Bye-Week Bears Grab Bag

Since there is no game this week, I've decided to post a list of random Bears facts. I found most of these on the Chicago Bears Official Website. Enjoy:

• Chicago led the league in starting field position last year with their average starting field position at their own 33.7 yard line. Although Hester has not really done anything, the Bears still rank 5th this season with an average starting position at their own 29.3 yard line.


• Prior to last Sunday’s 48-41 win over the Minnesota Vikings, the most points the Bears had allowed in a victory came on Oct. 17, 1965 in a 45-37 win over the Vikings in Minnesota. Last Sunday marked just the third time since that game that the Bears have permitted 33 or more points in a win. They defeated the Miami Dolphins 36-33 in overtime on Oct. 27, 1997 and the Denver Broncos 37-34 in overtime on Nov. 25, 2007.


• The Bears are closing in on 700 wins all time. They are 697-511-42 right now including playoffs. They would be the first team to 700. The Packers are second at 666 wins.


• Kyle Orton is not in consideration for the FedEx Air Player of the Week even though Orton passed for more yards than Trent Edwards and Matt Schaub and more touchdowns than Edwards and Jeff Garcia.

• The Bears have the best record in the NFC North since 2005 at 35-20.


• The last 3 weeks the leading tackler for the Bears has been someone from the secondary. Against the Vikings it was Payne with 9 and Corey Graham with 12 and 10 respectively against the Falcons and Lions. Is this a result of people breaking through to the secondary or are the DBs making tackles against running backs closer to the line of scrimmage? At least for Graham in the Falcons game, 6 of the 12 tackles were on run plays and only two of those 12 were for first down. Jury is still out on whether this is good or bad.


• The last rushing touchdown by a Bears quarterback was on 9/26/04. That touchdown was scored by Rex Grossman and he tore his ACL on the play.