Week 6, in which the Bears return to the scene of the crime

I hate bye weeks (Drew's idea to get them all over with in Weeks 8 and 9 sounds perfect to me), and this one came at a weird time for the Bears. With so much else going on - October! - it seems like we forgot about our Bears a little bit. I'm saying this because all anyone can talk about this week is the semi-relevant resurgence of Cedric Benson and Kyle Orton. That's not to say that those aren't worthy topics of discussion - srsly, Cedric Benson? - but what about these Bears? After four games they're 3-1, and no seems particularly happy. Even last game's 48-24 thrashing of the Lions left seemingly more doubt than certainty. It was probably the worst Cutler has looked since the first half against Green Bay, but, you know, the Bears still scored five offensive touchdowns, so why are we complaining?

The fact of the matter is that no one knows how good the Bears are yet, but that could be about to change. Next two games: At Atlanta- at Cincinnati.

If they win both: Bearz rule!
If they lose both: Fire Lovie!
If they split: More of the same uncertainty.

To be honest, I'm not all that concerned that the Bears haven't made a statement yet. We look at Lovie Smith, and Lance Briggs, and Tommie Harris, and Charles Tillman, and Olin Kruetz, and think the 2009 Bears are the same Bears we've always seen + a good quarterback. That's not really true, though.

Cutler is new, 2/3 of the receivers are new, 3/5 of the offensive line is new. Since Danieal Manning played nickle back most of last season, I'd argue 3/4 of the secondary is new. Without Urlacher, 2/3 of the linebackers are new. Only the D-line has held up.

This isn't the same team that brought everyone else down to their level in 2008. This isn't the same team that went to the Super Bowl in 2006. The 2009 Bears are fresh to death, whether we realize it or not. As such, I really don't find it much of a reason to panic that they haven't looked dominant yet.

It seems like in football, more than any other sport, the team needs time to gel. The 2005 White Sox were almost entirely new and they won the World Series. Same goes for the '05 Bulls, a team that improved its win total from by 24 from the season before.

But football is different. Guys need to be on the same page. If a receiver breaks off his route, everything is screwed up. If a corner thinks a safety is helping him over the top but the safety is really keyed in on another offensive player, everything is screwed up. If a guard misses an assignment, everything is screwed up.

Football, to me, is the ultimate team sport. These things don't come together overnight, or even over one training camp. The fact that the Bears are 3-1 and haven't really played super well yet, to me, is encouraging. It looks like something is building. It may not be complete yet, and it may not be complete this season. But there really is no rush. The star quarterback is young, the running back is young, all of the receivers are young. Tillman, Harris, and Briggs have plenty of good years left in front of them. With the exception of Orlando Pace, this team really doesn't have any old guys.

The Bears aren't the Cubs, either. The Cubs need to win a World Series. They just have to. Every year they don't win the World Series is a colossal, hilarious disappointment. For the Bears, I'd argue that there's no rush. Every game isn't life of death. Be patient. This team is building something big. It's not ready yet, but it'll get there.

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 One of the perks of keeping a blog going for more than a year is that you can look back in the archives and see how you experienced things is real time. It's quite fun, actually.

Take last year's Bears-Falcons disaster, for example. I remember feeling like I wanted to die after that one. To the archives!

This is the most gut wrenching Bears loss of my lifetime, right? I think I said "I can't believe the Bears won this game..." about 25 times after Davis' touchdown grab. To see them blow it like that, especially when you just know this loss is going to come back to bite them once the playoff picture starts taking shape....ugh.

The Bears didn't make the playoffs by one game last year. I'm really smart.

The other great thing about archives is sometimes you read something and you're like "I.....don't remember that at all." For example, in the same post last year, I wrote this:

The Bears are now 3-3. They could easily, easily, easily (easily) be 6-0.

And commenter PZ wrote this:

this team is 3 plays away from being 6-0. ridiculous

Um, what!? That happened? I've always felt my short term memory was sub-par, and this confirms it. Before I read this, I had very little recollection that the Bears could easily (easily) have been 6-0 last season. Weren't they terrible or something?

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I think we're going to be in for a good game on Sunday. We have two very good quarterbacks, two first round fantasy picks for the tailbacks, and two defenses that excel at forcing turnovers. Plus, the last two Bears-Falcons games have ended up being memorable for different reasons.

I don't need to remind you what happened last year, but I'll be a dick and do it anyway.