Sat, Jul 05 2008
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Published May 11, 2008 12:48 am - Wanted: Broad shoulders in the backfield The courts will decide whether Cedric Benson was boating drunk and acting unlawfully belligerent after he got busted. Steve Doerschuk on the NFL: Backs can send teams running STEVE DOERSCHUK Canton Repository Wanted: Broad shoulders in the backfield The courts will decide whether Cedric Benson was boating drunk and acting unlawfully belligerent after he got busted.
The verdict is in on this one: Benson is the latest Bears back to go bust on dry land, a problem that has perpetuated to the detriment of the franchise on the Chicago shore of Lake Michigan. A cold-weather team such as Chicago goes to town when two factors are in place. The defense and the running game both win at smash-mouth. Cleveland broke through to 10-6 with just half of that solution, the running back half, in place behind Jamal Lewis. The Bears were at their all-time best when they had a scary defense (Dent, Hampton, Singletary, etc.) and a dominant running back (Walter Payton). They punched out three playoff opponents, 91-10, en route to a Super Bowl win that gave them a 1985-86 record of 18-1. Who from elsewhere in history could beat them? You might have said the 2007-08 Patriots before they played the Giants. But not now. It took the Bears 21 years to return to the Super Bowl. They got there largely because their main running back, Thomas Jones, was going strong. They failed to win there largely because Jones isn’t Payton. Alas, Jones bolted to the Jets after the 2006 season. Benson wasn’t Jones. He gave the Bears 674 yards at 3.4 per carry, a Windy City whisper that tells why the record at one point fell to 5-9. Yes, quarterback problems were a bear, but one can get around that with the right running game, as, for example, the Steelers did when they won with Kordell Stewart and Tommy Maddox under center. The Bears understand that. They spent a No. 44 overall pick on running back Matt Forte, tired of waiting on the 2005 No. 4 overall pick, Benson. Yes, the trend is to come up with a strong one-two punch at running back. But think of all the teams whose success has been closely associated with one great runner. Pittsburgh’s Jerome Bettis, the Jets’ Curtis Martin, the Rams’ Marshall Faulk and Seattle’s Shaun Alexander come to mind. Denver’s 1990s Super Bowls were as much a Terrell Davis thing as a John Elway thing. The Bears’ often-sluggish seasons during the last 20 years are linked to handing off to the wrong guys. Consider the cast that has followed Payton. Neal Anderson, Payton’s immediate successor, was the best of the lot, although Mike Ditka rode him too long. Anderson racked up 3,459 yards at 4.4 a pop in the first three years after Payton retired. The three years after that: 1,975 yards at 3.5 per carry. A parade of No. 1 ballcarriers who wouldn’t float followed, including Lewis Tillman, Rashaan Salaam, Raymont Harris, Edgar Bennett, Curtis Enis, James Allen and Anthony Thomas. 
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