Their locker room had the warm glow of a holiday party. Joy to the world. God rest ye, merry linemen. The Bears were dreaming of a bright Christmas.
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By unofficial count the word “great” was uttered an NFL-record 744 times by players and coaches in the hour after the Bears beat New England 24-17 Sunday at Soldier Field. James Allen, Shane Matthews, Jerry Azumah and first-time play-caller John Shoop were continually described as “great.” This again made you wonder what coach Dick Jauron puts in this team’s eggnog.
More than ever you wonder if Jauron is the Grinch disguised as a maddeningly earnest, emotionless head coach. Yes, Jauron’s team won, and yes, it was a sight for sore eyes.
But Sunday’s “great” W should stand for waste. With this team, D doesn’t stand for defense but denial. The 4-10 Bears gleefully tore the bow and wrapping paper off a big empty box. This game got them nowhere.
They beat a flat 4-10 New England coming off a Monday-nighter it played like a pride-salvaging playoff game. Road games following a Monday showcase invariably produce low blood-sugar efforts.
So this was the perfect spot for Cade McNown. So what if he struggled? The worst thing that could have happened was falling to 3-11 and enhancing draft position. But apparently Jauron is saving McNown for the playoffs.
In 2005.
Jauron’s sense of urgency suggests he has a job-for-life with the City of Chicago. Jauron again insulted his season ticket-holders’ intelligence with some straight-faced, cockamamie explanation about how McNown, who suffered a slight shoulder separation seven weeks ago, needs another week to regain his timing. And if you believe that, you swallow the Bears’ story about Curtis Enis having an allergic reaction to a cough remedy.
Maybe Dick Jargon should take a week off to regain his senses.
McNown said all week he is 100 percent recovered. Matthews was coming off a dismal performance in a 28-6 home loss to the Packers. Matthews is using the Bears to audition for a backup job elsewhere next season. For that matter Shoop, who replaced new BYU coach Gary Crowton, is no cinch to be permanent coordinator. Yet listening to the Bears, you would have thought they had boarded the Good Shoop Lollipop.
Shoop’s initial success was a product of addition by subtraction. He took the options out of Crowton’s routes–if the cornerback goes this way, you go that way. He simplified the offense. He promised the line he was committed to running the ball, and it responded.
Yes, this was the perfect spot for McNown to ease back into the fray. Yet Jauron was protecting his franchise QB from a home crowd that can sound like a lynch mob. No. 8 has become public-enemy No. 1 through no fault but his own. The quickest way to turn the boos to cheers? Move the offense and win.
Beneath his public mask Jauron has to have doubts McNown can do that. So he keeps buying time, stalling the evaluation of McNown, winning draft-killing games with Matthews, double-talking fans and generating Sunday’s staggering 26,014 unused tickets on a reasonably comfortable 36-degree afternoon.
Coach, they would much rather have watched third-stringer Mark Hartsell show off his arm than dinkmaster Matthews. Or were you worried about creating a three-way QB controversy?
In protecting McNown’s battered confidence, Jauron helped undermine it. McNown can be dumb, but he ain’t stupid. He knows Jauron sheltered him from Bears fans and saved him for the final two games, at San Francisco and Detroit. Maybe next year Jauron will play Jim Miller at home and McNown on the road.
Jauron doesn’t seem to realize he’s actually saying the Bears drafted a franchise QB who isn’t mentally tough enough to take the beating in a town that has always been tough on its QBs. A secondary reason McNown was held out is nearly as scary: New England, said Bears coaches, runs so many confusing defensive schemes.
They were 4-9, for heaven’s sake. Stop kidding yourself, coach Jauron. Stop trying to divert attention by playing gutty little James Allen. Yes, he fought his way to 1,000 yards, but 17 NFL backs have topped that mark. We know what Allen can and can’t do.
Play the intriguing Marlon Barnes. Play McNown, if you aren’t afraid. Play for what’s left of the future.
Quit playing us for fools.