Roy's guarantee could hurt
Roy Williams may have just got himself or one of his teammates hurt. Monday, Williams guaranteed that the Lions will defeat the Chicago Bears and the NFL's top-ranked defense. By the way, the game is in Chicago, and is the home opener for the defending NFC North champions.
The Bears aren't playing like a team that needs bulletin board material. Chicago was expected to beat Green Bay, and did more than that, in a 26-0 statement win at Lambeau Field. Now the Bears head home for what was a 'ho-hum' Lions match-up that required self-motivation. Special thanks to Roy Williams for eliminating that problem. The Lions best shot at an upset was to sneak into Chi-town and hope that the Bears would be looking ahead to a much bigger divisional game at Minnesota the following week. No chance of that now.
Maybe Roy thought the game was at Ford Field. Afterall, the Lions just got done holding the defending NFC Champion Seahawks to 9 points....in a 9-6 Lions loss. Odd that an offensive player that caught all of three passes for 36 yards is the one stepping up with such a bold, err senseless, prediction.
Williams' quote is undoubtedly posted in the Bears locker room already. Brian Urlacher, Lance Briggs, Nathan Vasher or any of the five defensive All-Pro's from the 2005 Bears have locked number-11 into their targeting systems already. Roy's teammates have to be wondering if this will be a team-wide vendetta, hoping that Williams will get tagged early like a leadoff hitter in a bean-ball war, and that will be the end of it.
This would be a good time for Jon Kitna to step up as a leader, pull Roy aside and say, "Let me do the talking next week, before you get me or someone else hurt." Kitna's not one to back down from a challenge, but he knows there's enough pressure on the Lions offense this week without predictions.
Perhaps a Dre' Bly or Shaun Rogers could step up with a "we can hold the Bears to 10-points" prediction. Instead, Detroit's two defensive stars stormed out of the locker room, too frustrated with the offense to make such inopportune comments to the media. Now they have a guarantee to back up from one of the guys responsible for the 0-1 start to the season. Hopefully, Roy can learn from the All-Pro's on the team and keep quiet when you're winless. In the meantime, the Bears are laughing, not fuming.
