John Shoop slept soundly Saturday night, and his good night had everything to do with the bedtime story about redemption he had just heard from Kordell Stewart at a late-night quarterbacks meeting.
Once upon a time, about two months ago, Shoop and Stewart were on the same page as often as the comics and the obituaries. But there they were in a meeting room at the team hotel on the eve of the Arizona game as Stewart talked, Shoop listened and their ideas meshed like never before this year.
“I had a great deal of confidence that [Stewart] was as ready to play as he has been since I’ve been around him,” Shoop said Thursday of the Bears’ likely starter against Green Bay on Sunday.
It marked the second straight week a Bears offensive coach had complimented Stewart’s preparedness. After Stewart rallied the Bears past the Broncos in Denver, quarterbacks coach Greg Olson recalled how the quarterback knew the game plan so well that he quizzed coaches at practice.
Obviously, Stewart didn’t stop studying when he stopped starting for six games. The guy who came to town with a reputation for being a moody prima donna practically turned into a football nerd after he was demoted. People talk about rookie Rex Grossman’s development, but Stewart has picked up nearly as much by observing 16-year veteran Chris Chandler.
Stewart noted the way Chandler looked off primary receivers and read blitzes, the way he processed information into execution. Thus the mental part of Stewart’s game that always had been easiest to criticize has drawn nothing but raves lately.
“Specifically, I think [Stewart] took the opportunity to watch an individual like Chris Chandler prepare meticulously, and I think he took that opportunity in a very good way, a very mature way,” Shoop said.
Stewart agreed with Shoop, something happening more frequently.
“You can pout and moan or you can continuously learn and watch from someone like Chris, who has been around for awhile,” Stewart said. “I picked up a lot by just watching Chris. I decided to pay attention to the little things.”
It might have taken 12 games for Stewart’s head to catch up to his feet, but the Bears won’t complain if he can get both in synch Sunday at Green Bay. Bears players have built this up to be the team’s biggest game since the 2001 NFC playoffs.
If the Bears lose to the Packers and the Vikings beat the Seahawks, then they will be eliminated mathematically from the playoffs, and next week Stewart may be studying Grossman as the 2004 season unofficially begins.
In some ways, the Packers game also represents a referendum on the Bears’ signing of Stewart. If he leads the Bears to their first victory in Green Bay since 2000 and keeps those slim playoff hopes alive another week, it will justify to some the potential Jauron still sees in the nine-year veteran. If he flops and the Bears lose, it will suggest to Stewart’s critics that last Sunday was an aberration and his stint as the starting quarterback a bad experiment.
“It’s a one-game season,” Shoop said.
The Bears officially haven’t said Stewart will start, but if he doesn’t, only Stewart will be more surprised than the Packers. He took the bulk of the repetitions with the No. 1 offense again Thursday as Chandler continued to work out the kinks in his right shoulder.
Shoop even seemed to slip when he began to answer a question about quarterback consistency by saying “Kor . . . the quarterback position is . . . “
One Bears player shook his head in disbelief at the notion of not starting Stewart and taking advantage of the momentum supplied by his 22-of-37 performance for 284 yards and two touchdowns against the Cardinals. “It has to be him, doesn’t it?” the player asked.
Assuming it will be, Stewart must play better than the last time he faced Green Bay in the home opener Sept. 29 at Soldier Field. He completed 25-of-44 passes for 201 yards with two interceptions. Worse, Stewart looked tentative running a rigidly conservative offense that he believes didn’t allow him to improvise.
In that 38-23 loss, Stewart struggled picking up blitzes as much as his offensive line struggled blocking them and the Packers had five sacks. That cannot happen again if the Bears hope to take a Lambeau leap into a tie for second in the NFC North.
“The No. 1 thing we have to do as an offense to beat Green Bay is to handle the pressure a lot better,” Shoop said.
As Stewart has learned this season, nothing relieves pressure like preparation.
“When you’re playing for something, your perspective changes a little bit, and it allows you to prepare a little bit harder,” Stewart said. “When you have opportunities like we have it does make it more exciting.”
