When Dan and I went to one of the home games this season I brought a long a couple of people from work, one of whom was a younger woman. While waiting to pull into the tailgate lot we heard the usual songs “Bear Down” and also the damn “Superbowl Shuffle”. I turned to Dan and said – she wasn’t even BORN when the Bears last won the Super Bowl, in 1985.
That really puts everything in perspective. Except for 1/2 of the 2006 Superbowl season (which I never refer to because it was too painful) and a bit in the early 1990′s with Kramer, our offense has SUCKED! Now, here we are, looking at the cast of the Superbowl Shuffle and chuckling a bit over nostalgia as we see McMahon in a rascal scooter (like George from Seinfeld).
THIS is how long it has been since the Bears had a serious offense – TWENTY FIVE DAMN YEARS. Now that Ron Turner is gone, and God bless the fact that he is gone – we can focus on the next problem, which is how the Bears can create a world-class NFL offense.
I know a million Bears fans, and we talk about the 1985 Bears like it was yesterday, and we focus like a laser on the defensive woes. But we don’t ruminate enough on our consistently terrible offense, and how it prevents the Bears from ever being a championship caliber team.
Ron certainly was a clown, and a joke. As the Heckler summed it up – he was “the guy who kept calling the same 5 plays”. But now that he is gone, and while we search for a new offensive coordinator, we need to look at the pieces and parts that we have and figure out to get from here (a crappy offense) to there (a great offense). And let’s stop focusing on the 1985 Bears, it is just pathetic that we talk about twenty five lost years as if it was nothing. That’s twenty five damn years of failure.
Even that year, the offense wasn’t really that great. When you’re starting every single drive from midfield, it’s quite easy to get scores. It was the same way in 2006, it was the same way for the 01 Ravens, and it’s the same for virtually every team that prides itself on its defense alone. The only time they win is when they can generate turnovers early in a drive or 3-and-outs, giving the offense very little real estate to travel in order to score points.
We now have a ProBowl QB, one of the best young RBs in the league, two WRs that are raw but talented (DevA and Knox), and a TE that might be molded into at least a respectable pass-catcher. Our line is terrible, but hopefully Tice can fix that (bassackwards idiotic hiring system). But, this is the era of the OFFENSE. Look at the games this weekend. All high scoring, excepting the Jets game thus far, and they’ve got the best defensive coordinator in the NFL as their head coach. Let Jay Cutler run free, give Forte some room to run, and you’ll see this team start pounding away scores, winning in a way they’ve never won in their history: with their offense.
Wow the Jets did just enough on offense to win. They really have a punishing running game though and in the fourth quarter the Chargers defense withered and Shon Greene ran wild. What a great game.
As far as the ’85 Bears, we really need to quit talking about them. Ditka was the last guy that Papa Bear hired, and the organization has played like it ever since. Even the ’85 Bears talk about what a joke the current owners are (see McMahon interview over at Blog Down Chicago Bears from a week ago).
One more really quick – I have no doubt that Singletary will eventually be successful in San Fran because it is going to be his way or the highway. Ditka learned from Papa Bear and Singletary learned from Ditka. These pros are so used to all the shit they get away with (see OchoCinco et. al) that a team that is actually coached instead of coddled will do well.