NFL's Chicago Bears Still the Class of NFC

Mike Ditka would love it if he was still the coach of the Chicago Bears. After all, there was nothing "Iron Mike" did better than using any slight - real or perceived - to fire up his team.

Current Bears coach Lovie Smith is considerably lower key than Ditka and will likely let his Bears right any wrongs with their play on the field. But make no mistake, the Bears are being under-rated by the public and so-called experts. Pundits and the public are pitting the New Orleans Saints as the presumptive favorite in the NFC for the 2007 season. A recent USA Today online poll showed more than 70 percent of respondents felt the Saints are the favorite. Callers and radio hosts to football-themed satellite radio shows generally sing the same tune. The Saints clearly are the media darlings heading into the upcoming season.

On the surface, there seems to be legitimate reasons to favor the Saints. Quarterback Dree Brees is considered one of the NFL's great young guns right now and second-year superback Reggie Bush promises to be one of the most exciting players in the league for years to come. The Saints also have a number of intangibles working for them, including their meteoric bounce back from their hurricane-ravaged 2005 season.

However, this is the same Saints team that was mashed 39-14 by the Bears at Soldier Field in last season's NFC championship game. When examining the two teams, there is little reason to believe the Saints will improve enough and the Bears will slip enough to change that lopsided outcome. The Bears dominated most of that conference title game and the Saints were only briefly competitive when an amazing Bush play brought the Saints within two points. They looked outmatched for the most part on both lines and the Bears proved themselves capable of making enough big plays to break their opponents' backs.

Although the Bears lost to Indianapolis in the Super Bowl, they appear loaded for another run at a world championship. The Saints won't stand in the way, and might not even be the second or third best team in the NFC.

The experts predicted the Bears to slip this season before the confetti had even stopped flying at the Colts celebration after the Super Bowl. Quarterback Rex Grossman is too erratic and the Bears lack big play ability, they said. The offensive line is aging and the defense stood to be ripped apart by free agency. Tank Johnson's legal troubles and Lance Briggs' planned holdout also threatened to thwart a return trip for the Bears.

Two of those things ended up not happening. The Bears lost some depth on defense, but drafted well to address that issue. They also added safety Adam Archuleta in free agency, a former star who blossomed under Smith when the Bears coach was the Rams defensive coordinator.

The Tank Johnson situation was unfortunate and the defensive tackle's release from the team probably was a distraction. But the Bears recovered nicely even from that debacle, trading for tackle Darwin Walker, the NFL's fourth-leading sacker among defensive tackles over the past five seasons. Walker is more experienced than Johnson and likely as talented as the troubled young player.

Briggs' holdout also threatened to upset the chemistry of a potential Super Bowl squad , but the linebacker recently ended his bitter holdout and reported to training camp. The talented linebacker apparently will play for the $7.2 million he will be paid as the Bear's franchise player this year.

Grossman was erratic last year but remains a young, relatively inexperienced quarterback who should get better. Running back Cedric Benson has a proven track record in college as a workhorse back and should be able to keep the Bears' ground game as strong as it was with Thomas Jones carrying the load.
Finally, offense is adding a new weapon this year. Record-setting return man Devin Hester, who made more game-changing plays last year than anyone, will also line up at receiver and running back, giving the Bears an "anytime" threat at least equivalent to the Saints' Bush.

Maybe it will come down to which team can lock up homefield advantage throughout the playoffs. Experts - and Saints fans - say a Chicago-New Orleans macthup would have a far different outcome if the game was played in the Big Easy instead of frozen Soldier Field.

That sounds good but the statistics say otherwise. Chicago was 6-2 at home last year - 8-2 counting the playoffs - but an even more stellar 7-1 on the road.