Bears' plan goofy, but it's a plan

One thing we know for sure about the Bears: Management doesn't mind looking goofy.

They simply wipe the blush off their faces, start over and risk making the next gaffe.

That became clear this week when head coach Lovie Smith treated the debacle against the Giants as just another loss.

“We're looking at a 3-1 record and feeling pretty good about that, Smith said the next day.

Another sign of the Bears' penchant for embarrassment came Tuesday when they signed veteran defensive end Charles Grant and terminated the contract of Mark Anderson.

This certainly is the move that will propel the Bears into the Super Bowl, as long as Grant can make the transition from defensive line to offensive line in the first 15 minutes of today's practice.

Only kidding, of course, though it's difficult to imagine Grant or anyone else who weighs more than a matchstick faring any worse than the Bears' pass protectors did at the Meadowlands.

After the Grant-Anderson trade-off, Smith and general manager Jerry Angelo surely have a couple of offensive linemen in the pipeline ready to arrive sometime this week.

Don't they?

Midseason roster moves aren't unusual. Most teams make them, and the Bears are admirable for trying to upgrade a 3-1 team.

But these are the Bears, not the Colts or Patriots or Steelers. This isn't a team that inspires a lot of trust.

The Bears consummated several transactions last off-season based on Anderson being prepared to be at least a co-starter at defensive end opposite free-agent acquisition Julius Peppers.

Yes, Anderson was the guy. His time had arrived. Five years of evaluation and investment determined that.

Then four games into the season the guy who was the guy wasn't the guy anymore. The evaluators were wrong and dumped Anderson.

Much is being made of Bears players being held accountable. But the more who have to be, the more that management has to be for expecting so much of them in the first place.

Anyway, as difficult as it must be for the Bears to admit mistakes, it would be worse to compound them by not trying to make corrections.

Give Angelo and Smith credit for that. They decided to move on from Anderson no matter what public perception would be.

Who cares if the Bears' roster starts to look like management threw a handful of players in the air once and then have to do it again?

This week Anderson, somebody the Bears previously had confidence in, landed outside Halas Hall, and Grant, somebody previously out of the NFL, landed inside.

If the Bears continue operating the way they operate and making the sort of decisions they make and still win three of every four games …

Well, they'll be on the way to the Super Bowl for sure.

The Bears might get on the wrong charter, land in Canada, have to take a cab from Saskatoon to Dallas and arrive in Cowboys Stadium five minutes before kickoff.

But they'll get there, deal with the consequences and pound the Jets or Steelers or whoever challenges them.

It's starting to look like all the trial and error and fits and starts and goofiness and embarrassment are by design.

Hey, at least it's a plan, which is more than normally expected of Halas Hall.

mimrem@dailyherald.com