Facing the prospect of the Bears equaling the worst start in franchise history is only part of the pressure on at least one of this year’s players.
Defensive end Bryan Robinson regularly brings his parents from Toledo, Ohio, to Chicago for games. And he hears from his mother after road games, which this year have been slightly better (1-2) for the Bears than those at Soldier Field (0-4). Going into Sunday’s game against the Eagles in Philadelphia, Robinson would like to make those phone calls a bit more pleasant.
“I’m tired of calling home and my mom saying, `You guys lost another one,'” he said. “That’s tough. She’s trying to keep me in it, and I’m into it, but we need this win going into the week [off] in the worst way.
“She watches the games and she’s a tough critic, probably the biggest one I’ve got right now, and that’s saying a lot, being in Chicago. But she’s tough on me, and that’s what I need right now. That’s what we all need.”
Yet things may get more difficult for the Bears at a time when every corner of the locker room is adamant about the need for a win. A 1-7 start would match the early futility of the 1997, 1969 and 1945 teams.
More important, though, is the growing sense that while coach Dick Jauron stresses the need for the Bears to learn how to win, the exact opposite is taking place.
The Bears led Minnesota 9-0 and New Orleans 7-0 and had chances to lead by more, but failed and eventually lost. They led the Vikings 20-9 in the first game of the season and lost.
“I just hope we don’t get into the mentality that we can’t do any better,” defensive end Phillip Daniels said.
But that thought has been raised. The Bears seemed to have addressed weak areas before the season but have had to face the reality that they were 3-4 after seven games in ’99 and aren’t near that now.
And they have begun the portion of the season during which few expected them to gain on the league, while they confront the possibility that they might not be able to win with the players they have.
“There’s a point where you get there,” defensive coordinator Greg Blache conceded. “A guy drops a ball so many times, you say he can’t make a play on it. A guy misses a tackle often enough, you say he can’t tackle. But then you say, `Who do I replace him with?’ That’s the next problem you’re confronted with. There’s always a stack of problems, but there are solutions. We’ve got to keep digging.
“The biggest thing we’ve got to overcome is ourselves. If we can overcome ourselves, we can beat the rest of those folks. Right now we keep beating ourselves. We’ve got to stop beating ourselves and beat an opponent one time. That’s what we’re trying to do: Eliminate our mistakes, make the plays when we have the opportunity and get over this hump.”
But is it a hump or a hill that the Bears are not good enough to climb? Opponents suggest the former.
“That is a blue-collar, knock-your-block-off defense,” Eagles coach Andy Reid said. “I’ve been around [Jim] Flanigan and [Mike] Wells since I was at Green Bay, and I have a lot of respect for those guys, and [Brad] Culpepper, whether he plays or not. He fits right in with that group.
“I’ve seen Walt Harris come from an inexperienced rookie to a nice, seasoned veteran who will play good, aggressive football. And those safeties will be as good as any in football as time goes on. Brian Urlacher has a chance to be something special. We have [defensive tackle] Corey Simon here, and I have a hard time believing there’s any rookie playing better than Corey, but the one guy you can’t miss is Urlacher.”
The Bears rank 28th in yards allowed and 29th in points allowed, yet not even Blache has stuck up for his defense more vociferously than Reid did. Is Reid sure he put the right tape in the viewer?
“I’ve talked to teams they’ve played, that they know they’ve been in a football game,” Reid insisted. “They know they’ve been knocked in. The Bears are playing physical football.”
But it hasn’t been enough.
