretty much anything should be challengeable...

but anyway, the Bears didn't play like they wanted the win, even though they go off to the greatest start possible...they didn't deserve to win.

I didn't really mind losing to them because I like Dungy and Manning...I think they have alot of class so I was happy with that...

We'll be back next year.

Resign Briggs!