Bears' 'D' holds the key
Brown: 'Having fun' instead of just doing a job makes a difference
November 7, 2008
BY RICK TELANDER Sun-Times Columnist
Everybody knows Jeff Fisher is a terrific coach. The former Bears defensive back has a .554 winning percentage in his 14 years as the Titans' coach.
But guess what Lovie Smith's winning percentage is -- .569. And guess who won the only other meeting between Fisher's Titans and Smith's Bears.
Yep, Lovie.
So what we have shaping up here as the undefeated Titans, first in the AFC South, come to Soldier Field on Sunday to take on the 5-3 Bears, leading the NFC North, is a bit of reputation-building and ego fulfillment for the two main men.
You'd expect an undefeated team to keep winning, never miss a beat, but the Titans have as much chance of going 16-0 as, well, last year's seemingly invincible New England Patriots did. Running the table doesn't happen often in the NFL, and Lovie Smith, the underdog coach with a wounded starting quarterback, has a very good chance of upsetting the league leaders.
The NFL is all about making last-minute drives and avoiding mistakes at critical moments. Five of the Bears' eight games have been decided by a total of 16 points. The Bears' three losses have been by an average of 2.67 points. You want closer, try hand grenades.
In truth, there's nothing to keep the Bears from beating the Titans except, as we shall discuss, their own stupid, risky or spiritless play.
Yes, erratic Rex Grossman could gum things up by himself. But ''Good Rex'' lurks in there, too. Remember that.
Fisher coached the Titans back when they were the Houston Oilers, and he led his relocated club to the Super Bowl in 1999, the first season after the club bolted to Tennessee.
But Fisher lost Super Bowl XXXIV to the St. Louis Rams 23-16, and though his team has won some postseason games, it never has returned to the big one. And that very important stat makes Fisher basically on par with Smith, whose Bears have played in one Super Bowl themselves, losing 29-17 to the Indianapolis Colts in January 2007.
What this game clearly will come down to -- if you think coaching is close to equal -- is defense.
A typical Titans game is a boring slopfest -- for the other team. The Titans barely know how to pass, they run for most of their yards, they hardly ever fumble, the quarterback almost never gets sacked (an NFL-low four times), they pound your offense and strip the ball from you and they win by a score of 25-13.
Strength is now a weakness
The Bears' defense, once the pride of defensive expert Smith, has become oddly blah. It ranks 27th in sacks, 30th in passing yards allowed and 18th in total yards.
Enter veteran free safety Mike Brown, pulling a black White Sox cap over his bushy hair, standing at his Halas Hall locker Thursday, acknowledging the defense's failings.
''We're used to being the strong link,'' Brown, 30, said. ''And right now we're definitely the weak link of this team.''
Brown is the little-engine-that-sometimes-can, a Bob Sanders-like, tornado force on the field whose desire often seems too big for his physical limitations.
Right now Brown is nursing a sore calf, but he claims he has a good chance of playing against the Titans, though people ''higher on the totem pole'' will, he suspects, make that decision.
But what he does know for sure is that the Bears need to be fired up on defense and ready to attack and stuff the Titans, so that it won't be left to Grossman or the hobbling Kyle Orton.
And what will that take?
''Sometimes when when you're not emotionally involved in the game, when it's more like a job than having fun, we don't play well,'' he replied. ''That's when we play our best -- when we're having a lot of fun and enthusiastic about being out there.''
It's hard to figure out why the Bears' ''D'' wouldn't always be having ''fun,'' which mainly means flying around and hitting things with confidence. Some critics have said the cover-2 defense the Bears sometimes play has suddenly become outdated.
Brown scoffs at that.
''There's a perception that this team runs a lot of cover-2, but that's not the case. In obvious passing situations like third-and-super-long, we'll be in cover-2, but in general, we don't run it a lot. We run three-deep or zone blitzes, man, something like that.''
Titans vulnerable on offense
The thing about the Titans is they are utterly vulnerable on offense. If you snuff them, how is their defense going to win?
Their offense is below average in points per game, first downs, net yards -- just about everything except not screwing up.
This should make any opposing defense happy and loose.
''Emotionally, we're going to be very, very high,'' said Brown, who presents a conflicting image with his diamond stud earrings, ''Pimpstrong'' T-shirt and reading glasses. He seems ready for a rap concert or the library.
''And like I said, the perception is that we've been playing just terrible, the worst defensive team in the league,'' he added, uh, defensively. ''And that's not the case.''
That can be proved to all Sunday.
Lovie Smith should get the ''D''-fire burning. He'll win if he does.
