2005-12-01

4 Reasons Bears will get to the Super Bowl

The current stream of popular opinion says that the Bears will not be able to advance far into the playoffs. They have one of the lowest scoring offenses in the NFL, and as was demonstrated last week, the Bears can not score a touchdown unless you give them the ball one yard from the goal line. But I think the Bears are better than everyone is giving them credit for, so here are four reasons why the Bears will make it to the Super Bowl.

And yes, I realize that I've now set the precedent to jump on the Super Bowl band wagon of the last team to beat the Bucs. Next up, New Orleans Saints.

#1. The defense, though not as good as '85, but very good front seven, plus they have guys in the secondary who can force turnovers and make plays. Random note, if anyone on that defense was going to beat the Bucs I'm glad it was Alex Brown. At Florida he was stud and would average something like four sacks against crappy teams. Then he went up against good teams (i.e. Tennessee) and and got shut down. Needless to say, I'm surprised he's made any kind of an impact at the professional level.

#2. Two headed monster at runningback. How much do you think Arizona wishes it had Thomas Jones or Michael Pittman back? One has a Super Bowl ring and the other plays on a team headed for the Super Bowl.

Little known fact, the year Ron Dayne broke the collegiate rushing record Thomas Jones led college football in rushing. Plus they have a top five pick and potential future stud in Cedric Benson.

#3. No one wants to play the Bears in Chicago in January. Windchills of negative 20? A foot of snow on the field? How does that NOT favor a team that plays shut down defense and runs the ball well?

#4. When Rex Grossman returns from injury this team becomes a good 25-30% better. I don't care what the Bear's coaches are saying right now but when Grossman comes back in a couple of weeks you have to start him. The Bears have won by slowing down the game, but what happens when they face Seattle's offense in the NFC Championship game?

Kyle Orton can't throw the ball more than fifteen times without turning it over, so what happens when the Bears are down by two scores with five minutes left in the fourth? As the numbers show Orton is no Tom Brady or Ben Roethlisberger. Rex Grossman will be the starter by the time the playoffs roll around. I'm not saying Grossman is the next Peyton Manning, but he's at least average, which is (last time I checked) better than mediocre (which Orton is right now).

Quarterback's numbers in their first year as starters:

Tom Brady- 86.5 QB rating, 63.9 completion %

Ben Roethlisberger- 98.1 QB rating, 66.4%

Kyle Orton- 62.3 QB rating, 54.5%

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