Ditka Puts His Bears on the Spot : Can They Defend Their Title Without Ryan’s 46 Defense?

As football practice began this week for most National Football League clubs, the champion Chicago Bears faced some distinct challenges:

--Can they become the first team in the 1980s to win two straight titles?

Three of the NFL’s last six returning champions haven’t even made the playoffs.

--Can they win with a new defensive coach, Vince Tobin, who has thrown out Buddy Ryan’s famous 46 defense?

Tobin’s heresy, enthusiastically endorsed by Coach Mike Ditka, a Ryan detractor, stands as an affront to one of the most revered of adages: If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

--Can the Bears survive the distractions of a trip to England later this month for their opener Aug. 3 against the Dallas Cowboys in Wembley Stadium?

Indeed, can they survive the trip?

Many other Americans, worried about terrorists and the U.S. response in Libya, have been avoiding Europe this year. Some experts on international behavior have particularly counseled Europe-bound Americans against traveling in large, visible parties.

Large and visible describes the Bears, many of whom, reportedly, would rather be spending the summer in Platteville, Wis., where Ditka began working them Tuesday.

“The players are concerned,” Chicago Tribune writer Don Pierson said from the University of Wisconsin Platteville. “But I can’t tell if it’s the terrorists--or just having to report a week early and play a fifth (exhibition) game this summer.”

Ditka didn’t seem worried. Before leaving Chicago, he said: “What are they going to do, bomb the stadium?”

At Platteville, Ditka turned his attention to football, expressing 100% support for the coaches who have radically changed the Bears’ defensive approach.

“There are a lot of ways (to play defense),” he said.

There are, to be sure. But it was last year’s way that made the Bears what they were--one of the most feared defensive teams in NFL history.

The 1986 question is whether Tobin’s changes will help or hurt.

Ryan, who has moved to Philadelphia to be head coach of the Eagles, bases defense wholly on aggressiveness. His teams attack the passer on every play with a four-man line augmented by as many as four rushing linebackers and defensive backs.

In Ryan’s basic 46 defense, the look is that of an eight-man line. His cornerbacks usually play man-to-man pass defense.

Most other NFL coaches, Tobin among them, prefer a three-man line with a web of zone pass defenses. And, strangely, the Bears are changing this year to that.

Tobin, whose brother Bill is the Bears’ personnel director, formerly coached in Canada and the USFL. This is his NFL debut.

Player reaction has so far been muted and mixed.

Defensive end Dan Hampton complained that Tobin, unlike Ryan, is using the front four to control the running lanes before rushing the passer.

And linebacker Wilber Marshall said: “Everybody else in the league is trying to run Buddy’s defense, and now we’re switching to something else.”

But linebacker Mike Singletary told writer Kevin Lamb of the Chicago Sun-Times: “We had seven games where we gave up over 300 yards (last year). I feel if the guys pull together more, we can create a (better) defense.”

If so, it will be something to see. In both 1984 and ‘85, the Bears led the league in total defense after Ryan chose their players especially for 46-defense responsibilities.

Ten of the Bears’ defensive starters, all but safety Gary Fencik, have never played for any other pro coach.

The NFL’s prevailing view of Ditka’s experiment is that it’s hard enough in football just defending a title--and that trying to defend with a major change of philosophy compounds the problem critically.

“It’s getting almost impossible to repeat in any sport,” Dallas Vice President Gil Brandt said. “The problem is that the bench strength you need--and that former champions used to have--is starting for other teams now.

“Take John Wooden,” Brandt said, referring to the former UCLA basketball coach. “There were many times when he was only challenged by one team a year. Today there are 8 or 10 teams that can win the NCAA.”

A defending champion in any sport must also reckon with the injury jinx.

Bill Walsh, coach of the San Francisco 49ers, said: “Champions all have injury luck.”

But, because injuries are a law-of-averages proposition, he added: “Your luck is more likely to run out the next year.”

The ’86 Bears have two things going for them: the awesome confidence of Ditka and his quarterback, Jim McMahon, and their soft schedule.

Eleven of their 16 opponents had losing records last year.

They should make the playoffs easily. The only real question, perhaps, is whether they can win three times in January.