[CBFF] Bearly Beginning

[Steve Behrens]

(((An(other) entertaining take on the game from Chicago Sports Review)


 Bearly Beginning

BY Dustin Beutin


Pre-season games have the feel of sitting in the stands at your nephew's
little league season opener: the only way to make it palatable is to drink a
lot of beer and hope it ends quickly. And if the little slugger happens to
be on the winning side, all the better; but really you're just hoping you
can head back to his parent's house for dinner without him crying in the
backseat or in the emergency room with a bat splinter in his finger.

Reliant Stadium is a nice place. The Texans are nice kids. The beer was
plentiful and the entertainment palatable.

The Bears, though, are on a whole other level.

I couldn't imagine what Darius Walker, former Notre Dame running back - who
this off-season passed on a contract from the Bears as an un-drafted free
agent only to sign with the Texans -- was thinking as he watched (and
carried twice for eight yards) in this game.

Probably that he at least had a shot to move ahead of Samkon "I'm the last
string running back on a crappy team" Gado for some real playing time in the
fall.

Because really, the difference between these teams was so palpable, it was
like watching a smug cat toy with an innocent mouse.

There were the Texans, who actually cared about this game: bless their
little hearts, they came to play some football.

They rolled out their shiny Texan-toys: Matt "I bailed on Atlanta before
Vick could push the flush-lever on the season" Schaub, Sage "I couldn't
start in Miami" Rosenfels and Mario "I was drafted ahead of Reggie Bush a
year ago and sat at home during the playoffs" Williams.

The crowd respectfully clapped, parent-like, in the stands.

The Bears? They came out for about 1 series, threw the ball around, made a
couple tackles, then sent in the 30 Bear-hopefuls who are scrapping for the
five or so roster spots left over on a Super Bowl-quality team built with
care and depth.

This was EXACTLY what you wanted to see out of the Bears coming off the
Super Bowl and into a new season.

Rex looked sharp. And that's all you can ask in the first live game.

The defense didn't make any huge plays, but they looked solid. Just fine for
the first time they actually get to hit people and don't have to hold off
from pounding the quarterback into the grass.

Receivers looked like they understood their routes, and dropped passes were
at a minimum.

And Lovie, with the wisdom of a fourth-year coach, let some of his most
important pieces - Urlacher, Tait and Harris - sit the night out, rather
then bang them around against a group of nincompoops in a game that counted
for nothing other than pride.

Brilliance.

There were some flaws on this gem of a night though, and Lovie's staff of
stone-polishers will have to set to work this coming week.

Special teams - which we Chicago fans have taken for granted over the last
few years - gave up some big returns, missed a field goal and looked
shockingly shoddy. While it's to be expected in the first pre-season game -
when you consider that special teams practice in training camp always takes
a backseat - it is worrisome to think that perhaps the rough special team
play came from a post-Super Bowl laziness.

Defensive play calling also seemed a bit suspect, but again that thought
must be tempered by remembering this was Bob Babich's first game running the
defense. Still, it's scary to realize that one of the Bears' greatest
attributes from last year - the confidence in and experience of Ron Rivera
as coordinator - could turn into a weakness if Babich has a hard time making
the right adjustments.

Garrett Wolfe worries me as well. He looks like a pinball out there, and to
be fair he is a rookie in his first pre-season game. But he didn't dominate
in the open field, and he inevitably goes down on first contact. It is
certainly something to keep an eye on; last year, the Bears needed all three
of their running backs. If Wolfe isn't up to the task, it could get rough in
the backfield.

Most importantly, the QB controversy between Orton and Griese heated up a
notch, with Griese being Jekyll and Hyde (interception, then a sharp TD
drive) and Orton being under-whelming, though effective considering he was
working with the team's lowest grade of talent.

The Bears had to have hoped Orton would light it up against the blithering
Texans, but unfortunately he did little to separate himself from Griese
(other than look better than most other third-string quarterbacks). Griese
isn't the answer for the Bears: he is an old journeyman who can be effective
when necessary, but won't be the long term solution if Grossman is hurt this
year or let go in free agency. If the Bears are to feel truly secure at the
QB position looking ahead, it would be nice to see Orton's shaggy head
smiling back with the ability to be a genuine starter.

These issues - a fight between second and third QB, cleaning up a
historically great special teams unit, warming up to play calling and
whether a third-string scat-back can produce - are great problems to have,
and indicative of how well-prepared the Bears seem to be heading into 2007.

Overall, the best part of the night could be that the Bears seem to have
their heads in the right place. They didn't go out trying to prove the Super
Bowl was a fluke by destroying the Texans with complex packages and extended
minutes for starters. They didn't suffer critical injuries that could be
attributed to the dreaded "Super Bowl Curse" (yet) and they didn't really
break a sweat.

They just went into Houston, worked out some kinks, won the game and went
home for ice cream.