My Friends,

Once upon a time there was an offensive machine out west that struck fear into the hearts of NFL defenses. It visited Soldier Field in 1981 with a laser-armed future Hall of Fame quarterback who threw for over 4800 yards that year. Three of his receivers had 1000 yard seasons, including two who would also have busts in Canton. Their ball carriers chalked up over 2000 yards on the ground. The 478 points they scored would lead the league.

They lost.

Frequent readers of this rant may recognize the San Diego Chargers and Air Coryell as the team being described. Although the game was played while Ron Rivera was still cutting his teeth on the field at Cal, he's intimately familiar with the defense his old coach unveiled that day. Looking for a way to counter tight end Kellen Winslow and the three wide receiver sets Don Coryell normally used, Buddy Ryan introduced the "46" defense and harassed Dan Fouts into a 13-43 game. Although Fouts was never sacked, he did throw two interceptions in overtime as the Bears turned up the pressure every time he dropped back. The result was a 20-17 beating at the hands of the Bears.

Maybe Rivera is just taking a page from the '80s defenses the current group wants so desperately to be considered alongside. By staying with the nickel against Seattle's four-wide set, is Chico going old school on them, using Urlacher and Briggs to fill the roles of Singletary and Wilson back in the day?

I like the theory. It's on 54 and 55 to make it work Sunday night.

LBF

9/30/2006