"We suck." These simple, motivational words were uttered most publicly by safety Mike Brown to the media following an October 9 loss to the Cleveland Browns. Chicago had led that game into the fourth quarter until Brown's secondary gave up two late Trent Dilfer touchdown passes to lose. After this fourth game of the season, the Bears were 1-3. The NFC North division never looked more winnable, yet the Bears did not seem to be able to take what was so clearly in their grasp.

Circumstances surrounding the 2005 Chicago Bears, coupled with the 1-3 start, rendered it unimaginable that they might pull together one of their best seasons on the 20th anniversary of the 1985 championship team. They did end up having a great season, but one that still failed to live up to the expectations that were built.

During the 2004 season, Bears General Manager Jerry Angelo took harsh criticism for failing to sign an available veteran quarterback, such as Kurt Warner, to back up Rex Grossman. The young passer was lost for the season in its third week, and with him the club's fortunes fell at the hands of the terrible Jonathan Quinn and unseasoned Craig Krenzel.

Angelo's blueprint remained the same in 2005. Despite having another shot at Warner, and other veteran passers such as Brad Johnson and Jay Fiedler being available, Angelo again went with young backups and did not overspend for a veteran. The thinking was that Grossman, who never suffered an injury in high school or college, had a simple run of bad luck and would be on to a brighter portion of his career. So the team drafted Kyle Orton, a one time Heisman Trophy candidate, in the fourth round and was determined to go with he and Chad Hutchinson as backups.

Late in the first quarter of the Bears' second preseason game at St. Louis, Grossman was knocked to the ground after releasing a pass. The quarterback bounced up and limped toward the sidelines before collapsing, calling for medical staff and clutching his leg. As he was loaded onto a cart and hauled to the locker room, Grossman's face said exactly what fans did not want to know about the team's 2005 fortunes. During the game it was announced Grossman had suffered a broken ankle, and may be finished for the season. "Sh*t happens," Grossman announced to a live television audience and stunned reporters following the game.

Angelo declared that the team would be in good hands with their new starter, Chad Hutchinson, who had filled in as best he could at the end of 2004. This team now had a new offensive coordinator in Ron Turner, and a beefed-up offensive line, so it was thought that Hutchinson's play would improve. It took only the next preseason game with Hutchinson as the starter for the team to change its mind. Following a miserable performance, Hutchinson was released, and the rookie Orton was installed as the team's starter. Many observers, such as football analyst Hub Arkush, pronounced doom for any team that started a rookie quarterback.

Orton played well for a rookie in the team's preseason finale and prepared for opening day on September 11th in Washington. Around the same time, Sports Illustrated released its 2005 NFL Preview edition, and writer Paul "Dr. Z" Zimmerman pronounced the Bears the worst team in football, ranking them 32nd among 32 teams. Little did anyone, let alone Zimmerman, know that eggs were readying to be launched at the writer's face.

What the Bears did have in 2005, which would have to be relied upon, was its defense. The unit had played strong in 2004 despite losing starters Mike Brown and Brian Urlacher for most of the year. To address the previous season's injury woes, the Bears hired strength and conditioning coach Rusty Jones, who revamped the player's diets and workout programs to emphasize endurance and health.

The defense proved it would have a strong year from the beginning, holding Washington to nine points on no touchdowns. Unfortunately, the offense showed it would have problems with its rookie quarterback, scoring only one touchdown following a fumble on the second half kickoff. Despite late game drives, which each ended in an Orton fumble and interception, the Bears lost 9-7.

The following week the Bears hosted 1-0 Detroit, who were at the time favorites to win the division. Chicago annihilated the Lions 38-6, leading to a showdown the following week with resurgent Cincinnati in Chicago. Against the Bengals, Chicago fell behind early on the Carson Palmer-to-Chad Johnson connection and could never recover. They lost that game 24-7, then fell to Cleveland, leading to Brown's timely comments.

What seemed to be a different team hit the field the next week against the Minnesota Vikings, and the Bears dominated from start to finish. They won 28-3, surely helped by controversy spinning around their opponents. A side story to that game was the play of Paul Edinger. Prior to the '05 season, Angelo dumped the most accurate kicker in Bears history for veteran Doug Brien, and Edinger was scooped up by the Vikings. To this point in the season, Edinger was having a fantastic year inside the Viking dome, but on this day in Chicago, he would miss two tries and have a third blocked. Brien didn't work out for the Bears either, having been released for unproven rookie Robbie Gould.

Beating the downtrodden Vikings was one thing and did not necessarily signal a turnaround of the Bears' fortunes, but the following week may have proven at least some critics wrong. On October 23rd in a rainy Soldier Field, the Bears defeated the Baltimore Ravens, evening their record at 3-3. The following week they had the chance to win three in a row for the first time since 2001, and did so in a stirring overtime victory against Detroit.

The Bears went on to win their next six games. Several were against "pushover" teams: the New Orleans Saints in Baton Rogue, the San Francisco 49ers in a swirling wind, and their first victory over the Green Bay Packers at home since 1993. Sandwiched in between were defensively dominating games over playoff teams Carolina and Tampa Bay.

On December 11th, a completely new respect had been given the Chicago Bears as they traveled to Pittsburgh. Chicago now had a 9-3 record, winners of eight straight. Pittsburgh was on a losing streak, while their opponents were being compared to the only other Bears team to win a Super Bowl, 20 years in the past. The remainder of the season looked bright, and even Grossman had recovered to the point of being able to play again.

Orton did start the Steeler game, but could not keep up with a bruising Pittsburgh running game. The Steelers won 21-9, and Chicago's defense looked exposed. Not to be forgotten in this game was the fact that Chicago's two starting safeties, Chris Harris and Mike Brown, were out with injuries.

The following week in Chicago's only night game of the season, the Bears hosted Michael Vick and the high-powered Atlanta Falcons on a 10-degree night. An outstanding defensive performance was overshadowed by the return of Rex Grossman, who started the second half and helped seal a 16-3 victory.

The following week, on Christmas night, Grossman started his first game since September of 2004, and helped lead his team to a narrow 24-17 victory over the Packers in Green Bay. It was Chicago's first sweep of their rivals since 1991, and the possibility of home field advantage throughout the playoffs remained.

After the Green Bay win, coupled with a Vikings loss, the Bears won their first NFC North title, rendering a New Year's Day matchup in Minnesota pointless in the standings. The decision was made, to much debate by fans and analysts, to play backups through the majority of the game. The Bears lost 34-10, and finished the season 11-5, a better number of wins than the previous two seasons for the team.

Chicago watched the opening week of the playoffs, comfortable in the fact that since 1990, only two teams with a first-round bye had lost their first playoff game. Unfortunately, belying this statistic was the fact that one of those losses was by the Bears themselves in 2001. Even worse, the only other time this happened is when the Carolina Panthers beat Lovie Smith's St. Louis Rams at home in 2003. Ironically, following Carolina's shutout win at New York over the Giants, their next task was to come to Chicago to play the Bears.

The Bears had so soundly defeated Carolina at Soldier Field in November, players exuded an air of confidence for their first playoff game in their new stadium. "They might think they can beat us, but we know we can beat them," was a comment from one Bear defender. Lost in the jubilance surrounding the previous win over Carolina was the fact that speedy receiver Steve Smith had caught passes for over 150 yards against the vaunted Bears defense. Chicago's coaching staff had to know that they would need to contain Smith again to win the game.

Before a rousing crowd on January 15th, the Bear offense came out as many predicted, throwing the ball. They didn't complete a pass on their first series, however, and on Carolina's first offensive play Smith streaked for a touchdown. The Bears never led in the game, and became the third team in the history of the bye to exit the playoffs without making a stir.

Regardless of the final result, the 2005 Chicago Bears proved to their fans and detractors that they were a team to be taken seriously in the future. With 21 of 22 starters under contract for 2006, the future indeed looks bright.

Quote of the Year: "Fred Miller broke his jaw while getting out of bed in the middle of the night."  -Bears organization's first explanation of the injury, later revealed to be caused by the fist of Olin Kreutz

2005 Records: Preseason 4-1, Regular Season 11-5, Playoffs 0-1

2005 NFL Rankings: Offense 29th Overall, 8th Rush, 31st Pass; Defense 2nd Overall, 11th Rush, 5th Pass

2005 Coaches: Lovie Smith, Head Coach; Ron Rivera, Defensive Coordinator; Ron Turner, Offensive Coordinator

The Return of Ron Turner

With the hiring of Lovie Smith in 2004, Bear fans were told to expect a focus on scoring points, something not seen in Chicago since at least 1995, possibly '85 prior to that. Smith announced at his initial press conferences that his intention was to install an offensive attack similar to those in Kansas City and St. Louis. Those offenses are noted for long passing attacks and utilizing their backs and tight ends heavily.

To this end, Smith hired Kansas City quarterbacks coach Terry Shea as his offensive coordinator, and 2004's free agent signings tailored the Bears personnel to fit that scheme. Shea's tenure was a disaster, and he was fired following the season.

Coincidentally Ron Turner, who was Bears offensive coordinator under Dave Wannstedt from 1993-1996, was fired as University of Illinois Head Coach in December 2004. Smith then announced that he wanted his offense to focus more on running the ball, and Turner was hired again to rebuild the offense. Turner's hiring marked the third change at this coordinator position in three years.

In his first tenure in Chicago, his offense started out slowly, mainly due to personnel issues. Turner's attack, described by Wannstedt in 1993, is a west coast offense that incorporates a passing game like San Francisco's, but relies more on the run, such as Dallas' did at the time. While previous Bear coordinators John Shoop and Terry Shea relied on wide receiver and running back screen passes as their "bread and butter" plays, Turner has always utilized quick slant passes to wide receivers, much like Green Bay's successful offenses of the past 15 years.

Turner's return was most noticable in that the Bears rose from the 25th ranked rushing team to the 8th in 2005. The bad news was their passing game only rose one notch, from 32nd to 31st out of two teams. Overall, the team rose from the 32nd ranked offensive unit in 2005 to 29th in 2005. Certainly Turner was hamstrung since he lost his starting quarterback in Rex Grossman, who only started one regular season and one playoff game. Though Turner may partly be at fault for calling several passes at the outset of the playoff loss, his offense rebounded nicely in that game to score 21 points, much better than their season average.

If the improvement of Turner's offense in the 1990's happens also in this century, this bodes well for the Chicago Bears.

The Bears were much quieter in the offseason prior to the 2005 campaign than they were in 2004. Whereas in '04 they signed several middle-tier prospects, in '05 they made their biggest splash by signing WR Muhsin Muhammad after he was released in a salary cap move by Carolina. "Moose" cost the Bears almost $30 million on a six-year contract, but as always the deal is very cap-friendly for the Bears. Also signed prior to the season was G Roberto Garza from Atlanta. Another somewhat surprising move took place when Chicago released kicker Paul Edinger, the most accurate field goal kicker in Bears history, after a one-day competition with New York Jet castoff Doug Brien. Brien himself would be let go early in the season after failing on most of his tries. By virtue of their 5-11 record in 2004 and a complicated tiebreaking formula, the Bears picked fourth in the 2005 draft, ahead of other teams with 5-11 records. The Bears bypassed several receivers and running back Carnell "Cadillac" Williams and selected Texas running back Cedric Benson. Benson shed tears at the draft, commenting on the difficult pre-draft process when his personal life and attitude were scrutinized. The Bears selected unknown Oklahoma receiver Mark Bradley with their second pick, QB Kyle Orton in the fourth and safety Chris Harris in the sixth. All of the aforementioned players started in '05, while Benson did not. The Bears appeared in the NFL Hall of Fame Game in Canton, OH for the first time since 1990. They defeated Miami 27-24 in that Monday Night contest. GM Jerry Angelo and coach Lovie Smith decided to go with Chad Hutchinson, Orton and signee Kurt Kittner as backups to Rex Grossman, again in a year where more proven veterans were available. In the second preseason game, Grossman broke his ankle and it was feared he would be lost for the season. Hutchinson was declared the team's starter in the third preseason game against Buffalo but performed miserably. He was cut shortly thereafter and Orton was named the starting quarterback as a rookie. Rookie running back Benson was the second-to-last NFL draft pick to agree to terms. Benson had been in the Chicago area to sell the house he purchased in Libertyville after the draft when he was convinced to sit down again with team officials. The signing came shortly after Angelo declared publicly the Bears had made their final offer and would begin pulling money off the table going forward. At that point it was a distinct possibility that Benson would be the first player in years to sit out his rookie season to re-enter the draft the following year. Benson never started in '05 and fell to third on the depth chart, although he did turn in some strong relief work. The reason for Benson's absence were both a knee injury that looked excruciating but ended up only being a sprain, as well as the stellar season of Thomas Jones. Jones became the only Bear running back other than Walter Payton to rush for over 1,300 yards in a season. It was Jones' first thousand yard season as a professional. In November it was announced that tackle Fred Miller had broken his jaw when he got out of bed at night, and he missed his first two games as a professional. It was revealed the following week, however, that he and center Olin Kreutz were involved in a fist fight on the players' off-day, somehow in conjunction with a visit to an FBI shooting range. The players were fined by the NFL but no further action was taken. Grossman returned to the starting lineup in the season's penultimate regular season game, giving him a total of six regular season starts in three seasons. Orton started 15 games in '05. The Bears' defense was ranked #1 overall until the final week of the regular season, when a controversial decision was made to play backups throughout the final meaningless game at Minnesota. Due to that the team finished being ranked second to Tampa Bay. They came close to breaking their 1986 team record for fewest points allowed, but that milestone was missed by virtue of opponent's points scored in the season's final two games. Second-year cornerback Nathan Vasher, an '04 fourth-round pick, made his first Pro Bowl by intercepting eight passes. He also set an NFL record for the longest play in NFL history by scoring on a 108-yard missed field goal return. In an eerily wind-swept day on Chicago's lakefront, San Francisco attempted a long field goal that fluttered into Vasher's hands in the back of Chicago's end zone. After thinking briefly about downing the ball, the cornerback came out and eventually dove in for a touchdown, 108 yards downfield, following tremendous blocks by his teammates. On that day, for the first time the Bears donned orange "alternate" jerseys with white numerals.

In what was becoming an annual ritual, the NFL watched through the 15th week of the season to determine if the Indianapolis Colts would become only the second undefeated team in the history of the NFL. That week, however, the San Diego Chargers upset their hosts 26-17. The Colts, possessing homefield advantage throughout the playoffs with a 14-2 record, would be upset in the divisional round of the playoffs by the Pittsburgh Steelers. In a draft where no team seemed to want the first overall pick, the 49ers ended up keeping it and selecting quarterback Alex Smith from Utah. The draft's second-best quarterback, Aaron Rodgers from Cal, lasted to the 24th where he was selected by Green Bay. The jury remains out on both passers. Denver hosted the AFC Championship game but lost to Pittsburgh, and Seattle soundly defeated Carolina. The Steelers, once deemed to be out of the race in the regular season, won Super Bowl 39 21-10 in Detroit.