The 2018 Bears, a great team to come back to |
I saw the Bears’ game last night. No big deal, you say? For me it kind of was, you see, I swore off football three or so years ago when all the kneeling started. I hadn’t watched one minute of one game since then, and I couldn’t even tell you who won the Super Bowl last year. Tough pill to swallow for a guy that used to live for Sundays.
I’m not here to argue whether the pre-game protests are right or wrong. The players have a protected right to conduct their protests, just as I had my right to boycott the NFL. Besides, my issue was never about their reasoning for the protests, but rather about their desire to want to do so during the National Anthem, but I digress. I kind of missed football, so it was almost awkward to sit back down and get into the game again, though this Bears’ team made it fairly easy to do. Before last night, I couldn’t have picked Mitch Trubisky or Khalil Mack out of a lineup, but to say that the two impressed me would be an understatement. That’s not to say that the team as a whole isn’t solid, as they are now 7-3, but those two definitely stand out. For an old guy like me (I’ll be 53 later this week), the measure of a great Bears’ team was always the 1985 club. Maybe you remember some of those names: Peyton, McMahon, Singletary, Butler, Dent? A 15-1 season, followed by a Super Bowl massacre, seeing the Bears blow out the Patriots by a score of 46-10. THAT was a team. I’m sure a good majority of the readers only know of that team through YouTube, family members reminiscing and NFL history lessons, but trust me, they were stout. To say I saw some similarities to the 2018 Bears, may draw angst from other old guys like me, but I saw more than a few. Forgive me if you guys already knew this stuff, but remember, I’ve been out of the loop for a while. Trubisky reminds me a little, or maybe a lot, of a young Jim McMahon, save for maybe the cockiness. He has a great arm, he scrambles well, and perhaps even better than the punky QB of the 80’s, he rushes like a guy who could be a fullback if he was a little more padded up and didn’t have an arm. Where do I even start with Khalil Mack? The guy plays with the intensity of Samurai Mike Singletary, hits like Richard Dent and tackles like Mongo (Steve McMichael for you young‘uns). Matt Nagy impresses me as well. Not quite the intensity of Iron Mike Ditka, but a passionate guy who stays calm under pressure. At my age, the little things impress me, and the “Be You” on his clipboard was one of those little things. A reminder to himself that just being “Matt Nagy” got himself the job, and that was how he needed to coach. This guy is going to take this team far. If I sat here and rambled through the roster, this could take days, but the whole squad is solid, and rather impressive considering no starter is older than twenty-six. About the only thing I didn’t care for last was the orange jerseys, as I had to keep reminding myself that I wasn’t watching the Broncos. The final score last night (25-20) didn’t do the Bears any justice. That team dominated the Vikings all night, both offensively and defensively, and until the fourth quarter, had Kirk Cousins held completely at bay. I’m not ready to jump back into the full-time NFL fan mode- at least not yet, but I’ll be giving the Bears as many more views as I can in the final weeks of 2018. By the way, when did the Chiefs learn to play football?
