Tony Capriolo
Senior Sports Producer

Greetings all from the NBC-5 Sports Department! My name is Tony Capriolo and I'm the Senior Sports Producer here at the Chicago Peacock. Here's what I see...

A playoff team from the previous season gets off to a quick start... after struggling through something of an ugly game in week 3... this team turns it up a notch and registers back-to-back blow-outs in weeks 4 and 5 and suddenly they're the talk of the entire NFL. They've always been exceptionally strong on one side of the ball, but for the past couple of seasons they've been criticized for being weak on the other side. It's this weakness that has caused them to fall short in the postseason. But now that WEAK side of the ball looks stronger than ever! The question isn't whether or not they'll go the Super Bowl but whether or not they'll be UNDEFEATED when they get there!

You know, of course, who I'm talking about right? Why it's the 2005 Indianapolis Colts!!!! As we all know, last season's edition of the Colts went on to go 14-0 before dropping their final three games, including their home playoff game against the Steelers. Always armed with Peyton Manning and a high-powered offense, the Colts turned heads last year by having one of the top-ranked defenses throughout most of the season and their trip to the Super Bowl was all but guaranteed by most of the so-called experts.

Now here come the 2006 Chicago Bears. Their defense bigger and badder than ever... but a suddenly unstoppable offense led by hard-luck QB Rex Grossman has both fans and network analysts talking openly about the Super Bowl.

I don't bring this up to minimize the Bears accomplishments so far or to be a wet blanket... but simply to point out that we're a LONG WAY away from the NFL postseason. It's fairly clear from the early action that the Bears are not only heading to the postseason but are, in fact, a legitimate Super Bowl contender. But funny things happen on the way to football immortality. In fact, the Bears will very likely have to fight the same monster that gobbled up the Colts last season. By Week 15 of the regular season, it's very conceivable that Lovie Smith's crew won't have anything left to play for. Like the Colts of a season ago, the Bears could trot out their 2nd stringers for the second half of December and then relax during a first round bye. So when McNabb and the Eagles... or Delhomme and the Panthers... or Manning and the Giants come to Soldier field in January, the beloved Bears may not have played a game that matters in close to a MONTH! Tough to flip the switch...

But I'm getting way ahead of things. For now, I think it's fantastic to enjoy the ride. NFL Sundays are always better when your favorite team wins and I don't think there are going to be many Sundays where we won't be celebrating a Bears victory. But you'll have to forgive me if I'm not booking our flights to Miami quite yet... being the best team in October doesn't guarantee football success in January... just ask Peyton Manning.