ChicagoBears.com
Sunday won't be a day of rest for Bears
By Larry Mayer
LAKE FOREST, Ill. ? Although they?ve already clinched home-field advantage throughout the NFC playoffs, the Bears won?t rest their starters in their final two regular season games.
Chicago emptied its bench in last year?s meaningless season finale in Minnesota, but that won?t be the case Sunday against the Lions in Detroit or Dec. 31 versus the Packers at Soldier Field.
Rex Grossman will make his 15th straight start Sunday when the Bears face the Lions.
?Our plan is to try to win the football game the best way we can,? said coach Lovie Smith. ?If a player has an injury and he isn?t 100 percent ready to go, we won?t play him. If a player is ready to go, we?re trying to get a win.
?As far as last year, we kept out a few players. But last year at the end of the season we had a lot of players banged up and we didn?t play some of the players based on that. We plan on playing our guys as much as we need to to get a win.?
One key starter who sat out last year?s finale was quarterback Rex Grossman, who was still recovering from a broken left ankle that forced him to miss the first 13 games of the season. Grossman is now healthy and eager to stay on a roll with the playoffs looming.
?I think it is extremely important for our whole team to end on a good note, going into the playoffs with some momentum and some rhythm and confidence about ourselves,? Grossman said. ?I think that will be huge and that?s our goal.?
Grossman, who was named NFC Offensive Player of the Week after his performance in last Sunday?s win over Tampa Bay, expects to finish the season as a participant and not a spectator.
?I?d love to play the whole game these next two weeks and I think that is going to be mostly the plan, just to keep getting better and build momentum going into the playoffs,? he said. ?It?s fun to go out there and compete. That?s what we love to do. I think the coaches are going to give us that opportunity and we?re excited about it.?
Grossman established career highs with 29 completions, 44 attempts and 339 yards against the Buccaneers. He also threw 2 TD passes and compiled a 104.3 passing rating, giving him an NFL-high seven games with at least a 100 rating.
?It felt good to go out and execute with efficiency and take what the defense gives me and play with a rhythm and go out and have fun,? Grossman said. ?That?s what I?ve done the last couple weeks and it definitely felt good to get back on track. I just want to keep it up these last two games and then when they really count, I want to play my best.?
Despite already having secured the No. 1 seed, the Bears (12-2) insist that they have plenty of incentive to win. With victories over Detroit and Green Bay, Chicago would sweep its division for the first time since 1987.
?There is something on the line,? said defensive end Adewale Ogunleye. ?You want to win the division and sweep it all out and set the tone for years to come. Playing against the Chicago Bears in the NFC North is not going to be a joke.
?We don?t want to give anybody any type of moral victory. We?re trying to get ready for a run at the Super Bowl. We?re going to start this week and try to play great football.?
With victories over Detroit and Green Bay, the Bears would become just the fourth team since the 1970 NFL/AFL merger to win all of its conference games. The first three to accomplish the feat?the ?72 Miami Dolphins, ?84 San Francisco 49ers and ?85 Bears?all won the Super Bowl.
The Bears also have a chance to close the season with five straight wins and equal their second-best record for a 16-game season behind the Super Bowl squad that went 15-1.
?Maybe it?s overrated, but I do believe in momentum,? Smith said. ?We would like to play well. Whatever word we give it, we would like to play well here at the end leading into the playoffs.
?We know we have a playoff game and of course we need to play our best then. To me, the only indicator you can really get as far as if you?re ready or not is how you play at the end of the season. We have some things to correct from our last football game. Hopefully we?ll get a little of that done. We haven?t peaked yet. Hopefully one of these days we?ll do that.?
