Vernon Davis Says Things About Bears’ D That He Would Not Have Said in 1985

Vernon Davis’ recent comments about the Chicago Bears defense must have been interesting for his head coach to listen to.

In case you haven’t heard, the 49ers’ emerging star at the tight end position basically said that the Bears’ defensive front was filled with a bunch of chumps who couldn’t stop the offensive juggernaut that is the San Francisco 49ers.

And you may recall that his coach, one Mike Singletary, at one time led that very same Chicago Bears defense to one of the greatest single-season defensive performances in the history of the NFL.

So what does this all mean?

Not really a whole hell of a lot to be honest with you, except that you will undoubtedly hear Bob Papa and Matt Millen talking about it Thursday night before kickoff. So you might as well be familiar with the comments they are referring to.

Here are the comments by Vernon Davis about the Chicago Bears defense, from MercuryNews.com (via The Big Lead):

“I think we can destroy their front,” he said. “The guys up front, I think we can destroy them. I don’t see anything spectacular about their front line.”

…..

“Their linebackers, I think we can handle them pretty well,” he said. “I like Ogunleye. I like the way he’s playing up front. He’s about the only player I like on their defensive line. I think he’s doing a good job.”

Davis is also quoted discussing Lance Briggs, which you can read if you click over to the article. Those comments weren’t considered to be quite as inflammatory by the writer (Daniel Brown), who describes Davis as “clearly joking” when he said that Briggs couldn’t check him.

As for the comments above, Davis is only saying what everyone else can see by watching five minutes of Bears football: there isn’t anything spectacular about their front line. The Bears are 21st in the league against the run (119.5 yards per game) and they have a pedestrian 16 sacks on the season despite having played teams like Green Bay, Seattle, Detroit, and Cleveland, none of whom are particularly adept at protecting their quarterbacks.

The comments that will get the Bears all riled up are, of course, Davis’ claim that they can “destroy” their front and that Adewale Ogunleye is the “only player I like” on the defensive line.

Will it matter come Thursday night? Who the hell really knows. Maybe a very small, little bit at the beginning of the game. It might have the Bears charged up a smidgen more early on than they’d otherwise be.

In reality though, these types of stories are always hyped up to be way bigger than they really are as the game-long impact of comments like these are always overblown.

Ultimately, I think the Bears-49ers game will be a great, physical, hotly-contested game, but not because Vernon Davis made some candid, confident remarks. It will be a great game because both of these teams are struggling and have their backs up against the wall when it comes to playoff contention. This is a game that both teams need and they will scratch and claw to get it.

All Vernon Davis assured for himself with his comments is that he might get popped one or two times when he otherwise might not have, or hit a little bit harder than usual.

Big whoop. Just like his comments.

**********

* – Vernon Davis photo credit: Orlando Sentinel

---

---

---