For a week, glass is half full
A NEW HOPE? | Win over horrible team keeps critics at bay
December 7, 2009
BY MIKE MULLIGAN mmulligan@suntimes.com
Scoff if you must at the Bears' victory against the St. Louis Rams as just another happy accident compliments of the NFL schedule-makers. So what if beating the Rams was like beating the Cleveland Browns on the first day of November, the last time the Bears awoke to a ''Victory Monday''? Such wins might reflect a change in culture or fortune. Or are they just fleeting moments doomed to wither and die like the turf at Soldier Field?
There is nothing wrong with an accidental breakthrough. History is filled with such glorious moments that have bettered mankind. Could the Bears' victory against the Rams turn out to be the football equivalent of penicillin, cellophane, cornflakes or dynamite, all innovations blessed by serendipity?
We'll know better come next Sunday, when the Green Bay Packers show up at Soldier Field coming off a short week after tonight's game against the Baltimore Ravens. The Pittsburgh Steelers' loss to the Oakland Raiders on Sunday dropped the Steelers to 6-6 and means the Bears have not beaten a winning team. The Bears are 5-7 with the next three against winning teams, the Packers, Ravens and Minnesota Vikings, before the finale at the hopeless Detroit Lions.
Can the Bears beat one winning team before the season is done? If they can't, what does that tell you?
''Sometimes things don't work out according to plan,'' Bears general manager Jerry Angelo said on the Bears' pregame show on WBBM-AM (780). ''Doesn't mean the plan was bad. The plan was solid. It just didn't work. We'll re-visit the things that didn't work, fix the things that didn't work, and when you do that, you will be better for it. Can I tell you exactly what? I can't do that. There will be time to do it.''
Forte's take: 'It's a start'
A rare victory allowed the Bears to spurn the usual loser's cliches and gave the fan base and media a respite -- short as it might turn out to be -- from blaming everyone in sight for the miserable failures of a wretched season. Not that anyone in the locker room felt the Bears had done more than keep the critics at bay for more than a week.
''I don't [believe this will quiet the critics],'' middle linebacker Hunter Hillenmeyer said. ''We beat a team we should have beaten and it was a close game. It will be exactly the same.''
Unless the Bears can beat the Packers. Not that some players didn't attempt to cling to the idea that winning a single game can right a failed season. Running back Matt Forte called the game ''a start of better things to come.''
''We had not been playing good ball, but we got a win and ran pretty well. It's a start,'' Forte said.
Cornerback Zackary Bowman said the Bears close ranks in the locker room and try to shut out the outside world, but everyone was aware the pressure was hitting a breaking point outside the building.
''We knew we weren't winning, and in the NFL, that's not going to cut it, so this was a good start,'' Bowman said.
Sadly, there are no restarts within a season, and winning against an inferior opponent proves virtually nothing if you can't play with the big boys.
It has been a season of navigating from one failure to the next. Remember, Kevin Payne and Nathan Vasher both lost starting jobs following the season opener at Green Bay when the two were blamed for the 50-yard touchdown pass that ruined Jay Cutler's debut. Well, that and his four picks that night. Nonetheless, the Bears led in that game despite the mistakes until blown assignments on that late touchdown.
''That game is over with,'' said Payne, who was back in the starting lineup for the first time against the Rams, presumably because he's a better run defender than Danieal Manning. ''I took all responsibility, right or wrong as you said. That game is over. We just want to play with good technique and be disciplined and make more big plays than they do.''
Payne, Williams step up
Payne was credited with eight tackles against the Rams, an impressive number until you consider Jamar Williams was credited with 18 by the guys keeping track of such things in the press box. Alex Brown joked that number would increase by Wednesday or Thursday when the coaches were done reviewing tape.
''Yeah, the Urlacher Rule,'' Williams said with a laugh in reference to the inflated statistics of the injured middle linebacker.
Williams downplayed his success, saying the position he played, weak-side linebacker in place of Lance Briggs, allowed him to flow to the ball. Remember, that's the spot Derrick Brooks played in the old Tampa-2 with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Not exactly a ringing endorsement for Briggs' Pro Bowl campaign.
Maybe some accidents aren't as lucky as they look.
Mike Mulligan and Sun-Times colleague Brian Hanley host ''The Mully and Hanley Show'' from 5 to 9 a.m. weekdays on WSCR-AM (670).