Bear Season is Upon Us
The Bears open their 2007 Championship Season this Sunday with the toughest game on their schedule: the San Diego Super-Chargers. I'm not going to lie to you, this game worries me. San Diego is a tough, tough opponent. On offense, they've got the best runningback in football: the one and only LaDainian Tomlinson. 'Nuff said. On Defense, they've got Shawne "would have been Defensive Player of the Year if he hadn't roided up" Merriman anchoring the unit. No team in football has a Top 2 better than that. Had Marty Schottenheimer not crapped the bed in the playoffs last January, they may well have matched up with the Bears in the Super Bowl.
After that meltdown, Schotsie was replaced by Norv Turner. I'm sorry, but is this supposed to be an upgrade? Norv, like his brother Ron, has proven to be pretty good at leading an offense but his head coaching experience leaves a lot to be desired. (Take a look at his career record.) Oh, and aside from the Brothers Turner, the Chargers have another Bears connection: Ron Rivera. The Bears former defensive coordinator is now the LB coach for the Bolts. This really is what scares me about San Diego. He knows the Bears defense up and down. Strengths, weaknesses, all. He could pull a Gruden and use this leverage to put his team on top. I'm telling you, this ain't good. But enough about the Chargers dominance, lets talk about the Bears.
As outlined in my preseason preview, the Bears really only have three concerns: Grossman, Benson, and Team Health. They stay healthy, and I think the rest will take care of itself. I actually think Grossman is going to have a big year. And if he doesn't? I say Lovie Smith pulls him in favor of Brian Griese. Lovie's not stupid, and he knows the window of opportunity in the NFL is small. He's not going to put his job on the shoulder of an erratic, fumble-prone passer in the last year of his contract. So I'm not worried about the QB situation at all.
Benson, on the other hand, concerns me. I can see Benson's season going one of three ways:
- Monster year: 1700 yards, 12 TDs. At a minimum. Think Larry Johnson.
- Very mediocre year: 1000 yards, 6 TDs, 3.5 ypc. Call it the James Allen special.
- Blown knee: < 500 yards, 1 TD. Call it the Enis.
The Bears can win with 1 or 2. He gets hurt, and things will be pretty dire in the backfield. I like Peterson and Wolfe, but I don't think either is capable of being the featured back for more than a handful of games. I think we might really come to miss Thomas Jones.
The rest of the team is in pretty good shape, though. The defense, especially, should be markedly improved over what we saw last February. Tommie Harris and Mike Brown are healthy while Tank Johnson and Ian Scott have been replaced by Darwin Walker and Dusty Dvoracek. Call me crazy but I think that's an upgrade. Dvoracek has looked like an animal this preseason, and Walker has the 5th most sacks of any Tackle in football over the past six years. This is what most of the national media is missing when discussing the Bears. They talk about the defense being downgraded with the loss of Tank without mentioning the new guys coming in. News flash, the new guys are good. And I didn't even mention Archuleta.
And that's about it. I'll be extremely optimistic and say Bears win Sunday by a score of 21-17 while they finish the season with a 12-4 record.
Bear Down. Make this season matter.
PS. I guess we now know what would have happened in the Super Bowl had the Saints beaten the Bears last January. Man, the Saints made the Bears look good.