It’s hard to predict what the Chicago Bears offense will look like with 116 year-old Todd Collins at the quarterback position.  The Vegas odds are probably on “ugly”.  But sometimes a team needs to win a game ugly to remind themselves they can.  I think Sunday is one of those days when the 2010 Bears channel my favorite Bears team of the recent memory, the 2005 Bears.

2006 is quickly becoming the Diet 1985 of the Chicago Bears organization.  It is the year writers and fans now point to as that by which all championship-caliber teams must be measured.  Nobody, at least nobody with a working brain, believes the 2006 team could have stayed within double-digits of the Monsters.  (Could you imagine Fred Miller blocking Richard Dent?)  But they are, nevertheless, the modern model for the Bears franchise.  No team has since ’85 has come closer to glory.

Yesterdy I gave you my impressions of the Panthers struggling, inexperienced offensive unit.  Today I give you their defense and special teams.

General note.  I like John Fox a whole lot and I like the way his teams play.  If he gets bumped out of town and things go wrong in Chicago, the Bears should look in his direction.

Defense

• We have to start our evaluations of all opponents by looking at their pass rush.  The Panthers don’t have any elite talents up front but Charles Johnson seems capable of a multi-sack performance at the left end slot.  The Panthers may not be sacking the quarterback much but Drew Brees was continually faced with a collapsing pocket and limited time to throw.
• If the Bears come out with a conservative, down-the-middle game plan they’ll be playing right into the hands of the Panthers.  The Saints moved the ball well with a terrific mix of end arounds, pitches and screens to various players.  The Panthers look a bit lacking in sideline-to-sideline speed.
• That may be the reason Jeremy Shockey was open on what felt like every down.  If he managed to catch more than 25% of the passes that touched his hands, he could have had a monster game. 
• It’s fun to spend the few hours watching other games closely because I get discover players like middle linebacker James Anderson.  Anderson has an all-world motor, terrific gap discipline and solid ball awareness.  He had two downfield fumble recoveries and a sack of Drew Brees to end the first half.  If the Panthers send him at Cutler Sunday, he’ll get there.
• The Saints have struggled offensively this year but they moved the ball well on the Panthers.  In an almost Bearsian way, the Panthers continued to force fumbles and stunt drives.  The Panthers want to beat their opponents at the turnover game, knowing it’s the only way for them to accrue enough points to win.
• The Saints receivers had a hard time separating from the Panthers secondary.  Marques Colston, Robert Meachem and Lance Moore each needed to work through traffic in order to make any kinds of plays downfield.
• This defense hustles.  They play hard.  They know that a couple touchdowns could put the game out of reach for the offense.

Having sat through the Carolina Panthers/New Orleans Saints game, and now waking up from the coma it put me in, I can safely say this Panthers team would be better than their 0-4 record if they had a viable starting quarterback.  (I still don’t understand how the Panthers and Cardinals believed they could succeed this year with their respective quarterback depth.) Here’s my breakdown of the Carolina Panthers offense.  Defense and special teams coming tomorrow.

• Jimmy Clausen may turn into a terrific pro quarterback but he’s not even close currently.  Aside from a brilliant play he made scrambling to his right on the Panthers final drive, Clausen lacked accuracy and pocket presence throughout their loss to the Saints.  He’s also got an odd problem with having his passes knocked down.  Three times he seemed to throw the ball directly into the hands of a defensive lineman.
• The other strange thing about Clausen is twice during the game he had no clue how far the play clock had run, leading to Steve Smith (which I’d never seen before) and John Fox having to call timeouts.
• DeAngelo Williams should scare the Bears a bit because he’s a combination of Ahmad Bradshaw’s speed and escapability and Brandon Jacobs’ power over the middle.  If the Bears have him in the backfield, they must bring him down.  If they don’t, he can rival Peterson and Johnson’s big play ability.  The Panthers want to hit home runs on the ground, not through the air.
• The Panthers show a serious hole on the right side of their offensive line with Jeff Otah injured.  I don’t expect Julius Peppers to spend a lot of time in front of Jordan Gross.
• Bear killer Steve Smith is injured.  Dwayne Jarrett Braylon’d his way out of town.  That leaves the Panthers with three rookie wide receivers: David Gettis, Brandon LaFell and Armanti Edwards.  If the Bears get beat by this quarterback and these receivers, forget the playoffs.
• I will say that the receiver Clausen has a nice rapport with is David Gettis.  He was very comfortable throwing a mid-range back shoulder ball to him down the right sideline and looked for him on the big final-drive toss.  I don’t do fantasy football but Gettis could catch a bunch of balls Sunday.
• Here’s what the Panthers want to do on offense.  Run on first down.  Run on second down.  Run on third down.  If they must throw, throw for a couple yards and move the chains.  On a big third-and-short early, look for Clausen to throw a quick slant to the right side.   
• At the end of the first half, they got the ball with 1:07 remaining.  They punted it back to New Orleans with 54 seconds left.  This is not a good offensive team.
• The Panthers made their biggest plays of the game when they spread Jonathan Stewart and tight end Dante Rosario out wide.  I’d expect to see them do this more, especially their inexperience at wide receiver.
• The Panthers should have won this game, if not for the drive the Charlotte Observer describes as a “ball of confusion”.  After the terrific Jimmy Clausen throw, the Panthers had a first down on the cusp of John Kasay’s field goal range.  A short run up the middle put them in position to kick it.  They then lost four on a run and Jimmy Clausen took a sack.  On fourth down, Clausen heaved a jump ball to Dwayne Jarrett.  Game over.

Will Jay Cutler Play Sunday?

I know how Bears fans work and I’ve never liked it.  An unarguably poor performance in the Meadowlands and suddenly half the roster needs to be traded and coaches need to be fired.  3-1 after four games isn’t not enough for Bears fans anymore.  The 3 never happened.  All they remember today is the 1.

The Bears aren’t a great team, we know that.  But guess what?  There isn’t a single great team in the NFC this year.  The Rams might win the NFC West.  The Saints have almost been beaten in every one of their games.  The Packers defense stayed true to its roots and was grated like cheese by Shaun Hill.  The Cowboys, Giants, Eagles and Redskins…who the hell knows?  But do any of these teams look like they’re winning a road playoff game?

Listen, I know how you felt the last three weeks.  Things were rosy.  The sun was shining.  Beautiful women were approaching you on the street, complimenting your body and giving you keys to their hotel rooms.  But that’s not reality in the NFL.  In 2006, the greatest single season since 1985, the Bears were massacred at home by Joey Harrington and the Miami Dolphins (I know, I was there).  The Bears limped to the finish line behind the interception monster known as Rex.  And they delivered two of the most memorable performances of my lifetime en route to the Super Bowl.

Be practical.  Be pragmatic.  Next week they’ll be favored in Carolina, no matter who they start at quarterback.  They then come home, where they’ll be favored against the Seahawks and Redskins.  Bye week.  Then to Toronto to face the Buffalo Bills, easily the worst team in the sport.  If this Bears team is going to make any kind of run into the postseason, they should be able to experiment with some blocking schemes and still pull out three of these four games and finish the first half at 6-2.

So let’s not make any snap judgments off one performance.  Let’s not be like the four-letter network we all despise.  However bad you’re feeling,and you shouldn’t feel good, the Bears would win the division if the season ended today.  A month ago, you would have signed up for 3-1.  And five weeks from now you’re going to love 6-2. 

It rained on me in the Meadowlands last night and I didn’t mind.  Because a tornado could have picked up out of that beautiful new facility in the swamp, swirled me around in the sky and flung me into the glass of the Whiskey Cafe in Lyndhurst and I still would not have felt as bad as Jay Cutler.

The 3-0 Chicago Bears embarrassed themselves against the New York Giants of New Jersey in ways I didn’t think possible.  All the much-discussed problems along the offensive line came to a head, as the G-men sacked Bears quarterbacks three hundred times and knocked the franchise’s most valuable asset out of the game with a concussion.

Forget about the second half.  Even if the ball had bounced the right way, which it almost did, the Bears would not have been able to thump their chests on the plane ride home.  The 2010 Chicago Bears should consider the first half their current identity.  They are terrific on defense and specials.  And they can’t block. 

As good as Mikes Martz and Tice have been this season, that’s how awful they were last night.  Did we not have a screen or a quick out in the playbook this week?  Did our quarterbacks need to keep continually dropping back into a suffocated pocket?  Bears fans throughout the stadium were screaming advice for Martz that made far more sense than what was actually being run.  I hate to say it but last night was one of those games that makes you scratch your head about Martz.  I think this system is the right one for our quarterback but he can not keep operating like our offensive line is capable.

And in my mind, we’re going to Carolina.  Against a head coach who knows how to get after the quarterback.  The Bears have shown in the past, especially under this coach, they are prone to short memories.  With or without Cutler (please be with) the Bears can not let last night become a trend as they enter the easiest portion of their schedule.  They are still 3-1.  Still leading a Green Bay Packers that is not the juggernaut the prognosticators thought they were.  Learn from last night’s disaster and move on.  That’s all they can do.