Consolation is not deserved, nor welcomed, but each time that Dave Wannstedt has walked off storied Lambeau Field a loser–each of the four visits since he has been coach of the Bears–he has been allowed to return to sweet home Chicago.
The Packers, their fans, the coaches, the whole ear-flapped, safety-orange shooting-jacketed bunch of them, have had to remain here, in a land without shadows, where even noon seems lit by a 30-watt bulb.
The proper punishment would be for Wannstedt, the Bears, too, to have to stay until they win, for until that happens, they may never understand. They will never take the next step.
Until they restore the natural order of things, all the Wannstedt Bears do must be measured against the Packers.
“If we had won six in a row,” Wannstedt said, “would losing mean more to them? The rivalry has nothing to do with it.”
The Packers do not need to answer the question, owning the six-pack of consecutive victories, something pointed out to Wannstedt that had not happened in 66 years between the Bears and Packers.
“Is that right? Thanks a lot,” said Wannstedt.
Reminders of historic failure ought not to be comfortable, and if Green Bay were not natural mongoose to the Bears’ cobra, not doghair to the Bears’ cashmere, not Darden to the Bears’ Cochran, this would still be deplorable.
To know who the rival is, to know that nothing great can happen until that rival is whipped, to know and to “flop around out there,” in the words of linebacker Joe Cain, time after time after time, is beyond excuse.
Where do the Bears go from here?
“We try to finish at .500,” Wannstedt said.
No. Wrong answer. The Bears will try to be as good as the Packers. That is the answer.
The Packers are as wounded as the Bears, as incomplete as the Bears–other than at quarterback, which is like saying one piece of jewelry is like another, except for the diamond–and yet the Packers are working mightily to retain the home-field advantage through the playoffs while the Bears are working to look at themselves in the mirror.
The Bears are staring at a 5-11 season, which is where Wannstedt came in, and even in that last Ditka year, the Bears could still win in Green Bay.
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The solution is so simple. Copy the Packers. Get a game-bending quarterback. Start now. Try the next one in line. What’s his name? Shane Matthews. And the next one after that.
Hold open auditions. Start scheming now to get Peyton Manning or whoever else maybe be the next Brett Favre.
The struggle is not to be officially mediocre, but to use the time that is left to make choices. This is the preseason of next preseason. Play question marks. Eliminate. Elevate.
Dave Krieg is beyond usefulness. He is a 40-yard quarterback, which is generally 30 yards short of the end zone.
In Ditka’s last season, he did the sensible thing and ran through his bench full of quarterbacks and others, discovering than none of them was as good as Jim Harbaugh, losing games in the process.
And Ditka did not have the protection of a long-term contract. All he did was allow Wannstedt to get a head start. Wannstedt should now do the same for himself.
Play Rashaan Salaam. Let Salaam play himself in or out of the league, on this team or onto another. It is obvious that Raymont Harris is the quality back.
“We owe it to the guys who have worked so hard to try to win the next three games,” Wannstedt said. “It wouldn’t be fair to the guys who have been busting their tails just to put somebody in there.”
When a coach starts worrying about what is fair, he may be showing too much humanity for the job.
“If you are making plays,” said Alonzo Spellman, “you will be on the team you are on, and if you don’t, you won’t, I guess.”
That, of course, says it all.