I think Berrian will be able to get deep against the Colts defense as long as the Bears are running the ball well. All signs point to Thomas Jones and Cedric Benson having a good game thus setting up the play action bomb. As soon as the Colts safeties creep up a bit to deal with the run, it will be home run time. Bernard Berrian has already caught 10 passes for 190 yards and 2 TD catches in the two playoff games. Berrian is simply too fast for the Colts cornerbacks and unless the safeties can stay back and help the Colts corners, Berrian will get deep and it will be up to Rex Grossman to hit him. That is the one thing Grossman is good at…..throwing the deep ball.

Rex Grossman hasn’t played great in the playoffs, but, he’s making the big throws at the right time and that’s why the Bears are in the Super Bowl. He has completed 32 of 64 passes (50%) for 426 yards with 2 TD passes and only 1 interception for a QB Rating of 75.4 in the post season. That rating is 8.6 better than what Peyton Manning has done in his 3 playoff games. If the Bears establish their ground game with Thomas Jones and Cedric Benson, I think Grossman will play better than Peyton Manning this week and the Bears will be World Champions.

Most draft experts (myself included) wondered why the Bears were using all their picks on defense. But what do I know as the Bears had a pretty good draft that helped them get to the Super Bowl this season. Here’s a breakdown:

2nd round pick SS Danieal Manning had a great rookie season. He played in all 16 games and made 67 tackles, had 2 interceptions, defensed 5 passes, forced 4 fumbles and recovered a fumble. He also returned 1 kick-off for 20 yards. Manning will be in the Bears plans for a long, long time.

The Bears other 2nd round pick was Devin Hester. Hester played in 16 games and only made 9 tackles. But, his big contribution to the Bears was returning kicks. He returned 20 kickoffs for 528 yards (26.4 avg) with 2 TD returns. He also returned 47 punts for 600 yards (12.8 avg) with 3 TD returns. He also returned a missed field goal 108 yards against the Giants for a TD! Hester is the biggest game changer on special teams to enter the NFL in a long time.

3rd round pick DT Dusty Dvoracek didn’t play a down for the Bears this season.

4th round pick OLB Jamar Williams played in only 3 games and made 2 tackles and defensed a pass.

5th round pick DE Mark Anderson was an absolute steal for the Bears at this point in the draft. He played in all 16 games and made 28 tackles, had 12 sacks, defensed two passes, forced 4 fumbles and recovered a fumble. He will be a good player for a long time for the Bears.

The 6th round was a waste for the Bears as they selected fullback J. D. Runnels who played in two games and did nothing and OG Tyler Reed who never saw the field.

The Bears are three-deep at running back! Thomas Jones ran for over 1,200 yards this season which is the second season in a row he’s done that for the Bears. Jones started all 16 games and carried the ball 296 times for 1,210 yards (4.1 ypc) with 6 TD runs. He also caught 36 passes for 154 yards (4.3 avg). For his career, Jones has played in 100 games (63 starts) and he’s carried the ball 1,349 times for 5,384 yards (4.0 ypc) with 34 TD runs. He also has caught 215 passes for 1,376 yards (6.4 avg), but he’s never caught a TD pass in the regular season in his career.

Last year’s first round pick Cedric Benson also had a solid season. He played in 15 games and carried the ball 157 times for 647 yards (4.1 ypc) with 6 TD runs. He also caught 8 passes for 54 yards (6.8 avg). For his career, Benson has played in 24 games (1 start) and he’s carried the ball 224 times for 919 yards (4.1 ypc) with 6 TD runs. He also has caught 9 passes for 57 yards (6.3 avg).

Adrian Peterson could probably start for some teams, but on the Bears he’s basically just a special teams player. He played in all 16 games this season and carried the ball 10 times for 41 yards (4.1 ypc) with 2 TD runs. He also caught 6 passes for 88 yards (14.7 avg). For his career, Peterson has carried the ball 133 times for 622 yards (4.7 ypc) with 5 TD runs. He also has caught 19 passes for 189 yards (9.9 avg).

Fullback Jason McKie did a good job of blocking for the Bears this season. He played in 15 games this season and carried the ball 8 times for 18 yards (2.3 ypc). He also caught 25 passes for 162 yards (6.5 avg). For his career, McKie has carried the ball 12 times for 41 yards (3.4 ypc). He also has caught 43 passes for 254 yards (5.9 avg) with 2 TD catches.

A transplanted but die-hard Bears fan in Seattle (also my father) made this cake for a NFC Championship Game party yesterday. Thought it was pretty cool!

Read more and see the cake at the link below:

Soldier Field Cake

http://mattonmarketing.blogspot.com/2007/01/long-tail-and-stadium-cakes.html

The Bears completely dominated the New Orleans Saints to advance to the Super Bowl. The defense and special teams were awesome as they force 4 turnovers, which often set up short fields for the Bears offense. The Bears offense controlled the game with their running game as they had possession of the football for 35:15 of the football game.

Rex Grossman didn’t play to well as he completed only 11 of 26 passes for 144 yards and a TD pass. He did however play great on a TD drive with the Bears leading only 18-14. He completed 4 of 4 passes for 78 yards on that drive. Thomas Jones had a great football game as he carried the ball 19 times for 123 yards (6.5 ypc) with 2 TD runs. Cedric Benson was also busy with 24 carries for 60 yards (2.5 ypc) with 1 TD run. Bernard Berrian had a great game too as he caught 5 passes for 85 yards and a TD.

The defense was led by safety Chris Harris (9 tackles) and Nathan Vasher (5 tackles, fumble recovery and an interception). The Bears didn’t have to worry about the Saints running game as they carried the ball only 12 times for 56 yards (4.7 ypc) because the Bears had the Saints playing from behind the whole game. The Saints did completed 27 of 49 passes for 319 net yards passing, but they kept putting the ball on the ground to kill their drives.

The Bears will get to do “The Super Bowl Shuffle” for the first time in 21 seasons, and they earned it!

To me, the most important thing for the Bears to do in Sunday’s game is to run the football. New Orleans has given up 4.9 yards a carry this season; while a lot of the attention has been focused on Indy’s 5.4 ypc figure, that represents a significant potential weakness in this Saints’ team, especially as the weather will be colder than what they are used to.

It’s so imperative because I think if you were to look objectively at each of these quarterbacks, Rex Grossman is the one more likely to “combust,” while Drew Brees is more experienced, gets rid of the ball quicker and probably has more short-range outlets at his disposal. Chicago’s defense, which was compromised a bit by losing Harris and Brown, may have to get some pressure on Brees. That will be tough. I am gravitating a little more toward the “over” here, because the offenses should be able to do a lot of what they want to do, and have some strong points that should work best against the opposing defense. The Bears looked indestructible on defense earlier in the season, particularly at Soldier Field, but with 26 ppg allowed over the last five, is that a strength that has now been mitigated?

Before the season started the Bears weren’t sure who their kicker was going to be. They brought in competition for Gould because they weren’t impressed with his rookie year. But this season, Gould has been money. He hit 32 of 36 Field Goals (88.9%) during the regular season and he hit the game-winning kick in overtime to beat the Seahawks last week. If the game comes down to Robbie Gould the Bears have to think they’re going to win this game.

The NFC Championship Game is a great matchup this season. The Bears have been the best team in the NFC all season as they sport a 14-3 record and get the game at home in Soldier Field where it should be nice and cold. The Saints are the new “America’s Team” as almost everyone whose team has been knocked out of the playoffs is jumping on the underdogs bandwagon!

The Bears will be content to run the football alot to control the clock and keep the ball away from the Saints offense. It’s also the best way to attack the Saints defense as they’ve had problems all season stopping the run. The Saints gave up an average of 128.9 yards rushing per game and 4.9 yards per carry during the regular season and they did a terrible job against Brian Westbrook and the Eagles last week as they allowed 123 yards rushing and 6.2 yards per carry. The Bears will probably split the carries between Thomas Jones and Cedric Benson to keep both of them fresh. The Bears will probably use alot of play-action when they pass the ball to try to freeze the DBs of the Saints. Also look for Mushin Muhammad and Desmond Clark to be a much bigger part of the offense with the short passing game to help keep the ball away from the Saints and to build Rex Grossman’s confidence. The Bears will take a few deep shots probably against whoever CB Fred Thomas is covering as he had big problems last week.

The Saints will also try to run the ball alot with the idea of dominating time of possession. They did exactly that last week when they held onto the ball for 35:24 in their win over the Eagles last week. The Bears linebackers are going to have their hands full with Deuce McAllister and Reggie Bush. McAllister is the banger between the tackles and he rolled up 143 yards on 21 carries (6.8 ypc) and a TD last week. Brian Urlacher and DTs Tank Johnson and Ian Scott will be responsible for stopping his inside runs. Reggie Bush also had a good game running the ball and he’ll likely handle the outside runs for the Saints. He will put huge pressure on OLBs Lance Briggs and Hunter Hillenmeyer to contain him in the running game. The Saints also like to throw to their RBs on screens and flat patterns, so Briggs & Hillenmeyer will also have to worry about that. Drew Brees is a master at play action and he will take a few shots deep to Devery Henderson (who’s likely to start in Joe Horn’s spot). Henderson averaged 23.3 yards per catch during the regular season so the Bears defense must respect his speed. The Saints passing attack will mostly be of the shorter variety to Rookie WR Marques Colston and the TEs who suddenly have become a big part of the Saints passing attack. Also, look for Sean Payton to have some kind of secret weapon on offense like he did last week when he used TE Billy Miller as a big part of the attack which was a huge surprise!

Both teams have been great on special teams as they both have solid kickers (Robbie Gould, Bears and John Carney, Saints). But it’s the returners that could have a say in the outcome of this game. Devin Hester has been a fantastic kick returner all season long and can break one at any time. Reggie Bush is the punt returner for the Saints and he also can take one to the house in the blink of an eye. Michael Lewis did a great job returning kicks last week for the Saints and he’s also capable of breaking a big one.

This should be a great football game. The team that protects the football better will win this game and advance to the Super Bowl. The feeling here is that the Saints are a little better equipped to do that.

The Bears Mark Bradley will miss the NFC Championship Game with a bad ankle. He hasn’t been the most reliable receiver the Bears have had recently because he’s very injury prone. He has talent but it doesn’t matter if you can’t stay on the field. Rashied Davis and Justin Gage will take over for him this week.