My Friends,
2001 proved to be a fluke. 2005 was a learning experience. But tomorrow, Lovie Smith’s Bears will accomplish something that hasn’t been done since the glory days of the mid-‘80s. With a victory over the Vikings, the Bears will win consecutive division titles for the first time since Mike Ditka ran off five straight from 1984 to 1988.
It’s been a long, mostly barren road for the Bears and their fans since the Miser decided Ditka couldn’t handle the job anymore after his 1992 team reversed the 11-5 record of 1991. Hiring Dave Wannstedt, the wunderkind defensive coordinator of the Super Bowl champion Cowboys, was considered a masterstroke at the time, but it turned out to be fool’s gold as the image of that regime scarred into our collective psyche is one of Wanny running his hand through his hair and the “trust no one” attitude that festered on the roster as Wanny’s moles lurked in the locker room.
The Miser’s botched signing of Dave McGinnis and after-the-fact hiring of Dick Jauron set the stage for where we are now, finally forcing Virginia McCaskey to take a hard look at the laughingstock her eldest son had spun from her father’s treasure. Jauron was a decent enough sort - from a character standpoint Wanny could never hope to be in his league - but he started off saddled with a roster bereft of talent and a dream team coaching staff of misfits and leftovers after the Miser’s antics left the Bears as the final team to fill their head coaching vacancy.
While Jauron holds the distinction of being the last coach to win the NFC Central, our lasting memory of coach Dick is of quotes like “It’s not my show, but I’m on that show,” and my personal favorite, “the offense played consistently in spurts.” At the time he was let go some said that Jauron’s biggest offense was not being Jerry Angelo’s guy, but I don’t hear anybody complaining these days about the regular routs of inferior opponents the Bears have been piling up or the steadily increasing rankings on both sides of the ball since he left.
Part of that has to do with the steadying hand of head coach Lovie Smith, who is Angelo’s guy, and part of it has to do with Angelo himself. Since being hired by Ted Phillips after a widely ridiculed search, Angelo has systematically gone about stocking the roster with talent from top to bottom. Starting around the time of the firing of Jerry Vainisi and departure of Bill Tobin, the Bears became a way station for players on their way out of the league. These days, guys who don’t make it here are playing elsewhere. Names like Colombo, Gandy, Tucker and Davis, while not superstars, are either starting or making regular contributions. There’s Bobby Wade catching passes from Vince Young in Tennessee, and Daven Holly returning a pick for a touchdown in Cleveland. GMs around the league are watching what goes on here for a change, hoping to pick up someone who can help, or maybe just to find out why things are different at Halas Hall.
Not that the Bears are above mining the talent pool for intelligence on upcoming opponents. We used to be told that the idea of claiming players released by future foes for insight on their schemes was overrated, but Angelo and Smith have turned this tactic into an art form. The signing of Jets castoff Darrell McClover hardly merited mention when he was picked up in late October, but there was McClover lined up next to Chris Harris two weeks ago in the Meadowlands, telling Harris an onside kick was coming, and there it was. Just this week the Bears signed Richard Angulo, who was released from the Vikings’ practice squad on November 22. Who knows what nugget Angulo will provide; the point is, you know the Bears coaching staff spent time sweating him this week, seeing if he had anything that could help the game plan, leaving no stone unturned.
That goes for game day as well. How many times did Wanny or Jauron tell us halftime was too short to make adjustments? But there was a story in the Tribune last Sunday detailing how Smith and his staff make use of each of the 12 minutes to map out a second half plan. And they get results: the Bears have outscored their opponents 141-68 after the break this season.
The attention to detail extends to the practice field, too, where Smith had his players working outdoors in a steady rain on Wednesday and the wind-whipped cold on Thursday, while the Vikings prepared in the comfort of their cozy indoor Winter Park practice facility. Referring to his team, Vikings head coach Brad Childress told the media this week that “these guys get used to [the cold] walking from this place to their car.” Maybe so, but I don’t think there’s anything that compares to putting on those pads and getting used to moving around in the elements. Tomorrow we’ll see if Childress is right, or if his guys are huddled around the sideline heaters like the Falcons were on a frigid December night last year.
Judging from the snappy Panama hat the Miser used to parade around in on the sidelines of training camp in Platteville and the sleek hosiery he wore with his Top Siders, my guess is that he has the number of a fine haberdasher in the Lake Forest area. In fact, I’ll bet one of the jobs Ginny gave him when she took away control of the team was to call Tony Medlin during weeks like this and find out the hat sizes for all the players, just in case those NFC North Champion caps come fitted.
That’s one detail the Miser probably can’t screw up.
Should be cold. Should be fun.
LBF
12/2/2006