Olsen: For Offense, Lack Of Experience Won't Matter
The Bears' defense is full of players with playoff experience. Players like Lance Briggs and Brian Urlacher played in the Bears' Super Bowl in the 2006 season. But the offense is a different story.
"I don't think so," Bears' tight end Greg Olsen said when asked if the offense's lack of playoff experience would be a concern for the team. "At the end of the day, we've played in competitive games. I mean, I couldn't imagine this game being any more intense, any more hostile than the game we had...up in Green Bay."
While Olsen admits that the Green Bay game didn't go the way the Bears wanted, the team was still able to gain experience from it. The Bears' playoff game on Sunday will be a much different environment. Instead of playing in a hostile atmosphere, the Bears will be playing at home, where they've had some success in big games this season.
"We've played in big games around here before," Olsen said. "We've had a lot this year. The Philadelphia game was a lot. Going up to Minnesota, when we won the division."
While those games were big environments and were high profile games, nothing compares to the playoffs. But the offense doesn't have to go very far to find some friends who have been through it all before.
"Our defense has a lot of experience and I think that will be good for the whole team," Olsen said. "But on offense we can't say we know what to expect, but we intend to go out and play just as hard and just as well as we can, whether it's the playoffs or regular season. I don't think it's going to matter much."