Hopefully not deja vu all over again

Five reasons I'm exceedingly nervous for this Sunday's Bears tilt with the Panthers:

1. Carolina is battle-tested. Much of this team was around when the Panthers made the Super Bowl, oh, all of two years ago (and very nearly won it - for all the Patriots "dynasty," their three wins have been by a total of nine points, while only two of the last eleven non-Patriot wins were decided by that much or less). By comparison, this Bears team is fairly untested, and those Bears who do remain from the 2001 team... well, the less said about that team's playoff fate, the better. The Bears do have Muhsin Muhammad, a former Panther who had 140 receiving yards and a touchdown in Super Bowl XXXVIII, but still.

2. Carolina has a more explosive offense. Which the Bears well know, since Steve Smith caught 14 - fourteen! - passes for 169 yards on November 20. DeShaun Foster has rushed for 150+ yards in his last two games. Jake Delhomme may not be Peyton Manning, but he's solid, tested, and confident. All that said, the Bears held Foster to 41 yards in November (on just 9 carries) and the Panthers managed just a single field goal, and then in the fourth quarter. Still, we can't necessarily assume that will be repeated.

3. Rex Grossman, playoff newbie. Shit, starting newbie. I was as glad as anyone to see Grossman replace Orton, but the fact remains that the Bears don't have any more experience with Grossman at the helm, just some more talent. With that in mind...

4. Carolina has a pretty decent defense too, you know. They did just blank the Giants, in New Jersey, after all, and that's a slightly better offense than these Bears have. And Julius Peppers is not to be taken lightly with his 10.5 sacks.

5. It's not supposed to be that cold. To be honest, the one team I really did not want to face in the NFC coming into Soldier this weekend was Carolina, which of course means we got them. I was hoping for another really cold night like December 18 (the 16-3 win over Atlanta), but it looks like we're stuck with high 30s.

I still have confidence in this Bears defense, but it hasn't played that well since the Atlanta game (four picks at Lambeau - who doesn't pick Favre four times these days? I'm more concerned with the atrocious tackling in that one) while Carolina is on something of a roll. I guess that's reason #6. 20 points, maybe as few as 17, should win this game. But can the Bears get all the way there? I'll be watching, anyway, but like the Sun Bowl, it's possible I will end up stomping off in disgust. I just hope not.