October 31, 2008 - BY MIKE NORTH & DAN JIGGETTS Last thing Orton, red-hot offense needed was rest Mike North: I did not like the bye week one bit, and here's why: Rest or no rest, injured or not injured, the Bears' defense is vulnerable. And the bye was not a good thing because the offense was on a roll. When your team puts up 48 points after coming back with 11 seconds left to almost beat Atlanta the week before, the last thing Kyle Orton and the offense needed was a break. Detroit is a patsy right now, but it did just give the Redskins all they could handle. I believe the offense will not have the same timing or rhythm it had when it plays Detroit on Sunday. In fact, I am concerned about this game. Kyle Orton is this team -- yeah, you heard it here, he's Da Man. He didn't need this bye. He needed to keep playing because he was the poker player who was getting winning hands. In poker, when you win a couple of hands in a row, the last thing you do is stop to use the washroom or go make a sandwich. No, you play till you lose. Most people who play sports, amateur or pro, will tell you the last thing you want to do after a win is to stop playing. The Bears should win this game, bye or no bye, but I will bet you the Bears will have trouble putting up 20 points this Sunday. The hot hand will be cooler than normal, and don't forget, Detroit is going to win a game sometime this year. First-place teams hate the bye week. Last-place teams welcome it. The Bears will still win, but it will be a struggle, and what will we hear the reason was? 1. Rust. 2. Flat. 3. Never Got any Rhythm. Let's just hope the Bears get out of the Detroit game with a victory. Timing was right for re-evaluating, getting healthy Dan Jiggetts: Sorry, Mike, but this one is just too easy. The only time it would have been better for the Bears to have a bye week would have been right after Week 8. Why? With the injury situation the Bears are suffering through, Week 8 would have been a great time to play the hapless 0-7 Lions. Then we wouldn't have to listen to all the ''Are the Bears going to be overconfident?'' questions. The team is dealing with injuries to a handful of starters, and it focused on that rather than how brutal the Lions are. The week away has given the Bears an opportunity to get their defense healthy, especially the secondary. Cornerback Peanut Tillman is rehabbing both shoulders, cornerback Nathan Vasher is recovering from wrist surgery, and safety Danieal Manning is recovering from a hamstring pull. Now, all three are pretty much expected to get back into the mix against the Lions. At linebacker, Nick Roach, who is on the mend, may have to step in for Hunter Hillenmeyer, who just had surgery on his thumb. All of this can only help the Bears get back to being a dominant defense. On the offensive side, only Brandon Lloyd (knee) is recovering and should be good to go. The break gave the coaching staff a chance to self-scout. That means they sit down and watch game tapes from the first seven weeks. Instead of studying the upcoming opponent, they were able to break down their own team to look for any tendencies that may have developed. Coaches on offense, defense and special teams see what has worked; what kind of pattern they have developed that other teams have locked in on. The coaches want to change those tendencies so that the Bears are not that transparent going into the second half of their season. They also examine what hasn't worked. Finally, after the Bears welcome the Lions to the lakefront Sunday, they will host the undefeated Tennessee Titans before hitting the road to Green Bay. I hope Lovie and his guys, as the coaches used to say, ''stayed off their feet and got some rest.'' The stretch run is here, and it's time for this team to do what it should be doing: dominating.
_________________ sugatsune. boricuabutch.
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