Bears Are Not About to Take It for Granted

From any sort of distance their mouths can be seen moving, but one can never be sure whether the Chicago Bears are busy talking or simply displaying their chattering teeth. Sometimes the winds of Soldier Field do the howling and sometimes the tenants do. Demure, the Bears ain’t.

A case can be made that any team that wins 16 of its 17 National Football League games ought to be able to flap its gums now and then. Well, maybe so. What the Bears resisted doing, though, after their 21-0 freezeout of the New York Giants in Sunday’s NFC playoff game, was crow about what they were going to do to their next adversaries, the only people keeping them from their first championship football game ever played with Roman numerals, the Los Angeles Rams.

See, in their hearts, the Bears believe they have a date Jan. 26 at New Orleans in a social occasion that Otis Wilson, their word processor of a linebacker, lately has come to refer to as “Super Bowl X X,” enunciating each “ex” loudly and distinctly. But they do not want to take the Rams for granted--or, more to the point, give an impression that they take the Rams for granted.

So, most of them made sure Sunday that they did not insult their NFC title game opponents or slight them or do jokes about California airheads or even say a word about the Anaheim team’s horny helmets. The closest they came to belittling the Rams, in fact, was defensive back Dave Duerson’s momentary bout with dyslexia.

“When you think of the Rams you think of Eric Dickerson and Brock Dieter,” Duerson said.

Since the two teams have not met all season, the Bears are not very familiar with that practically middle-age rookie who came down from Canada to quarterback Georgia Frontiere’s team. Many of the Bears said they had never seen Dieter Brock--that’s his name, Duerson Dave--play a down, even on television, and really do not know what to expect when the Ram quarterback comes calling to frigid Chicago next week. “About all I can say about him is that he should be used to the weather,” center Jay Hilgenberg said.

Ah, the weather. Everybody talks about it; nobody does anything about it. The subject is going to come up again and again this week, with the Rams no doubt expected to disembark from their airplane at O’Hare wearing third-degree sunburns and Bermuda shorts. This is a place that is so cold, as a matter of fact, that the quarterback of the Bears--not just the receivers but the quarterback --now wears gloves while he plays.

Jim McMahon said that he threw pretty spirals Sunday with the thin-skinned gloves on his hands, so he intends to practice with them this week when the Bears return to sunny Suwanee, Ga., to rehearse for the game against the Rams. Time and again Sunday, the Bears talked about going to Georgia to prepare for the Rams, and it took a while for a dumb L.A. guy to realize that they were not referring to Frontiere.

“Being a West Coast guy myself,” said offensive lineman Keith Van Horne, who played college ball at USC for the man who now runs the Rams, John Robinson, “I can honestly guarantee you that the Rams are going to come here next week and freeze their butts off.”

Van Horne is the guy the Bears might have to go to this week to learn a little something about the enemy. For as long as he can remember, Van Horne has been close to the Rams, to the point that he even used to live five houses away from Garrett Giemont, the Ram strength coach. “Me? A Ram fan? Hey, when I was a kid, Merlin Olsen gave me a pair of his shoes,” Van Horne said reverently.

What else did the Bears have to say about the Rams?

“L.A. is an impressive team, with great speed,” McMahon said. “On defense, too. Their front three guys really get off the ball (on the snap) in a hurry. It didn’t seem to be that they blitzed much, though. They seem to lay back and give you the short stuff and wait for you to make mistakes. They know the odds are against you going 80 yards that often.”

Several of the Bears expressed admiration for Eric Dickerson, the Ram who runs. Wide receiver Dennis McKinnon did want to make it clear that in his mind, “We know Dickerson won’t run on us the way he ran on Dallas. We play a lot more sounder defense.” Even if they do use worser grammar.

As for the fat and famous William Perry, his view of the backfield situation was: “The Rams have a good team and the greatest running back. Uh, wait a second. We have the greatest running back. The Rams have a good team and a great running back.”

There are compliments scattered throughout these comments, although some must be sifted and weighed. Leave it to a Yalie, though, to say what he means. When Gary Fencik, the calm and reasoned (off the field) Chicago defensive back, was asked after Sunday’s game how he felt about the guys the Bears must play in next Sunday’s game, he thought about it a second and said: “How do I feel about them? I believe I would rather play the Cowboys again, thank you.”