Bear Down, Warm Up

Ah, the good ole' days.  The '85 Bears shellacking of the Patriots in Superbowl XX, 46-10.   Good times, good times.  The Bears were lead by hall-of-famers Walter Payton, Dan Hampton and Mike Singletary.  Then there was the Fridge, Mongo, the Hitman, Mama's Boy Otis, Hilge, Mad Mac and the Colonel.  Everyone on the '85 Bears had a nickname and everyone had a wild personality. It's not often that teams of that caliber come together and keep it together for an entire season without imploding.  Even the Coach had his style.  (Note that it's not "da" only because that's a tired cleche' that needs to be put to death.  Seriously, I'm from Chicago and never once uttered the the idiotic phrase "da" for any reason.  It's lame, it's annoying and it's just not funny anymore; kind of like Steve Martin and Jim Belushi.)

This Sunday has the makings for another classic Bears and Patriots match up.  The weather should be in the low 20's, before windchill.  The winds are always unpredictable coming off the lake.  One year the Bears were trying to kick and the winds were so strong, that the ball literally went off the kickers foot and was blown right to the sidelines without traveling forward.  Sure punters sometimes muff the punt off the side of their foot, but this was a kickoff.  One year they had fog so thick that the announcers could barely call the game.  There's no worry of fog this Sunday, only snow... and hopefully lots of it.  Not that that's an advantage for the Bears, it's just I want to see them play in the snow.

There's been talk all week about numbers and rankings.  How each team compares in this match up and that.  Who has the advantage when it comes to the sod in Soldier, and who has the hotter wife.  It's all crap.  If that stuff really mattered then the Browns wouldn't have beaten the Pats earlier this year.  It all comes down to playing to your strengths and not letting egos get in the way.  If Martz keeps his play calling the way he has since the bye week, the Bears have a great chance.  If the defense doesn't play like they did against the Lions (sure it's tough to get up for a team that hasn't beaten a divisional opponent in 19 tries, but that's no excuse), then they should slow down the prolific scorers.  Special teams, no question, the Bears are stronger. Then there's the 4th phase, the fans. Tailgating will commence at 7AM with a 3:30 kickoff, making the fans nice and lubricated and ready to let the Pat's know what they think about their three championships.  There is always some idiot fan in a visiting team jersey who gets highlighted on TV.  I'm just hoping that whomever it is is shown sitting on his hands in dejection.

The best part about this game is that the Bears are underdogs in their own stadium.  No one gives them a chance to pull this out... which is exactly why they should.  They've felt abused and disrespected all year and are out to prove that Philly wasn't an accident.  They're angry, they're hungry and best of all, they're not overconfident.