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player ready...Having completed the Florida grand slam, the Bears return home Sunday to face Hurricane Barry. Which is as it should be. The forecast for the Bears always seems to be chance of clouds.
“There is a very fine line,” says coach Dave Wannstedt. “When we do everything we have to, we’re as good as anybody. But when we break down in any area, we’re in trouble. People tell me we should have beaten the Lions at Detroit with all those statistics in our favor. I say no. Too many penalties and turnovers. We can’t live that way.”
Where the Bears live is on the edge, and that requires high maintenance, if not a low-risk approach. Whether Wannstedt gambles on offense can depend on how his defense is playing, but if special teams are floundering, it probably won’t matter what the other two units are doing. There is no there there.
And the Bears have been there.
“The game in New York was definitely the fork in the road,” says Wannstedt. “Beating the Jets in the fourth week was huge. That night, we did what we had to do for the first time. Emotionally, schematically, execution-wise. We’ve lost since, but that Jets game was a frame of reference. If we’d lost that game, no telling what would have happened.”
There’s no telling now, because the Bears do not operate with much margin for error. If they run out of windshield wiper fluid, the entire transmission could go. But they are 6-4, and without the usual complement of star-quality players, the notion spreads that the Bears can nickel-and-dime you enough to beat you in the fourth quarter. Opponents lacking patience can be easily bored and lulled into defeat. They don’t know what hit them until it’s too late.
“We can score inside the 20-yard line, we can keep people out inside the 20, and we’re the least penalized team in the NFL,” Wannstedt says. “Those are good signs. We can also go six games with five turnovers, and then turn it over six in the next game.
“But I like our attitude,” added the former Cowboys assistant. “We went into Detroit with a better Dallas team a couple of years ago, fell behind 14-0 and shut it down. This (Bear) team was fighting to the end.”
Scary as it sounds, the Bears can play .500 now and probably make the playoffs at 9-7. Sunday must be treated with caution and concern. The Lions are desperate, and Barry Sanders is all-world. The blue-collar Bears should approach Detroit the way foes now gear up for the Bulls, who are also rather anonymous. Concede Will Perdue his points, but don’t let the rest of them beat you.
If you light a candle for the Bears in Minnesota, Green Bay and Arizona, three victories at Soldier Field should suffice. The Bears finish with the Rams and Patriots here just before Christmas, by which time the Park District won’t have to worry about sod anymore. A Zamboni, maybe. December can be slippery in these parts.
“We were 7-5 last year, and we know what happened,” Wannstedt says. “The big difference this year is I’m more confident we can move the ball. We don’t have to hope for turnovers to score.”
Steve Walsh is the source of this optimism, and let’s give credit where it’s due for this trumped-up quarterback controversy. Two months after the Bears bought Erik Kramer, Walsh became a free agent and Wannstedt wanted him, too. He remembers 1989 with the Cowboys when Troy Aikman was a riddle waiting to be solved, when the only victory Dallas managed in its 1-15 free fall was achieved by Walsh in Washington.
Walsh didn’t just show up at Halas Hall, helmet in hand. He was recruited, he brings a presence, he waited his turn, and he’s 5-0. Kramer still could ride to the rescue if he doesn’t talk himself out of town. Wannstedt preaches the team concept, and there’s that fine line again. Kramer now will be judged on how he handles not having the ball.