This could be year Bears’ pass doesnt fail

I grasp very little about sports.

The Cubs aren’t ever going to win a World Series in my lifetime … I do get that.

I also get that Derrick Rose was good before he blew out his knee, the Blackhawks are more entertaining when they have a couple of goons, and Comiskey Park is sprayed with fan repellent every April.

But what I get more than anything is football offense. What I get about it is that the Bears never have been all that special at it, particularly throwing the ball.

This is especially relevant today as the Bears put on the pads, buckle up their chin straps and form a posse in search of that side of the ball.

Never was I more optimistic that the Bears would succeed on offense than a couple of years ago when Mike Martz brought his circus to town.

As it turned out, the Bears barely could raise the tent. The five poles — all offensive linemen — wound up being way too wobbly.

So now the offense has been turned over to Mike Tice, who strikes me as being to Martz what Jeep is to Boeing.

The operative word this season is balance. The Bears intend to be balanced on offense.

“We’re in position to have the best balance we’ve had in a long time,” Bears head coach Lovie Smith said in his customarily buttoned-up media briefing on practice eve.

We can only hope that a balanced offense has new meaning at Bourbonnais, Halas Hall and Soldier Field. Traditionally it meant running off both tackles and occasionally over center.

OK, that’s an unfair exaggeration. The Bears have at least dipped their toes into the passing pool with Jay Cutler at quarterback.

That name alone is a departure from Bears history. Cutler is purported to be a franchise quarterback. Again, we can only hope that means some other franchise that he’s trying to relocate to Chicago.

Cutler still has to prove he’s the elite QB that the Bears believe he is, just as new No. 1 wide receiver Brandon Marshall has to prove that Chicago isn’t really where wide receivers come to die.

I don’t mean to sound skeptical here. I don’t have to mean to be. It comes naturally after seeing so many other offensive coordinators, quarterbacks and skill-position players fail to deliver a modern offense, whatever modern translated into during any particular time since the Bears “thrilled the nation with the T-formation” back in Cutler’s great-grandfather’s day.

“Score points,” Bears rookie general manager Phil Emery said of the offense’s goal.

In this NFL era, of course, a team must run the ball to control the clock and — now this is important — pass the ball to score points.

“I understand that people say there’s a (Bears) shift toward passing,” Emery said. “There is, but it’s a shift to 50-50.”

My goodness, doesn’t that say a lot. Martz is one of the most respected practitioners of airing it out, and after he leaves the Bears still have to emphasize passing just to reach equality with running.

But that’s OK. Being able to pass as well as run in equal parts is at least a modest start toward entering the 21st century.

“We look good on paper,” returning wideout Earl Bennett said of the new offense, “but we have to get on the field and prove it.”

Oh, yes, that’s something else that even I understand.

mimrem@dailyherald.com