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Dan Peters
Sports Editor
Suburban
Journals of Chicago
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Rex Grossman Leads the Winning Effort
©
Suburban Journals of Chicago photos by Dan Peters
Battered Bears find a way to win, overcome
first half letdown Beat
Lions 27-23
by Dan Peters
A few short weeks ago, the Bears may well
have lost this game. But the Bears have reached deep into the bench and
found players that showed why they are on this team. This kind of depth
is what defines a good team from a great team.
But how much more
can this team endure? Will this be enough to challenge the unbeaten
Titans? There won’t be much time to ponder that question.
Just when things
began to look bleak Sunday for the Bears, they went
into the locker room at halftime trailing the winless Detroit Lions
23-13. In what could be best described as a disastrous second quarter,
The Bears allowed 23 points to see a 10-0 lead go by the wayside,
lost quarterback Kyle Orton (ankle) and safety Mike Brown (calf) for
the rest of the game with injuries.
After limping a few
steps, Orton collapsed to the ground in pain and was carted to the
locker room. He eafter completed 8 of 14 passes for 108 yards and
had an 81.8 passer rating. No further information about the
injury was available following the game.
For most teams in
the NFL, this would have spelled disaster. Not for
these Chicago Bears.
The battered Bears
overcame the adversity, outscoring the Lions 14-0 in the second
half to escape with a 27-23 victory.
The comeback was
fueled by a resurgent running game, a fierce defense and backup
quarterback Rex Grossman, who threw a 6-yard touchdown pass to Rashied
Davis and scored the go-ahead TD on a 1-yard sneak with 5:36 remaining
in the game.
Not bad for a
quarterback that up until the second half of this game was merely a
bench warmer. So which Rex showed up? Good Rex? Bad Rex? Or Train
Rex? Luckily only the Good and Bad Rex showed up today.
“You always want to
play, but never under those circumstances,” Grossman said. “I felt
great probably 70 percent of the time. The other
30 percent the timing was a little bit off. If I play next week
[against the Tennessee Titans], I’ll have a whole week of practice to
correct that other 30 percent.”
“That just shows
what this team is made of, the quality leadership from the vets and
guys just going out there playing,” said defensive tackle
Dusty Dvoracek.
“When we came
in [at halftime], coach [Lovie] Smith said the defense can’t give up
any points and the offense has to score. We did that and we won.”
The victory
gave the Bears (5-3) a one-game lead atop the NFC North
over the Packers (4-4) and Vikings (4-4). On Sunday, Green Bay lost to
the Tennessee Titans 19-16 in overtime and Minnesota beat the Houston
Texans 28-21.
“I’m proud of
our team for hanging in there and finding a way to win at the end,”
Smith said.
Rookie
phenom Matt Forte rushed for 101 of his career-high 126 yards
in the second half in registering his first 100-yard performance since
he gained 123 yards in a season-opening win in Indianapolis.
“We’re always
determined to get the running game going,” Forte said.
“We’ve been wanting to do that for a long time. We focused on running
the ball and we did that effectively.”
The Bears
defense rises to the occasion….
The same
Bears defense that had permitted three touchdowns and a field goal on
four straight second-quarter drives didn’t allow the Lions to score in
the second half on eight possessions. Chicago produced two takeaways
and three three-and-outs in the fourth quarter alone.
“That’s how
we’re supposed to play,” Smith said. “In the first half, we can’t allow
them to catch some of the passes that they did. We’re better than that.
In the second half, that’s what you should see from a Chicago Bears
defense.”
The Bears
didn’t alter their game plan or strategy on defense; they just played
better.
“We didn’t
change anything,” Dvoracek said. “In the second half we just said we’re
going to play our base defense and we’re going to beat them, and we
did.”
The Bears
will need to continue this balanced offense and defense if they expect
to have a chance against the Titans next week. Control the ball,
eliminate turnovers and the Bears could just shock the Titans and hand
them their first loss.
The schedule
for the Bears wont get easier as they head on a long road
trip for the next three games before heading home in December.
© Oak Park Journal photo
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