The Chicago Bears look unstoppable. Their defense is bone crushing. Their offense looks strong. They have decimated every team in their path, looking like the best football team in the NFL.
As a matter of fact, I don?t think you could find anyone sensible who would say Chicago is not the best team in football right now. With the Colts needing the last minute to beat two subpar teams, the Jets and Titans, they certainly can?t lay claim to that title. They are 5-0 by the skin of their teeth.
The Ravens, of course, were undefeated entering last night?s contest with the Broncos. If the Ravens throttled the Broncos, then they?re in the conversation.
Still, if I could take a fly and throw it into the ointment here, saying the Bears are the best team in the NFLis like saying Donnie Wahlberg was the coolest member of the New Kids on the Block. Parity has watered down the NFL in so many ways. Truly great teams are an anomaly these days. The league has gone out of its way to make dynasties a thing of the past. That?s what makes the Patriots? run earlier this decade so impressive.
With free agency, salary caps and increased schedule difficulty, the NFL has basically implanted a system that cycles teams in and out of being. What you get, for the most part, is a mediocre product.
Somehow, though, the league saw fit to give the Bears one amazingly easy schedule, even after they won the NFC North last year. Luck, of course, played a part. Wouldn?t it have been nice if the NFC?s defending champ, Seattle, went at Chicago?s defense with running back Shaun Alexander? Instead, we got Seahawks Lite.
It only gets better for the Monsters of the Midway the rest of the season. There?s no reason this team can?t go 14-2. Who is on their schedule? The Cardinals, 49ers, Jets? Please.
The only teams left that could truly give the Bears a competitive game and stand in the way of a 16-0 season (which we all know never happens) are the Giants and Patriots. The Giants are inconsistent at best, pretty much the same one-and-done team they were a season ago. The Patriots aren?t the juggernaut from a few years ago, but I would put a late-season New England team against anyone in the NFL.
A few months ago, I labeled the Bears as a paper champion. On paper, just like last season, they look great. Against the below-average teams in their conference and on their schedule, they look unbeatable. But a horde of talented AFC teams is waiting for the Bears, hoping they cut a new version of the Super Bowl Shuffle.
The sooner people stop thinking this is the 1985 Bears reborn, the better.
Matt Palmer is a staff writer for The Examiner. He can be reached at [email protected].
