“Offense wins games but defense wins championships.” - King Pelops circa 776 BC

Yeah, that cliche has been around a while. But, every now and then it is good to pull it out, dust it off and remember why it still has meaning.

The Bulls recently signed Lindsey Hunter. They did not sign him to shoot the ball or run up and down the court or any of the cool video game stuff. They signed him to keep the other team from scoring. It is called defense. In the first quarter against the Mavericks, the Bulls watched helplessly as the Mavs shot 55% and seemed to control everything on the floor. Then the aging Mr. Hunter came out, started barking at the kids and, WAH LAH, suddenly the Mavs were down to 28% shooting and they never recovered.

While it was a pale shadow of days gone by, it did remind me a bit of when, and why, the Bulls had Dennis Rodman. Forget the hair and the wedding dress, when it was game time it was GAME ON for Rodman. Or have you forgotten Shaquille O’Neill in his prime almost crying in the third quarter of their first meeting and losing his mind every other time, Mourning looking like a clueless infant the entire game and all the others that had great careers but came to Chicago only to be humiliated?

Solid defense allows the offense to relax and play. They know there will be no shootout, so they can take their time, set up their shots, pick their positions and win consistently.

One other thing about the Bulls that others might use as a learning tool. After Joakim Noah got lit up like a Christmas tree by Atlanta and the same was starting to happen against the Mavs, Coach Del Negro benched him. Did he say the kid wasn’t playing up to his potential or something like that? Nope, he said this:

‘’I didn’t do a good job with him on Dirk last night. I told him that after the game.’’

That’s right, the coach took the blame for the kid not knowing how to play NBA defense. Noah will learn, but he will also never forget that his coach had his back in a time of trouble. That will last a heck of a lot longer than anything else that happens in this kid’s career.

These same precepts apply to all sports.

As the NFC North Division keeps playing as though they want to be first round cannon-fodder in the playoffs, and coaches keep calling out players for not playing up to their scheme, the Bears keep talking about how great their run defense is. I suppose it is. It is hard to tell since teams have almost completely abandoned the run because they can get almost 7 yards a catch by passing against them. Matt Towbridge, of the Gatehouse News Service, did a great job of looking at the big picture, so I will share that with you.

The Bears have become the Vikings on defense.

Just as no one runs on the Williams “brothers” in Minnesota, no one runs against the Bears with Lance Briggs, Brian Urlacher and Mike Brown crowding the line of scrimmage. And, just as everyone has made fun of the Vikings’ pass defense for years, the same is now true in Chicago.

By the way, this stop-the-run-first mentality never worked in Minnesota, which hasn’t won 10 games in eight years. In the 2000 NFC title game, with the Vikings vowing to stop the run, Kerry Collins passed for 338 yards and four touchdowns — in the first half! — in a 41-0 rout by the underdog Giants.

So why would the Bears try the same scheme against Collins and the Titans eight years later?

Hey, look! A good question!

CLICK HERE to read his whole article. He is a good writer and deserves to be in a bigger market, so watch for his stuff when you can.

In the meantime, since we are ending with the Bears, our very own cuddly bear, Tyrone Briggs (he’s going to kill me for that) has started a thread about tomorrow’s game so CLICK HERE TO JOIN THE FUN!