The stars continue to align for the Bears, as Super Bowl teams New England and Philadelphia barely keep pace with 4-3 records. The owner of the New Orleans Saints is pushing cameramen and insulting fans as his beleaguered and homeless team tries to gain support in Baton Rouge.
The San Francisco 49ers were down to a special-teams player and third-string quarterback on Sunday.
The 49ers beat the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who have lost quarterback Brian Griese for the season and are trying to force-feed Chris Simms. The Bucs sent home pass rusher Simeon Rice for that game because he violated team rules.
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The Green Bay Packers’ Brett Favre has won only one game and threw five interceptions on Sunday for the first time in his career during the regular season.
The Minnesota Vikings lost quarterback Daunte Culpepper for the season. He suffered torn anterior cruciate, medial collateral and posterior cruciate ligaments in his right knee against Carolina, so 37-year-old Brad Johnson will take over.
The Saints, 49ers, Bucs, Packers (twice) and Vikings represent six of the Bears’ nine remaining games.
The Bucs, Carolina Panthers, Pittsburgh Steelers and Atlanta Falcons are the only teams left on the Bears’ schedule with winning records. The Panthers and Falcons come to Soldier Field.
In the NFL, it’s not so much what teams you play as when you happen to play them. The Bears have caught a three-week wave of good fortune that should have been four weeks and could stretch to five.
After losing their third game in four in Cleveland, blowing a late lead, they had not yet grown up enough to realize the possibilities.
Suddenly, they got the Vikings staggering off an embarrassing boat trip and a more embarrassing season, the Baltimore Ravens suffering from general malaise and confusion plus second-string quarterback Anthony Wright, and the injury-riddled Detroit Lions experimenting with limited backup Jeff Garcia.
After the Saints lost Sunday to the Miami Dolphins, New Orleans coach Jim Haslett said, “We are a bad football team.” He vowed to inspire his troops by threatening to fire them.
The 2-6 Saints are a “trap” for the Bears. They’ve lost four games in a row and that’s as hard to do in the balanced NFL as winning four in a row.
But the Saints’ return to Louisiana for the first time since Hurricane Katrina didn’t warrant a sellout at LSU, where popular ex-LSU coach Nick Saban was returning with his Dolphins.
Sunday’s visit by the Bears to the same site is unlikely to generate more enthusiasm, especially after Saints owner Thomas Benson grabbed a TV camera taping him leaving the game, when Benson appeared to respond angrily to a heckling fan.
Distractions for the Saints have appeared to reach a tipping point similar to the hubbub that has sunk the Vikings.
NFL spokesman Greg Aiello said Monday the league would not take action against Benson.
“It appears to be nothing more than a brief, heated exchange with a member of the media that was caught on camera,” Aiello said. “It’s not the first time in the world of sports entertainment that something like this has occurred. It was a tough day for the Saints and their fans.”
It has been a tough first half of the season for a lot of Bears opponents.
The 49ers were going to start Ken Dorsey at quarterback after top rookie Alex Smith injured his knee and the 49ers traded Tim Rattay to Tampa Bay. But Dorsey injured an ankle and is doubtful this week against the New York Giants. The 49ers were forced to go with Cody Pickett.
Who knows who will start in two weeks against the Bears–Smith, Pickett or Dorsey?
Meanwhile, Bears quarterback Kyle Orton is looking less like a rookie each week as he and offensive coordinator Ron Turner develop a rapport.
Losing injured rookie receiver Mark Bradley will hurt because Orton and Bradley were also getting more confident each week. But the Bears are still way ahead of their rivals on injury luck.
If running back Thomas Jones gets slowed by overwork, Sunday’s three carries by rookie Cedric Benson provided a glimpse of more good things to come. At the moment, the Bears can hardly help themselves from looking ahead with good reasons for hope.
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