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Bears could be practicing their Super Bowl shuffle early
By Joe Cronin and Ken Gimblin January 9, 2006 |
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CHICAGO- One would think the heavily favored New York Giants were looking past the Carolina Panthers last Sunday in their Wild Card match up and were looking at making the trip to Chicago for Pizzas, chalkboard lectures, and practices wearing knit caps and scarf’s, and not paying attention to the Panthers who trounced the Giants with a 23-0 shutout. The Panthers Steve Smith had himself an afternoon as Smith caught ten passes for 84 yards and two touchdowns. Smith carried once for 12 yards, which was a touchdown rush. Smith opened up the scoring in the second quarter with a 22-yard touchdown catch from the passing efforts of Panther quarterback Jack Delhomme at 10:31 for 7-0 Panther lead. The Panthers kicker John Kasay booted a 31 yarder for a 10-0 lead with just 34 second left in the first half. The Panthers poured it on in the third quarter as Smith rushed for the 12-yard carry on the left side of the field to increase the Panther lead at 7:03 for a 17-0 lead. In the fourth quarter Kasay hit two field goals one at 13:47 for 45 yards out and another at 2:44 that was 18 yards out to help top the Giants 23-0. For New York a shutout at home during a playoff was not only humiliating but was the worst outing for a home playoff team since the 1980 Tampa Bay Bucs who also lost this year's playoff game. The 1980 Bucs were blanked by the then L.A. Rams. Eli Manning had his worst outing of 06 he was forced into four turnovers. JC and Kenny G's footnotes: The Panthers have a whole lot different stage this Sunday as they travel to Solider Field for those Chalk talks, pizzas and knit and scarf practices The Bears 11-5 like it at Solider Field are 7-1 at home. The Bears have the strongest defense in the NFL. Chicago will enjoy their first playoff game in four years and the fans in Chicago are regarded as the Bears 12th man, and can provide an interruption to the Carolina’s audible on the field. The Bears 11-5 have been regarded as the next 1985 Bears. As fans are calling, the Bears Lovie's Bears and in 85 Ditkas Bears not so creative but they had character with McMahon, Perry, Payton and Ditka at the helm. "We have a whole bunch of respect for them.," said Mike Brown strong safety of Chicago regarding the Panthers, "we know what they bring to the table. I think everyone in the league knows what type of team they are. Most people picked them to represent the NFC in the Super Bowl." Kick off this Sunday at Solider is at 1:30PM PST. Joe Cronin and Ken Gimblin are covering the NFC Playoffs and co-hosting Sportstalk on 1430 KVVN San Jose and 1110 KLIB Sacramento. |
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