They say the Bears won`t repeat. Who`s they? It doesn`t matter. History. Odds. Injury. Buddy Ryan. Sportswriters. The St. Louis Cardinals. Tax accountants.
If there were no ”theys” out there, Mike Ditka would invent them. When a team is as good as the Bears, it is part of the coach`s job to imagine demons. Other opponents are mere mortals.
Ditka`s secret dream is for National Football League commissioner Pete Rozelle to get a court injunction to stop the Bears, or at least threaten to fine them for winning conduct detrimental to the game.
When the Cardinals maintained their strange dominance over the Bears two weeks ago, Ditka pronounced it ”a great lesson.”
History provides others. The Bears are trying to become the first team to win back-to-back Super Bowls since the 1978-79 Pittsburgh Steelers.
”We want to be the team of the `80s,” Ditka said. ”Like Pittsburgh was the team of the `70s and Green Bay was the team of the `60s.”
To do it, Ditka will narrow the focus. The Bears can`t think in terms of decades or even weeks. It would violate the basic principle of football by which Ditka lives: Beat the man across from you on every play.
To become a team for the ages, or even the mid-`80s, they must first become a team for the minutes, a team dedicated to no more, no less, than the next play.
Walter Payton and Steve McMichael, two of the team`s clearest thinkers on this issue, get downright eloquent when people try to focus on the 1986 Bears by pointing at Super Bowls past or future. No one should use such a wide-angle lens.
Payton has gained 14,860 yards 1 yard at a time, except for a few dives over the line of 3 or 4 yards per leap. He knows that none of the 14,860 will help him get to 14,861.
”For the last 10 years, my goal at the start of every season was to get to the Super Bowl,” Payton said. ”This season is no different. Repeating has nothing to do with it. We want to win it this year. We`re not standing on what we did last year.”
Likewise, McMichael says he can`t see Pasadena because the guy in front of him is blocking the view. For McMichael, every play is a Super Bowl.
”I don`t know how the other guys think, because I don`t ask them,”
McMichael said. ”Me myself, I could give a darn about the Super Bowl this year. I`m playing one game at a time. That`s the people I want to go out and bust their little butts. I could give a darn about a game 15 or 20 weeks down the road.
”If you don`t concentrate on every game, you are going to slip up. You might be better than a team, but they`re going to beat you by being lucky if you don`t concentrate.”
Luck will play a major role in the Bears` season. They already have proven they are good. Last year, they were lucky and good, because injuries didn`t hurt them.
This year, injuries already have hurt them where they were already thin:
wide receiver and cornerback. They will start the season without Dennis McKinnon and Leslie Frazier. But contrary to previous announcements, they both could return by the end of the season.
The return of Todd Bell and Al Harris on defense has given new coordinator Vince Tobin more depth than Buddy Ryan ever had.
Age is not a concern anywhere, Payton having long ago proven himself ageless.
So what are the concerns? The Bears were 18-1 and must face only two opponents with winning records last year: the Rams and Cowboys. What`s to worry?
INJURY
Injury is No. 1 and the only concern they can`t control.
”We`re deep, but if a couple guys go down, it would really make a difference,” said defensive lineman Dan Hampton, who is one of them.
Hampton enters the season with healthier legs than he has enjoyed in years, but his neck became his latest pain.
Quarterback Jim McMahon enters the season with a shaky leg and a shakier medical history. The Bears are stronger at quarterback with the development of Mike Tomczak to complement the experience of Steve Fuller. But the Bears have won 26 of McMahon`s last 30 starts, the only thing that needs to be written about him.
THE NEW DEFENSE
Under Ryan`s system, the Bears had tremendous success on defense, which, contrary to popular belief, was not all due to Ryan`s system.
For example, Ryan had little to do with an offense that led the conference in scoring, led the league in time of possession and rarely turned over the ball–all things that helped make the defense extraordinary.
The players like Tobin`s system. If nothing else, the process of learning it has forestalled overconfidence. But players and coaches alike realize that results will be the only measuring stick.
”Change is hard,” Ditka said. ”Change is acceptable only if you get good results.”
”You`ve got to give Vince a little leeway for us to learn his system, but we`re still going to be a good defense,” McMichael said.
If Hampton, McMichael, William Perry, Richard Dent, Otis Wilson, Mike Singletary, Wilber Marshall, Mike Richardson, Dave Duerson, Gary Fencik and Reggie Phillips were lined up arm-in-arm across the field yelling ”Red Rover, Red Rover, won`t you come over?” they would be a good defense.
In talent, the front seven already compares favorably to the old Steelers` great front seven. Does an offense go to the right and pick on Hampton and Wilson, to the left and pick on Dent and Marshall, or over the middle and pick on McMichael, Perry, and Singletary?
”You call timeout,” McMahon suggested.
The addition of second-round draft choice Vestee Jackson at cornerback and Bell at safety plus Tobin`s system of more zone coverages should make the secondary stronger and less vulnerable to the big plays that sometimes haunted Ryan`s risky system.
But it is foolish to foresee or expect anything better than the defense that held 14 of 19 opponents last year to 10 or fewer points, an astonishing statistic.
Incentive on defense is no problem. In fact, one of the main incentives of players who won with Ryan is to win without him.
”I think about it every day,” Hampton said. ”If we don`t play up to our capability, if we`re not the No. 1 defense in the league, everybody will say, `It was Buddy Ryan.` We don`t want to be known as just dockworkers who worked in a great system. We want to be known as great players.”
RECEIVERS
The McKinnon factor is difficult to measure. The Bears only know that he will be difficult to replace. He led the club in touchdown catches last season, only a small part of his contribution.
The Bears have led the league in rushing for the last three years. They are not primarily a passing offense. Unlike many teams, they have the blockers and runners to grind things out. This ability provides a more solid base from which to work than many other teams enjoy.
Their interior line of Jimbo Covert, Mark Bortz, Jay Hilgenberg, Tom Thayer and Keith Van Horne is big, strong, young, dedicated and improving. Underrated tight ends Emery Moorehead and Tim Wrightman contribute to the running game.
But it is interesting to notice that the Bears` current string of rushing titles coincides with the 1983 arrival of receivers Willie Gault and McKinnon. Gault`s speed on the outside automatically opens up defenses on the inside. McKinnon`s blocking and receiving on the other side opened running lanes and took pressure off Gault.
”Anytime you lose a player like Dennis, it`s going to hurt you,”
McMahon said. ”He`s a big-play guy and he blocks linebackers. You miss that kind of thing. But we have a number of other guys we can go to. I`m not afraid to throw to anybody.”
SCHEDULE
Last year, the Bears played eight games, including playoffs, against teams with winning records in 1984. To play only two teams with winning records would seem to invite a sense of relief.
The Bears argue that no games are easy.
”People said we made it look easy last year. It wasn`t easy,” Payton said. ”It was hard. People were hurting, sore, every week.”
The Cardinals demonstrated the Bears won`t get a chance to take it easy.
”We have to play 16 Super Bowls this year,” Covert said. ”Every team is going to play its Super Bowl against us.”
The first four games should provide a gauge for what could happen.
Cleveland is a better test than last year`s opener against Tampa Bay, which the Bears nearly lost.
Anything might happen in the emotion of the Philadelphia game.
