Ditka Seen As Key to Bears Repeat : On Paper, Pro Football Champions Look Like the Winner

Can General Mike Ditka rally the troops again or will there be a mutiny in his wild, often unpredictable but talented outfit?

That’s what the other 27 teams in the NFL will be asking themselves once the season starts Sept. 7.

There was little doubt Chicago had the best personnel last year when it ran over the NFL enroute to its first Super Bowl. Clearly Ditka’s fierce style of coaching was the ingredient that put the Bears over the top and into a 17-1 campaign.

But will the act get old? Will Bears players, who have tasted victory, suddenly turn sour against Ditka and revert to the pre-1985 underachievers?

“I can tell you this. There is still a job unfinished here,” Ditka says. “We still have something to prove. Can’t repeat? Why can’t the Bears of the 1980s be the Pittsburgh Steelers of the 1970s and the Green Bay Packers of the 1960s?”

Why not, indeed? On paper, everything points to a trip to Super Bowl XXI.

The Bears have the league’s best defense, anchored by linebacker Mike Singletary and bolstered by the return of 1985 holdout Al Harris, and the top kicker in the NFL last year in Kevin Butler.

Quarterback Jim McMahon has another year of experience. Walter Payton shows little signs of slowing down after a dozen NFL seasons, triple the life expectancy for NFL running backs.

Yet there are questions, concerns, even doubts.

For one, Buddy Ryan, the architect of the Bears’ highly-successful ‘46’ defense, has gone to Philadelphia. Enter Vince Tobin.

“We’ll play some 4-3, some 3-4, even some 46 although it won’t be called that,” Tobin says. “We have great personnel here. The challenge is to use it and come back again.”

Ditka, who feuded with Ryan during and after the season, gets red-faced when people suggest Ryan will be missed.

“The players are the same, aren’t they?” Ditka asks. “Vince Tobin is an outstanding coach.”

Ryan, however, was well-liked by his players and given credit for being able to adjust defenses during the game. Tobin may have a time of transition to learn the league and the players.

Cornerback Leslie Frazier is out for the year, leaving the secondary potentially vulnerable. Teams couldn’t truly test Chicago’s secondary last year because of a ferocious pass rush led by Super Bowl MVP Richard Dent. Under a new defensive scheme, it remains to be seen whether the secondary can be successful.

William (Refrigerator) Perry stole the show last year but scouts are concerned about his roller-coaster weight problems.

“I’ll be ready. There will be no letdown,” Perry says in his now famous gap-toothed smile.

The offense imprint has changed from Payton to McMahon, whose crisp combination of short passes and deep bombs to Willie Gault and Dennis McKinnon were the hallmarks of the 1985 Bears. But McKinnon is out for the season with an injury.

McMahon’s recurring injury problems leave Chicago potentially vulnerable at quarterback. Not so, says Ditka.

“When Jim couldn’t play last year Steve Fuller came in,” Ditka said. “What did we win those games by? (104-3) Jim is as competitive as they come and we have every confidence in Steve Fuller.”

Payton, unhappy that he didn’t get a chance to score in the Super Bowl, had nine straight 100-yard plus games last year when he tacked 1,551 yards onto his NFL career record 14,860-yard total.

“The fact we won the Super Bowl pretty well sunk in right away,” Payton says. “But that’s last year. We’ve got it to do again. That’s the challenge.”

Ditka has the luxury not to rely too heavily on Payton, even though he prefers the grind-it-out, ball-control offense. Chicago has lost the time of possession wars only once in the last two years.

Ditka likes to rely on McMahon’s short drop passes as much as Payton’s runs up the middle. Still, the clock may eventually catch up to Payton, who hasn’t missed a game since his rookie season and would be harder to replace on offense than McMahon.

As insurance, Chicago drafted Florida’s Neal Anderson to pave the way for Payton’s inevitable retirement.

The key may be Ditka’s ability to convince his players they aren’t as good as they were last year and get them ready for an NFC Central Division many consider the weakest in the NFL. The Bears should be able to reach the playoffs again even if they don’t go 15-1.

The playoffs are a whole new season, Ditka insisted last year, and staying on top may be harder than getting there.

Just ask San Francisco and all the teams since the Steelers of the 1970s that have failed to repeat.