Bears fans watching the playoffs will be confused if they haven’t watched other NFL teams this season. They will witness the strange sight of running backs catching passes.
It is not a new or innovative way of moving the ball, only unusual to Chicagoans.
Anthony Thomas caught nine passes all season. The only Bears running back to catch more than two passes in a game was fullback Stanley Pritchett, who caught four against Denver and led Bears running backs in receiving with 18 all year.
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The most glaring difference between the offenses of playoff teams and the offense of the Bears is the Bears’ total lack of a multidimensional threat out of the backfield.
Even Baltimore’s Jamal Lewis, who ran the ball 387 times for 2,066 yards, found time to catch 26 passes.
The two top-seeded playoff teams, Philadelphia and New England, both used running-back-by-committee approaches. Both had heavy-duty runners complemented by change-of-pace runner-receivers, Brian Westbrook in Philadelphia and Kevin Faulk in New England.
Kansas City’s Priest Holmes caught only two passes for 6 yards against the Bears last week, but he averaged close to five catches per game. He has become coach Dick Vermeil’s answer to the dynamic runner-receiver he developed in St. Louis, Marshall Faulk.
Indianapolis has Marvin Harrison to catch passes, yet running back Edgerrin James caught 51.
When Bill Parcells went to Dallas, he made sure he could bring fullback-receiver Richie Anderson from the Jets. Anderson caught 69 passes, four for touchdowns.
Green Bay’s Ahman Green led the NFC in carries with 355 and also caught 50 passes, five for touchdowns. Seattle’s Shaun Alexander ran 326 times and caught 42 passes.
Even when the Bears had decent offenses, including outstanding runner-receivers in Neal Anderson, Walter Payton and Gale Sayers, they never really figured out the art of the screen pass, apparently too intricate to fathom.
But for this season’s five Bears running backs to catch a total of only 39 passes for a season–2.4 per game–means the Bears have ignored not only the screen pass, but the swing pass, the short curl over the middle and the dump-off–all staples of most attacks.
Passing to running backs isn’t the sole answer to success. San Diego’s great back LaDainian Tomlinson caught 100 passes–more than any AFC wide receiver–yet the Chargers won only four games. By that standard, the Bears might want to throw fewer times to their running backs.
More likely the Bears and their new coach will make sure quarterback Rex Grossman gets introduced to his running backs next season. If Thomas is incapable of becoming a receiving threat, the Bears will find somebody who is.
Playoff expansion: Last spring the Chiefs and the Patriots co-sponsored a proposal at the league meetings to increase the NFL playoff field from 12 to 14 teams by adding one team from each conference.
This year the clubs are the top two seeds in the AFC. Under their proposal, the second-seeded Chiefs would be playing this week against the seventh-seeded Miami Dolphins. In the NFC, it would be the St. Louis Rams hosting the Minnesota Vikings.
So has this changed Chiefs President Carl Peterson’s opinion on the number of playoff teams?
“I still feel the same way,” Peterson said. “We got 17 votes and were only seven short of passing it. I think it’s good and healthy for the league, one more from each conference. I don’t think it’s too many. But it is kind of ironic that we both ended up seeded 1 and 2.”
Peterson contends the league has kept the number of playoff teams at 12 despite the league’s growth from 28 to 32 teams. Twelve of 32 teams represent 37.5 percent of the league qualifying for the playoffs. Adding two teams would make it 43.8 percent. In the NBA 16 of 29 teams, or 55.2 percent, make it; and in the NHL, 16 of 30, 53.3 percent, make it. In baseball, it’s 8 of 30 teams, or 26.7 percent.
Super coaches: Of the 12 coaches in the postseason, eight have taken teams to 12 Super Bowls, so if the Bears are paying attention to trends, they might lean toward fired Giants coach Jim Fassel.
But last year none of the 12 coaches in the playoffs had won a Super Bowl.
Six of this year’s playoff coaches have won the Super Bowl. Two coaches, Parcells and Mike Shanahan, have won two championships. Parcells won with the New York Giants in 1986 and 1990 and Shanahan won in Denver in 1997 and 1998.
The others who have won championships are Kansas City’s Dick Vermeil (with St. Louis in 1999), Seattle’s Mike Holmgren (with Green Bay in 1996), Baltimore’s Brian Billick (2000) and New England’s Bill Belichick (2001).
Five coaches in this postseason have lost Super Bowls: Vermeil (Philadelphia, 1980); Holmgren (Green Bay in 1997), Parcells (New England, 1996), Tennessee’s Jeff Fisher (1999) and St. Louis’ Mike Martz (2001).
“I hope it indicates that you know what you’re doing,” Vermeil said of the Super Bowl pedigrees. “It doesn’t indicate you’re the reason why. But it does indicate you know what you’re doing and that the organization and people you have with you know what they’re doing.”
Fassel fuel: Fassel has become the hottest name out there because he’s a proven commodity with no desire to take a year off to try the television booth. Bears general manager Jerry Angelo likes to talk about “ceilings and floors” when he assesses draft talent, and Fassel’s “floor” is impressive.
At the least, a team gets a coach with a winning record, a Super Bowl appearance, a knack for designing offenses and calling plays, still relatively young (54), popular with players and experienced in dealing with the media. Although his Giants folded down the stretch this season, his regular-season record after December was an excellent 19-7 in his first six years.
If anything turns off the Bears, it would be a possible bidding war if the Washington Redskins want him.
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Colts record: Peyton Manning knows the record but doesn’t appreciate the story line. He is 0-3 in playoffs.
“I guess that’s the one thing . . . a lot of times it’s the Colts have been to the playoffs three times, but ol’ Peyton’s 0-3 in the playoffs,” Manning said. “It’s us, Colts as a team. Obviously we’ve been there, but we haven’t done it well. For us to do it this time, it’s going to need to be `we.’ We’re going to need to play better. For us to win, I need to do my job well, at a high level.”
Vanderjagt MVP: Maybe Colts kicker Mike Vanderjagt is the league’s real MVP.
Last off-season, Vanderjagt said Manning and coach Tony Dungy lacked emotion and needed to step it up as leaders if the Colts were to succeed. Manning responded that the “idiot kicker” got “liquored up” and ran his mouth.
Last week, Vanderjagt’s NFL-record 41st straight field goal won the AFC South for the Colts and Manning was voted MVP along with Tennessee’s Steve McNair. Vanderjagt and Manning both enjoyed career years.
Vanderjagt’s kick against the Texans came after Houston players used reverse psychology on the cocky kicker. Usually, opposing players accuse him of being “liquored up” or tell him, “You’re going to miss.” The Texans told Vanderjagt how he was perfect, the greatest kicker ever, and how he couldn’t miss. Vanderjagt responded by giving Houston cornerback Jason Simmons his usual taunting response, “Sorry, man, I’m money. It’s over.”
Before the kick, Vanderjagt was goofing around with teammates.
“I was joking that it was the 41st kick in a row, to win a game, to win a division,” he said. “I was asking if anybody on the sidelines wanted to kick it. Nobody offered, so I figured I’d do it myself.”