Check out this article by Dan Pompei, who says the Bears are only going to get better from here on out.
Best line: "So what we're left with is a pretty good football team—a team that can be better than the 2006 Bears. Now all they have to do is go out and prove it for 11 games." Every game counts from here on out, and if the Bears can win the division and play most - if not all - of their playoff games at home, they could be back in the big game at the end of the season.
1 comment:
Nice article. While I still miss Don Pierson, the brightest football mind in Chicago outside of this blog, Pompei has done a very good job filling that vacated role.
My initial reaction was to scoff at his thesis. Better than the 2006 Bears? That team didn't lose its third game until week 17 when the third string played the majority of the game...this year's team took a mere 4 weeks.
Not to mention, that team made the Super Bowl, and still had a good chance to win until about 7 minutes to go, against a good defense and an all time great offense.
But thinking about it at a deeper level, I think this year's team could prove a little tougher than last year's team. The Bears offense peaked early last year, and was hitting on all cylinders when they racked up the numbers that moved their ranking into the top half of the league. Our running game still hasn't shown up (IMO the o-line, in particular the mediocre-at-best right side, is primarily to blame), and Griese is still getting established into the offense. Even with that, we've put up 27 points on the road 2 weeks in a row, most impressively against a very solid Green Bay defense.
This tells me that if the o-line gets its act together, and Griese makes incremental improvement, and our WRs learn to get open/hold onto the ball, our O should improve. Additionally, our defense is going to keep getting healthier, and in the meantime hopefully some of the young guys will round into form. Once that happens, look out.
Also, don't forget the we've played 3 of our toughest games already. So while the record may show 9 or 10 wins (assuming they don't somehow implode), I think they have the potential to be a much more consistent team heading into the playoffs, and that alone should give them confidence that they can get back to the big game.
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