Top Ten Myths About the Bears

By Danny Sheridan
Kyle Orton and Matt Forte have been most responsible for the Bears averaging 28 points through seven games. Actually, the bigger reason that the Bears have been such a surprise offensively is the play of the offensive line, which people thought would be one of the league's worst groups. That's one myth about the Bears. Here are 10 more.

10. Jerry Angelo is totally cluelessCriticize Angelo for his failure to make good early round picks, giving Tommie Harris that big contract extension a month before training camp and not putting the franchise tag on Bernard Berrian, but give him some credit for one thing: there might not be a better GM in football at finding late second day draft steals. Look at some of the guys Angelo has chosen in the fifth round or later in the last few years: Kevin Payne, Corey Graham, Mark Anderson, Chris Harris, and Josh Beekman (last pick in the fourth round). Does that make up for wasting early picks on Cedric Benson, Michael Haynes, Mark Bradley, and Dan Bazuin? No, but I’m just saying.

9. The bye week came at a perfect time There’re two ways of looking at this. On one hand, the Bears are very banged up right now, with Tillman, Vasher, Lloyd, Hester, and Harris all nursing injuries. Then there’s my way. In a perfect world, the Bears bye would have come one week later, after their game against Detroit, who they could beat missing half their team. That would have given them two weeks off heading into the toughest stretch of their season: Tennessee, at Green Bay, at St. Louis, and at Minnesota.

8. The Bears should be at least 6-1It’s easy to say if not for Greg Olsen’s two fumbles, Tillman’s bonehead penalty, and Lovie Smith’s decision to squib kick, the Bears could be 7-0. Then again, if not for a fortunate goal-line stand (the Eagles play calling was ridiculous), and two fluke touchdowns on special teams against the Vikings, the Bears would have lost both those games. Really good teams find ways to win at the end of games, something the Bears are still figuring out.

7. The NFC North sucks

Outside of the NFC East, it’s the best division in the NFC, even with Detroit threatening to go winless. This is basically the same Packers team, with the exception at quarterback, that won 13 games and nearly got to the Super Bowl last year. Aaron Rodgers is neck and neck with Orton for the title of the division’s best QB and seems to be getting better every game. Minnesota started slow last season too, so you can’t count them out either. I wouldn’t be surprised if it came down to the Bears/Packers Monday night game at Soldier Field right before Christmas.

6. Corey Graham should start over Nathan Vasher

When David Haugh suggested that when Vasher gets back, Graham should still be the starter opposite Tillman, my eyes nearly bulged out. Then this past week, I’ve heard a lot of other people express the same sentiment. Did anyone else see Matt Ryan and Gus Frerotte absolutely tear apart the Bears secondary? Graham is a nice player, and an incredible story considering he didn’t play at all on defense last year. Still, the Bears didn’t pay Vasher 28 million for him to be the league’s best nickel back. And him missing nearly all of last season with a quad injury was probably the biggest reason the defense as a whole took such a big step backwards.

5. It’s time to dump the cover-2 defense
Since every NFL team plays some form of it, there must be a reason why it’s so popular. Like any defense, cover-1, zone, man-to-man- it’s all about execution. That means the Bears can’t have any more games where the defensive line gets no sacks or fails to generate consistent pressure. It helps to have both starting cornerbacks out there too, which was the case when the Bears shut down Peyton Manning and Jake Dellhomme. We’ve seen the bad (Marcus Hamilton not getting deep enough against Atlanta), and the good (Zack Bowman’s pick that sealed the Vikings win) of the cover-2 these last two games.

4. The Bears can continue to pass their way to winsI’m guaranteeing right now that what we saw against the Vikings we won’t see again this season from the Bears. Orton isn’t that good, the wide receivers aren’t that good, and the offensive line isn’t good enough for the Bears to think they can win games by being a passing team first and a running team second. In the last four games, Forte has averaged less than three yards a carry. If that continues, they'll will be lucky to win eight games. I’ll admit though, watching the Bears score 48 points by throwing the ball all over the field was really cool.

3. Devin Hester has lost valueOkay, so he’s not going to have six returns for touchdowns like he did in each of his first two years. And he has looked, well awful, on the majority of his returns. His blockers certainly haven’t helped much either. With all that said, he still has had a big effect on games. Just having Hester on the field has helped the Bears rank fourth in the NFL with an average position following kickoffs starting at their own 30.1 yard-line. He has also turned into a solid number two receiver, and reports are that the Bears may experiment with the Dolphins wildcat formation, using Hester in the Ronnie Brown role.

2. The Bears have seven “Pro Bowlers" on defenseTechnically, that’s correct, but of those seven, only Briggs and Tillman have played like Pro Bowlers this season. Urlacher, who still hasn’t figured out how to get off blocks, is only the third best middle linebacker in the NFC North. Harris has been a complete bust, and has quickly turned into the team’s most overrated player, surpassing even Olin Kreutz. Vasher has been injured, while Ogunleye hasn’t come close to reaching the level he played at last season. Having Brown healthy is obviously an upgrade over Danieal Manning, but even he has yet to deliver the big plays he has made a career out of. The Bears best defensive player so far? Alex Brown.

1. Kyle Orton is turning into an elite quarterbackOrton’s stats after seven games this season: 10 TD, 4 INT, 1669 yards, 62.2 completion percentage, 91.4 QB rating. Rex Grossman’s stats after seven games in 2006: 13 TD, 6 INT, 1639 yards, 61.4 completion percentage, 94.4 QB rating. I know that quarterback play has been so bad here for so long, and that it’s easy to see that Orton is no Grossman, but still let’s take it slow.