My Friends,

 

What now?

 

First you control the division, and then you control the conference. The road to Miami travels through Chicago if you’re in the NFC, and now everybody knows it.

 

It doesn’t matter that Shaun Alexander didn’t play last night. Seattle could have brought Alexander the Great and the outcome wouldn’t have been any different. All the talk over the past week was about the potent front seven of the Seahawks defense, and how they would make a game of it. Maybe for one series, they did. Consider that the Bears had a time of possession over 35 minutes, threw down 143 yards rushing and two touchdowns on the ground, were perfect on three field goal attempts, had a 41 yard net punting average and sported a quarterback who threw two touchdown passes with a rating north of 100. Seahawks defense? Now there’s an oxymoron for you.

 

Lips are quivering, hands wringing, flop sweat beading on the collective brows of the coaching staffs in the AFC East and the rest of the NFC West after seeing how the Bears demolished the former chalk of the conference. Carolina still lurks out there somewhere on the horizon, but their defense is a bit banged up and suffers from the loss of Dante Wesley and junior.

 

Junior! I read a story in yesterday’s Sun-Times where Danieal Manning’s uncle predicted his nephew would have two interceptions against Matt Hasselbeck. His crystal ball was fuzzy, but only a little, as the Bears’ other Manning came up with a pair of picks of his own. A fine job by junior as he let us know just how important a part of the Bears stifling defense he is. Now if we could just get that pesky NFL disciplinary hearing over with. Fine. Just fine.

 

Tommie Harris had another monster game, ringing up another two sacks and putting him halfway to his season-long goal of ten after only four games. He’s quickly making a case to supplant Brian Urlacher as Defensive Player of the Year. Hopefully if he does, his speech is more compelling than Urlacher’s “whoop-de-doo.”

 

That a Seahawks squad that systematically dismantled the Giants a week ago with essentially the same guys could come in here and only manage 230 yards of offense while struggling to put up six points can’t leave much doubt around the NFL. And now the page turns to reveal our old friend, Dick Jauron, coming to visit with his resurgent Bills. It’s a chance for Lovie Smith to start making his mark against the AFC, where he has a 2-6 record over his first two seasons. Running the table against the AFC East this year would pull him up to a respectable .500, and prove the Bears could play with any team in the league.

 

There isn’t much left after that besides a game at Dolphin Stadium. Bears wear blue.

 

LBF

10/2/2006