I was somewhere around Effingham when the drugs began to take hold.

You know, Claritin, the allergy medicine.

Outside Effingham, Illinois.

That's when I noticed the strong scent of manure coming through the rental car's a/c vents, the plethora of "squashed bug juice" on the windshield, and the 326 billionth cornstalk  along Interstate 57 that I was passing.

Anyone who's ever driven through the Midwest on a summer evening knows what I'm talking about.

Now that my head was clear, it suddenly occured to me that "this is it." This scent, this aura, is middle America. Tough and productive.

It also dawned on me that this gritty, smelly, down-in-the-dirt attitude is not only what has made this "America's Heartland" for nearly two centuries, but it's also what the Chicago Bears have represented for more than 80 years. That hard-nosed, grind-it-out, midwest work ethic.

Well, the Midwest isn't about to change anytime soon, but the Bears will be totally different.

Oh, the defense that has always been there will still be there, but get ready to talk about the Chicago Bears offense. Or should I say, get ready to talk about the Chicago Bears offense -- in a good way.

In the minds of many, the Bears made it to the Super Bowl last season in spite of their offense. They have a good chance to get back there this season, in part because of it...or at least what it has the potential to be.

Head coach Lovie Smith, and QB Rex Grossman were barely able to contain their genuine enthusiasm for the weapons the Bears now possess on the "forgotten" side of the ball in Chicago.

Of course, it all starts with Grossman.

There seems to be real reason to be excited about where he is today, compared to the end of last season when he appeared to be a shell-shocked young QB overwhelmed by his severely up and down play and the legtimate questions that brought to a team that had a chance to win it all. Smith likes to remind you that it was Grossman's first full season as a starter. That he had 7 games where his passer rating topped 100. That despite his ups and downs, he still lead the team to the No. 2 scoring offense in the league. Now, he feels with that experience, he will only get better.

My sense in watching Grossman, and talking with him in training camp, is that he is a bit different this time around. He still has the arm that shows you why coaches fall in love with him, and he still has that care-free spirit, which is why teammates love him. But he does seem to be a little more cautious of what he's saying to the media, while at the same time he seems to have found a comfort zone in who he is as a person, and how he needs to run this offense.

"I definitely think that's a good assessment, a good way to put it", Smith said. "He went through all that outside stuff last year and knows that the team was solidly behind him -- and still is. There's NO controversy at quarterback. That's why I think he's just more comfortable. Plus, (from a football standpoint) he knows the system."

"Oh, I'm much more comfortable", Grossman emphasized."Being that way, I see things better (on the field) and I can make quicker decisions."

That quicker decision-making should lead to fewer mistakes. It was the hesitancy and lack of recognition that often got him into trouble last year. Poor mechanics at times didn't help.

New QBs coach Pep Hamilton is set to work on that part. "As soon as he got here, he took Rex and said, 'let's get to work on those mechanics,'" Smith added when talking about Hamilton. "He got it going right away." And you can see the difference.

Now, Grossman has yet to face an opposing pass rush, or a defense designed to exploit his weaknesses. But the new Chicago Hope is that this offense will now be the one doing the exploiting.

Other than the hopefully improved Grossman, Pro Bowl KR Devin Hester has been added to the offense, and looks impressive every time he touches the ball. Following the cue from the Saints' use of Reggie Bush, the idea is to get the ball in Hester's hands and let him go.

Hester will line up at WR, but don't look for him to just take off down the field looking for a deep pass. Whether it's a quick WR screen, a "hot read" quick pass over to his side, a reverse, a quick slant route, whatever it takes to give him a chance to use the speed and moves that allowed him to take back an NFL-record six returns (plus one on the opening kickoff in the Super Bowl) for touchdowns in his rookie season.

And Hester may not be the biggest difference maker on the Bears offense.

Rookie first round pick TE Greg Olson has caught everything thrown his way. He's got the speed of a receiver and the body of a blocking TE. He's Jeremy Shockey without the attitude.  Don't forget, they already had a fairly good TE in Desmond Clark.

Throw in deep threat Bernard Berrian having "taken his game to another level," according to Smith, along with the return of WR Mark Bradley to full health for the first time in two years and the always-reliable Muhsin Muhammad, and this passing game is suddenly pretty potent.

As one Bears official put it, "we had the 2nd-ranked (scoring) offense last year, and now we've added a Todd Heap-type at tight end, and a Reggie Bush-type at wideout".

The only question I have about the Bears O will be the play of Cedric Benson now that he will be "the man" with Thomas Jones taking his 1,200 rushing yards to the Jets. I'm not sure that either backup -- Adrian Peterson (the one from Georgia Southern) or 5-foot-7 rookie Garrett Wolfe -- is ready to be the second half of a dynamic duo in the backfield.

But you know what? If the Chicago's other weapons play like they're expected to, opposing defenses will be so spread out trying to cover everybody that Benson and company will easily be able to run at will.

So it's easy to see why the Bears finally feel that their O is now Grade A. It's also easy to see why they are probably still the class of the NFC.

All this and not a word about how that defense may be even better than it was in '06.

Yes, indeed, it looks like a new day is dawning in the heartland. The Chicago Bears could be a frightening team on both sides of the ball.

Next Stop: St. Louis Rams