View from the Moon: Peppers leading by example

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Wednesday, Jan. 5, 2011
10:46 a.m.
By John Mullin
CSNChicago.com

The measure of Julius Peppers impact on games may be in his numbers. Or lack of them.

Peppers finished with the lowest tackle total (50) and solo total (33) of his career and only twice in his previous eight seasons did he post a lower sack total than the 8 in 2010. Notably perhaps, his next-lowest numbers year was 2003 when he had 7 sacks as a Carolina Panther. And his team went to the Super Bowl then.

Worth noting also is that 2003 was a year in which Peppers wasnt selected to the Pro Bowl. What has been apparent week after week this season is that Peppers has no real interest in stats other than wins, and when your 91 million man operates under that principle, thats whats called leading by example.

The Bears defensive line accounted for just one more sack this season (25) than last (24). But anyone think this years group wasnt a significant step better than last years?

It would be hard for me to say exactly what type of impact Julius has without going on and on, raving about it, said coach Lovie Smith. Whether its playing the run, playing the pass, everything we ask him to do. Everything I wanted him to be coming in, hes done. Hes been a factor of offenses preparing for him each week: This is what we have to do for Peppers. So I couldnt be more pleased with what he did throughout the course of the year.

The gaffe of leaving Corey Graham off the Pro Bowl roster as the best coverage man in the NFC is not the 25 solo tackles (no, thats not a misprinttwo-fivetwenty-five25 solos) he turned in this year but the fact that he had 20 as a rookie in 2007 and 23 in 2009.

Put another way, Graham is not a blip or newbie. Hes been at an elite level for several years now and thats the mark of a professional And not a bad performance by someone who had to get past the disappointment of being shunted out of the rotation at the top of the cornerback depth chart.

Good look

All through the NHLs Winter Classic and Northwesterns game with Illinois, the fact that the Bears once played their home games in Wrigley Field. Now theres a chance to get a good looka lot of looks, actuallyand what that was like.

Pro Football at Wrigley Field from Prairie Street Art is a fun collection of black-and-white photographs by Ron Nelson with text from longtime Bear Report writer Beth Gorr that includes a Foreword by former Bear Ronnie Bull.

It starts with the Bears 1963 playoff game and a little nugget on George Halas refusing a request from Commissioner Pete Rozelle to move the game to Soldier Field. Well, the Bears finally did move to Soldier Field and Nelson and Gorr do a fun job of looking at some of the goings-on before that happened.
Superstitous? Absolutely!

This entry is coming late Tuesday night because its bad luck to change things when youre winning and Ohio States working over of Arkansas would be jeopardized if I went to bed after watching the first half. Daughteralum Jenny would never forgive me.

Tickticktick. Perfect! A good BCS day for the Bucks.

John "Moon" Mullin is CSNChicago.com's Bears Insider, and appears regularly on Bears Postgame Live and Chicago Tribune Live. Follow Moon on Twitter for up-to-the-minute Bears information.

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