If the Bears don`t make it to the Super Bowl, will they be failures?
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Getting close last year made them heroes. Are they the White Sox or Cubs in helmets, poised for a fall on their heads?
They have spent most of the preseason looking backward instead of forward, a sure formula for a collision with reality.
Anxiety, if not money, has been spent on holdouts.
Worry has been heaped upon injured players trying to make comebacks.
Arguments between coaches and scouts have weighed the merits of No. 1 draft choice William Perry.
Pressure has mounted on coach Mike Ditka, who keeps telling himself he has to win with the players he`s got, whether they are good or bad, happy or sad, healthy or not.
Ditka goes to bed dreaming of 1963 and wakes up to nightmares of 1964. From world championship to 5-9.
There is something cloudy in the chemistry, something only winning can clear up. ”Chemistry” is that intangible sports stuff that seems to make a team either right or wrong. Last year, the Bears believed that good chemistry caused the winning. They were all signed, happy, healthy and ready. This year, they will have to find their inspiration elsewhere. Winning can cause good chemistry in a hurry.
There is still no reason the Bears cannot win it all, or at least play well enough to prove last year was no fluke.
”I don`t think anything is unrealistic if you believe you can do it,”
said Ditka. ”I think if you`re determined enough and willing to pay the price, you can get it done. I know those are all cliches and all idealistic words, but we`ve got good people.”
This is a team with 11 No. 1 draft choices, six on offense and five on defense. That number does not include three defensive players who started in the Pro Bowl–middle linebacker Mike Singletary, strong safety Todd Bell and defensive end Richard Dent.
One of the No. 1`s is quarterback Jim McMahon, who has won 12 of the last 16 games he has started over two years.
There is a No. 1 to carry the ball, Walter Payton, who is the No. 1 ballcarrier in history.
There is a No. 1 to catch the ball, Willie Gault, who is one of the fastest men in the league.
There are two No. 1`s to block, Jimbo Covert and Keith Van Horne.
There is a No. 1 behind McMahon, Steve Fuller, who gives the Bears an unusual 1-1 quarterback punch.
Another of the No. 1`s is defensive tackle Dan Hampton, the keystone of the No. 1 defense in the league.
There are at least two No. 1`s among the starting linebackers, Otis Wilson and either Wilber Marshall or Al Harris.
There is a 325-pound No. 1 to plug the middle like a refrigerator, Perry. Not only are the Bears a team with talent, they are a team with a chip on their shoulder pads. Others might describe them as downright dirty. The Bears prefer a more positive self-analysis: downright mean.
From their Brigham Young quarterback to their Yale free safety, from their all-time great running back to their coach, these are people who downright enjoy the violent edge of football.
What does mean mean?
Listen to Ditka describe linebacker Wilson on the opening exhibition kickoff against Dallas:
”We didn`t even bring the ball out of the end zone and Otis just about killed a guy. Just absolutely destroyed somebody with a block. And that`s what we have to have. And Otis said he was going to do it. He said, `I`m gettin` my man down,` and he did.”
Other teams are familiar with the Bears` reputation and some are eager to match it.
”Bring `em on; that`s what makes it fun,” said Wilson.
”Last year, we snuck into the henhouse. This year, we`re just going to have to burn the thing down,” said Hampton.
”We play a brand of football that threatens people at times,” said Ditka. ”We`re not going to intimidate everybody, but we`re going to intimidate some people with the way we play.”
The Bears are solid in the middle and ragged around the edges.
”There`s an old saying in baseball that your strength lies up the middle –pitcher, catcher, shortstop and second and center field,” said Ditka.
”I`m not sure that isn`t true in football. Take us up the middle and we`re pretty strong. Just name them.”
That would be running backs Payton and Matt Suhey, quarterback McMahon, center Jay Hilgenberg, defensive tackles Hampton and Steve McMichael, middle linebacker Singletary, and free safety Gary Fencik.
If there is a problem, it is at receiver and cornerback, where little shortcomings can lead to long days.
Gault enjoyed his best training camp, never missing practice and rarely missing passes. He did whatever he was asked, including going over the middle, which is not his style.
Coaches have their fingers crossed that Gault will continue to play with aggressiveness. But he can`t solve the receiving questions by himself.
The key to the entire offense may be the health of flanker Dennis McKinnon.
If McKinnon can recover from knee surgery, his blocking and his ability to get open will take pressure off both Gault`s catching and Payton`s running. Without him, defenses can tell their safeties to double Gault and gang-tackle Payton.
”We gotta have him. We`re a different ballclub with Dennis playing the full game. It`s quite obvious,” said McMahon.
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If McKinnon can`t play, Ditka most likely will move Ken Margerum from Gault`s split end side to flanker. But Margerum, who has made a remarkable recovery from surgery more serious than McKinnon`s, prefers split end.
On defense, coordinator Buddy Ryan is happier than ever with his cornerbacks, which isn`t necessarily saying much. Ryan has begged for more help, saying he is tired of lining up with four safeties in the backfield.
But Ryan has praised last year`s scapegoat in the NFC title loss to San Francisco, left corner Mike Richardson. He has been impressed by the return of right corner Leslie Frazier from injury. And he likes two rookies, second-round draft choice Reggie Phillips and free agent Ken Taylor.
Although hit hardest by holdouts, Ryan is confident that the defense again can be good enough to win if not good enough to be No. 1. The most important part of it, the line, should be improved.
Hampton spent most of the summer rehabilitating from knee surgery, but said he felt better than he did all of last season when he was elected to his third Pro Bowl.
Dent, hampered by nagging injuries, wants to set sack records as well as defend his NFC sack title. Ryan has him rushing from an outside rather than an inside spot in the unconventional ”46” defense.
Mike Hartenstine and McMichael provide a solid left side of the front backed by capable Tyrone Keys and the huge Perry, who is expected to be used primarily in short-yardage situations.
Ryan points out that he saddles his linebackers more than his cornerbacks with the bulk of pass-coverage responsibility and he thinks he has more than one all-pro linebacker.
After playing only one half of the Dallas exhibition following a prolonged holdout, Singletary expressed an extraordinary vision.
”I just see us being the perfect defense,” said Singletary. ”We`ll be better than last year. When I look at film, sometimes I find it hard to believe we were the No. 1 defense last year.
”I look at the missed tackles and the mistakes and I see room for improvement. I`m looking forward to being not just a good defense, not just the No. 1 defense, but the greatest defense ever to play.”
The defense was not No. 1 in every category last year. Although the Bears set a record for sacks with 72 and held offenses to a league-low 45.5 percent pass completion mark, they gave up a league-high 15.5 yards per catch. They would like to reduce the number of big plays against them.
The Bear defenders of 1984 also were lucky to face a string of underwhelming quarterbacks the likes of which they cannot expect to see in 1985.
They got the Buccaneers` Jack Thompson instead of Steve DeBerg, the Broncos` Scott Stankavage and Gary Kubiak instead of John Elway, the Vikings` Archie Manning and Wade Wilson instead of Tommy Kramer, the Raiders` Marc Wilson and David Humm instead of Jim Plunkett, the Chargers` Ed Luther instead of Dan Fouts, and the Packers` Rich Campbell and Randy Wright instead of Lynn Dickey.
Backups Luther and Campbell beat them and so did the Cowboys` Gary Hogeboom and the Rams` Jeff Kemp, two quarterbacks who lost starting jobs this year.
Barring injury, the lineup of quarterbacks for the first half of this season include the Bucs` DeBerg, the Patriots` Tony Eason, the Vikings`
Kramer, the Redskins` Joe Theismann, the 49ers` Joe Montana and the Packers`
Dickey.
But the Bears hope to have one quarterback of their own this year, McMahon. They won 10 games last year while starting five quarterbacks, a record they would rather not break, although rookie Mike Tomczak has played well enough to create a fan club of his own.
McMahon and Ditka`s offense will decide this year`s success and everybody knows it, even Ryan.
Last year, the offense led the league in time of possession, which means the defense was on the field for less time than any other defense. That is the team concept that Ditka stresses.
But the offense scored only 20 points a game, 16th in the league.
”Our goal is to get 24 or 25 points on the board and say, `Come get us,` ” said Ditka. ”I don`t care if the defense is the best in the world; if you can`t get more than 13 points, you aren`t going to win. It`s all over. If we score one more time in a game, it makes the opposition score two more times to beat you.”
To score more points, Ditka and McMahon plan to pass more.
”If we throw the ball 35 times a game, we`d be a lot better offense in my opinion,” said McMahon. ”We get basically 70-75 plays a game, so that`s still 45 runs. I think that`s the kind of balance we need.”
Last year, when Payton was going for the all-time rushing record and McMahon was sometimes trying to pass with a broken hand, the Bears averaged 42 runs and 27 passes.
Results mean more than quotas to Ditka, who answers McMahon`s plea with the question: ”How many passes is he going to complete?”
Ditka still likes to call plays, even when he promises to leave it up to coordinator Ed Hughes or allow McMahon to call his own.
”I don`t care if they call the plays, as long as we`ve got options to get out of plays that are not going to work,” said McMahon.
Much of the preseason was spent incorporating a system of audibles that will give McMahon that leeway.
Plans of scoring by run or pass will end in pieces if McMahon`s only protection is the flak jacket he now wears.
”Makes me look like a big fat-butt,” said McMahon. ”But it doesn`t bother me.”
What bothers Ditka are breakdowns in blocking by the offensive line that cannot occur once the regular season begins. Covert, Van Horne, Hilgenberg and guard Mark Bortz and Kurt Becker are entering their second season as a group. They weren`t bad in their first and the improvement between first and second years is supposed to be considerable.
Demonstrating his consistency of thought over the years, Ditka wants better blocking from tight ends Emery Moorehead, Tim Wrightman and Pat Dunsmore.
Ditka`s consistency in coaching is another factor that will come under scrutiny in 1985.
If he insists on passing up short field goals on fourth and one or fails to call timeouts in the last minutes, as he did against Dallas in the preseason, people will think he must be kidding.
He has promised to use more regulars on special teams because they were sometimes a joke last year.
This year, the Bears are looking for the last laugh.
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