Benson, Bears give Saints a beat down

The music was blaring from the showers, and some Bears were already putting on T-shirts with a saying about the Super Bowl: One Game, One Dream. And there in the middle of the room, sitting on a stool in front of his locker was Cedric Benson. His pants were completely covered in green, as the grass had been smashed in. Just below the knees, where the pants stopped, Benson's legs were colored green, too. His arms? Green.

The cold, the messy field, the sheer physicality of the game. He was wearing it all.

''It was right up my alley,'' he said. ''You win championships on the ground.''

Yes, but Benson was wearing that championship, all over him, too.

''Yeah, I know,'' he said. ''It looks like they painted the thing on.''

The Bears pounded New Orleans Sunday in the NFC Championship Game. And I mean that by score, 39-14, and by style, too. So they're going to the Super Bowl in two weeks.

It's hard not to feel sentimental when the Bears are pounding the ball and it's snowing. It's not that I think the Bears are suited for Bear Weather, because they're not. But it's Chicago's weather, Chicago's team. And it brings back so many memories of so many Bears teams, of Butkus and Sayers and Payton.

And then, there's Benson pounding away. It's stupid, really. Benson is absolutely nothing like Sayers. But with the snow, and Benson's style, and Virginia McCaskey on the field afterward taking the George S. Halas Trophy, and the Lake right there and the skyline. . .

''When you do that, you know you're beating the other team down, wearing them down,'' Benson said. ''You're stamping a message in their heads.''

On their chests, too.

Benson won't go down as the star running back of the game. He had just 60 yards rushing to Thomas Jones' 123.

But to me, it was the pounding that Benson put on New Orleans' defense that changed things. And then it was Benson's 12-yard touchdown run with 11:37 left that said the game was over, the Saints were done.

Benson slowed them down, and then Jones ran through the holes.

''It threw them off-balance,'' Benson said. ''They didn't know what to do.''

Or, as Jones put it: ''We have different running styles, so by the time I came in the game, I was ready to kind of get loose a little bit. I think they were just used to his running style, so they were kind of prepared to take the back on head-up. A lot of times I like to make guys miss.''

It's amazing how this Benson-Jones combo has worked out. Benson was the early draft pick two years ago, No. 4 in the first round. He got the big bucks, and then held out. And Jones, not ready to be replaced, had a great year.

The team bought into Jones that year.

Then, this preseason, Coach Lovie Smith gave Benson the starting job in pre-season camp, before he had earned it. That turned off the team, and all-but killed the relationship between Jones and Benson. Jones complained about unfair treatment.

And remember when some of the Bears turned in Benson? They talked publicly, anonymously, about Benson leaving the sideline before the end of the preseason game against San Diego.

His own teammates had turned him in. And Benson pouted.

He lost the job back to Jones before the season had started, and where did that leave Benson? With a backfield mate jealous of his big salary and treatment, with teammates siding with Jones and against Benson, with a backup job.

''It was a rough year starting out,'' Benson said. ''I knew if I just took care of my business, it'd turn out. I faced some adversity early on, but I knew the tables would turn.

''Without a doubt, people wanted to make assumptions, labels and all that kind of stuff. I didn't worry about it too much. I just waited for my number to be called.''

It's a nice thing to say, but it wasn't that easy. I think Benson did worry about it.

He felt victimized within the team, mistreated from outside.

But he did fight through it, didn't he? He bit his tongue, and maybe grew up, too. He was forced to.

On top of that, he improved as a player.

We've watched it all year. But if you think back to the season's start, you never would have thought he'd be the guy pounding the will out of New Orleans in the Championship Game in the snow.

No way. Cedric Benson is a Bear now.

If you've doubted these guys this season, as I have since after their hot start, things changed Sunday. For the first time, they beat a really good team. They beat up a good team, too.

The Bears won the championship on the ground. Benson wore it home.

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