Good Sports

by Budd Glassberg

Reprinted with permission from the Zionsville Times Sentinel on December 6, 2006

Lovie, Don’t Take Offense with This Suggestion

“Put in Griese, you idiot!”- Bear fan heard at last home game

Just as Indianapolis Colt fans love watching their team’s offense led by Payton Manning, Chicago Bear fans, of which I include myself, enjoy our team’s defense dominate their opponents. While the Colt’s defense is akin to a sieve when it comes to stopping the opposing team, as of late, the Bear’s offense has been very generous in handing the ball back to their opponents. Since the Colts have no choice in the matter of playing defense, Colt fans must suffer through half the game in hopes that their offense will run up enough points to offset their inept defense. The Bears, on the other hand, may have a choice in the amount of time their offense in required on the field.

During the first five games of this season, the Bear offense was like a steam roller, scoring at will. With Rex Grossman, a product of Bloomington South High School, at quarterback putting up Manning type numbers, the unstoppable Bears looked like a complete team. Grossman threw a mere three interceptions in those first five games and the Bears had no trouble winning all of them. Since that time, Wrecks has thrown fourteen interceptions in the last seven games (six in the past two games) and fumbled countless times. Coach Lovie Smith has decided to stick with Grossman, despite calls for his backup, Brian Griese. In spite of this collapse of the offense, the Bears have won five of those seven games. It appears that no matter how charitable the Bear offense is in turning over the ball to their opponents, the stingy Bear defense is able to take away the ball, very often scoring themselves. That scoring combined with a special team’s unit (punt and kick returns) which has scored four times, has put the Bears at the top of the National Football Conference.

Getting back to where the Bears have a choice in how much offense they have to play, allow me for one moment to step into head coach Lovie Smith’s shoes. Maybe the time has come to keep the Bear offense off the field. I propose that whenever the Bears have the ball in their own territory, they insert their punter in the Bear backfield, lined up well behind Grossman. Lovie should then instruct Grossman to do one of two things on every play. Either hand the ball off to the running back or call a play to long snap the ball to the punter, Maynard, whereby he quick kicks the ball into the opponent’s side of the field. This quick kick should be done before fourth down, preferably on first or second down. The opposing team would either be forced to keep a defensive player back, far from the line of scrimmage, or not keep someone back and allow the punt to be downed by the Bears. In the first case, the opposition will have one less defensive player and in the second, it keeps the entire game played on the opponent’s side of the field (given the way the Bear defense plays). Best of all, it keeps the Bear offense off the field, which keeps the opposing team of getting an easy score.

The Bears would play their normal offense when they have the ball on the opposition’s side of the field. This would happen when the Bears force an interception, fumble or when a kick return crosses midfield. With the Bear offense only playing on the opponents half of the field, they should be able to score every once in a while. Parlay that with defensive and special team scoring and the Bears could bring that formula to the Super Bowl.

If this advice is workable for the Bears, I will take my tongue out of my cheek and get to work on coming up with a plan for Tony Dungy to get the Colt’s defense off the field.

Budd Glassberg is a resident of Zionsville who is active in the local running community. Visit www.runz.com for reprints of all his columns. You can reach him by email at budd@runz.com.