For the second time this season, the Bears have an opportunity to kick an opponent while they`re down.
Monday night`s guests at Soldier Field-the New York Giants-are 0-2, floundering and somewhat impatient.
Don`t expect the Bears to have mercy, although they failed to deliver the knockout punch to the New Orleans Saints last weekend, watching a 6-0 halftime lead dissolve into a 28-6 loss.
With beleaguered second-year coach Ray Handley under weekly scrutiny after he failed to guide his club to the playoffs last season, the Giants could erupt in either a positive or negative way.
”It`s important for us not to get down mentally and start hanging our heads,” said Giants quarterback Phil Simms. ”I`d like to see us hang in there right from the get-go and not just hope for a miracle finish.”
The constant public conjecture about Handley`s future would appear to be disconcerting to the players.
”I don`t know that it affects the players,” said Simms. ”We`re tired of hearing about Ray. We`re tired of him taking all this abuse and everybody blaming everything on Ray. Finally, I think this week, maybe it`s going to die down, just because of the fact that everybody knows there are a lot of problems. There are a lot of people not playing well. The players realize we have to do our part. Ray Handley is not the reason we`re losing.”
Still, Giants fans recall the recent Super Bowl legacy of former coach Bill Parcells. When he resigned after the 1990 season, Handley took over and the club finished 8-8 and out of the playoff money.
”It`s always a concern to make sure you`re focused on football,” said Handley. ”In (New York), there are a lot of things that can distract your team. I think our players have high expectations; I have high expectations. For whatever reason, we are not playing at that level at the present time. So my job is to get us playing better.”
The Bears (1-1) could be feeling more of a self-imposed pressure, knowing they`re expected to win their next two home games against the Giants and Atlanta Falcons before heading for a road assignment at Minnesota.
The Bears are 24-4 in September over the last seven seasons.
”I would think it`s a very important game for both teams,” said Bears coach Mike Ditka, who is 5-1 on Monday nights at home. ”I look at every game as being important.
”I think it`s a good matchup. I think the people who made the schedule made a good game. They`re a good team and we`re a good team. So it should be a good Monday night game.”
The Bears are smarting from their loss to the Saints, in which they failed to score a touchdown.
”I don`t think last week`s final score was anywhere indicative of the type of football that Chicago has been playing,” said Handley.
”They beat a good Detroit team (27-24) the first week and actually led well into the game against New Orleans. Then they just had a couple of bad breaks at the end. So it looks a lot more one-sided.
”So this is going to be another tough matchup for us. We`re not playing real well right now, so there`s not much time to stop and gather your thoughts. You just have to press on and try to correct the mistakes as you`re going along.”
The Giants, who have never beaten the Bears in four Soldier Field tries, have lost to two of the best teams in the NFC this season-the San Francisco 49ers 31-14 and Dallas Cowboys 34-28. But Handley won`t claim any moral victories.
”I think our record is indicative of how we`ve played,” said Handley.
”Even though we were close to the 49ers, we never felt we had command of that game. Once we closed to within three of the Niners, they marched right down the field and went up by 10, and then got a late score on an
interception.”
The Giants rebounded from a 34-0 deficit to the Cowboys last weekend.
”We turned the momentum around in the second half against Dallas, but we didn`t do anything very well in the first half,” Handley said. ”We played a fairly pathetic first half.”
Simms is trying to build on the momentum of the second-half comeback.
”I was glad we came back, just for the sake of coming back,” said Simms, who completed 25 of 42 passes for 273 yards and three touchdowns. ”I think that 34-0 was just so bad in every respect. Just looking up at the board and seeing 34-0 was really a shock. We still lost, but at least we came back and made it respectable.
”Everything about these first two games has been hard. I found out in the middle of the first week that I was going to play. Then I didn`t know until the middle of the next week that I was going to play. That`s hard. It plays on your mind, even though I`ve been in the league a long time. That`s by no means a reason not to play as well as you hoped to.
”I think we all feel the pressure. We know we have to win a game. We want to win a game bad. It seems forever since we won one.
”We were really feeling good about ourselves after practice last week. We were psyched up to play the game against Dallas. But before we could really get things going, the game was out of control. That just puts more importance on this game.
”The fact that this is a Monday night game, I think that always gives the home team a little bit of an advantage. That`s going to make it that much harder on us.”
Monday night`s contest will feature two of the NFL`s all-time top linebackers facing each other for the last time.
The Bears` Mike Singletary has announced this will be his last season. The Giants` Lawrence Taylor has said this might be his last.
”I think in the last decade, they have been the premier players at their respective positions,” said Handley. ”The intensity and preparation that Singletary has brought to the game are the basis for all other linebackers to be judged, as far as I`m concerned, over the last decade.
”And, basically, Lawrence Taylor changed the outside linebacker position. The difficult part we`re finding is that you don`t go out looking for another Lawrence Taylor, because there really aren`t any out there. You know you`re going to have to change the style of defense you play a little when Lawrence retires.”
The outcome of Monday night`s game could come down to which team is able to conjure up the killer instinct that defined these former champions in the 1980s.
