Bob Cook

The Chicago Bears (9-4) are hearing so many people compare them to the Super Bowl Shufflin’ crew of 1985, you wonder if the only reason they haven’t yet recorded an update of the best-selling pro team musical number is because they can’t find a word that rhymes with “Ogunleye.”

The ’05 Bears have allowed a league-best 120 points in 11 games, a 10.9 average. The 1985 Bears gave up 198 points, a 12.4 average. By that measure, this year’s Bears defense is better than the Super Bowl champions, even if this generation doesn’t have near the swagger and reputation, and easier-to-pronounce names.

However, points allowed is the only measure where the ’05 Bears compare to the 1985 team. While the defense is legendary to this day, people forget that the Bears scored 456 points that year, second in the league. The Bears had great defenses in the 1980s, but 1985 was the one year the offense matched the defense’s performance. Hence, the lone Super Bowl win.

The ’05 Bears, meanwhile, have an offense that barely exists. The Bears’ 182 points, 16.5 per game, is the worst among any team with a winning record. The passing game, put in the hands of rookie Kyle Orton after an injury to starter Rex Grossman and the incompetence of preseason second-stringer Chad Hutchinson — is averaging an anemic 5.2 yards per attempt. That’s barely a yard more than the Bears’ average per rush. Orton is no punky QB. Especially not since he started growing Jake Plummer’s beard.

The ’05 Bears are riding a seven-game winning streak, but the offense the last three games has scored exactly one touchdown per game. In the last two games, those touchdowns have come on drives that combined for 9 yards — a 3-play, 8-yard drive against Carolina, and a 1-play, 1-yard drive against Tampa Bay. The offense has only 17 touchdowns in 11 games.

Clearly, what we are witnessing is a historic mix of a dominant defense and a struggling offense, with a rookie quarterback thrust into a starter’s role. That the Bears are winning with such a combination might be because Bears coach Lovie Smith has seen it before.

In 1999, Smith was linebackers coach for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, perhaps the real forerunner for the ’05 Bears. That Buccaneers team, led by coach Tony Dungy, scored 270 points and allowed 235 — an average score of approximately 17-13. Yet Tampa Bay in 1999 was 11-5 and advanced to the NFC championship game, which it lost by the comical baseball score of 11-6 to eventual Super Bowl champion St. Louis.

Slide show   NFL Week 12 View photographs from this week's games.

To get an idea of how much the defense carried the offense, in a game against Kansas City, Tampa Bay turned over the ball six times — and won 17-10. Tampa Bay scored only 27 touchdowns, 25 by the offense. For about the last half of the season, including the playoffs, third-string rookie quarterback Shawn King was the starter, thanks to injuries to Trent Dilfer and Eric Zeier. So Tampa Bay tended to rely more on running backs Mike Alstott and Warrick Dunn for yardage, just as the Bears tend to put the ball in the hands of running backs Thomas Jones, Cedric Benson and — after Benson got hurt — Adrian Peterson.

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