The moment that convinced me the Bears were for real this season no doubt prompted many fans to abandon all reservations. It was, of course, the fake field goal against the Washington Redskins two Sundays ago, so beautifully designed and executed it plays again and again in the mind’s eye. Brian Urlacher, the young middle linebacker who has come to epitomize the Bears’ new can-do excellence, tipped the team’s hand by going in motion from left to right as Paul Edinger prepared a 46-yard field-goal attempt. At the snap, holder Brad Maynard–who, like Urlacher, has had an excellent season in his proper role, as punter–rose with the ball and rolled right, with Edinger running wide in what looked like a college option play. Edinger, who has a kicker’s spindly body, wasn’t much of a threat, but he served as a fine decoy, drawing the defense up. Urlacher, meanwhile, ran past the onrushing defenders and into the clear. Maynard–on the run, looking like his number four Green Bay counterpart Brett Favre–delivered a soft spiraling ball that Urlacher latched onto with a little skip rhythm to get in step and ran in against minimal opposition. His career record remains perfect, for Urlacher caught six passes in college–all for touchdowns.
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Yet it wasn’t just the beauty of the play and Urlacher’s involvement that made it memorable; it was the circumstances. The Bears, trying to stay in front of the Green Bay Packers in the National Football Conference’s Central Division, had looked vulnerable in Washington, as the Redskins at the time had playoff hopes of their own and were playing the Bears tough. In fact, they’d taken control of the game in the fourth quarter, seizing a 13-10 lead. The Bears were typically timid on offense, though they remained composed. And then coach Dick Jauron in one stroke dismissed all thoughts of timidity, rejecting a potential game-tying field goal to go for the win.
Urlacher doesn’t play with Dick Butkus’s ferocity or Mike Singletary’s intensity, but he has more speed than either, and he’s just as entertaining to watch. Oddly enough, this is especially true on artificial turf, which until now has never brought out the best in any Chicago football player–with the possible exception of Walter Payton. (That famous play where he came to a screeching halt, threw his weight backward at the shoulders, contorting himself wildly, and tore off in the opposite direction without even steadying himself by touching the ground would have been unthinkable on Soldier Field’s new sod.) As the WSCR radio host Dan Bernstein has pointed out, Urlacher is genuinely scary on turf–a high-performance vehicle operating under ideal conditions–and this offers the Bears their one hope should they meet the Saint Louis Rams in the playoffs.
As I’ve said, with or without home-field advantage the Bears are in trouble against either the Packers or the Niners. Green Bay beat Chicago twice with an offensive line that opened gaping holes in the Bears’ usually run-resistant defense while Favre chewed them up in the air. If the Bears blitzed, Favre took advantage of single coverage; if not, he had abundant time to wait for his receivers to get open. The Niners, meanwhile, feel they’ve already beaten the Bears once in Chicago, though losing 37-31 in overtime on the first of Brown’s miraculous back-to-back game-winning interceptions returned for touchdowns.
