Bears' Saintly Victory Sends Them to Miami

Excuse me while I gloat.

The Chicago Bears did many of the things I thought they would in their 39-14 pounding of the New Orleans Saints at snowy Soldier Field on Sunday. I wasn’t surprised to see the Bears win the NFC title game. It was how they won that impressed me.

I wrote in an earlier post that the Bears’ defense would bend but not break against the high-powered Saints offense. They’ll give up some yardage, but not the points. The Bears’ defense set the tone early by putting pressure on QB Drew Brees, who often looked confused and made some ill-advised plays. They gave up only 14 points to the league’s number one-ranked offense.

I also said weather would be a factor, and indeed, the Saints were ill-prepared for the snow, cold and sloppy grass at Soldier Field. The Saints practiced indoors all week, believing that the weather would not be as much of a factor as it was. While the Saints’ players had a difficult time getting any kind of solid footing on the cold, icy field, the Bears – who practiced outdoors much of the week – had few problems.

I said the Bears had plenty of reason to “play angry” on Sunday, and play angry they did. The Bears didn’t say much in the days leading up to the game, but they were miffed that so-called football experts picked the Saints to win the game. They proved just how miffed they were by performing with an intensity we have not seen since October.

I said if the Bears were to win this game, they needed to establish the running game early and consistently. It wasn’t a matter of taking the ball out of Rex Grossman’s hands so much as exploiting the Saints’ weakness -- their rush defense, which was ranked 23rd in the NFL during the regular season. A good running game and ball-control offense can do wonders to keep a high-powered offense like the Saints off the field. The Bears should do well in the Super Bowl using a similar strategy against Peyton Manning and the Colts, whose rushing defense is also suspect. If the Bears can rush for 196 yards against the Saints, imagine what they can do against the Colts' rushing defense that was the worst in the league.

So it wasn’t the tight, low-scoring game I thought it would be, although it almost did when Reggie Bush scored on an 88-yard TD early in the third quarter to close the gap to 16-14. I was partly right when I said that a special teams’ play would be the turning point, and the game would be decided by a field goal. One of the key plays came in the first quarter, when the Saints committed the first of their four turnovers on a fumbled punt return. The Bears recovered the ball deep in Saints territory, and finished their drive with a Robbie Gould field goal for a 6-0 Bears’ lead. At that point, the Bears established their dominance, and you could tell that they knew they had the Saints exactly where they wanted them. The Bears never looked back.

Now they can proudly look forward to a date with the Indianapolis Colts in Miami on Feb. 4 for Super Bowl XLI.