Now how do I feel about the Bears being in the NFC Championship game? Now Chicago is absolutely rabid about the Bears. No team seems to draw in more Chicago fans, not even the Cubs. But how do I feel about the 2006 Bears? I don't know what happened, but somewhere along the midseason, probably Week 10, I lost the confidence in this team, and was ready for the playoffs to start. I personally have little to no faith in Rex Grossman, he's basically still a rookie. Of course the Tank Johnson thing took out all the feel-goodness of the team. There is no way the '85 Bears had those kinds of issues. Personally I find their 14-3 record incredibly soft: they played the easiest schedule in the NFL (don't know how that happened, especially since they went 11-5 last year) and pretty much just cut myself off emotionally from the team. Which I guess is good because if they lose, I won't care.
Can they beat the Saints? I don't know. They have the #1 ranked offense and the Bears still just barely beat the Seahawks, who were deemed depleted and weak. And I believe the upset of the year already happened, with the Pats beating the Chargers. I figured it'd be a Chargers /Bears Super Bowel (heheh typo) early in the season, and little Tommy "Concussioned" Waddle predicted a possible Super Bowl XX rematch, probably basing it on that Peyton 'Big and Dumb' Manning is a huge playoff choker, and he wasn't that great either against the Ravens (15-30, 170 yds, 0 TD, 2 INT, 39.58 passer rating). I predicted a 27-13 Seahawk win, tho they were pretty close to that, but the Bears offense got it done somehow. I just can't get excited, knowing that if they don't lose next week, they'll lose in 3 weeks (another thing I hate about the NFL is 2-week layoffs, this is ridiculous) and I have this mentality of "you get in the playoffs, you are expected to go all the way", and I just don't feel they can do it, especially against a superior AFC. The weather could be a factor for Sunday's Saints / Bears game. If it is, I say 17-10 Bears, and if its not, I say 27-13 Saints.
As somebody once (probably most likely me) said, "The higher you climb, the harder you fall."