By Michael Rushton Sep 11, 2007, 22:04 GMT
- The Chicago Bears' defense is rarely a cause for concern. The offense, on the other hand, can be questionable at times. On Sunday, it was just down right bad.
Despite a solid effort from the defense, Rex Grossman and the Bears' offense did little on the field in San Diego as Chicago fell to the Chargers, 14-3.
Lance Briggs, Brian Urlacher and the rest of the defensive unit held the Chargers to just 263 net yards and impressively limited reigning league MVP LaDainian Tomlinson to only 25 yards rushing.
However, the Bears turned the ball over four times, including three fumbles, and mustered just 202 yards on the day, with Grossman throwing for 145 yards.
'You have to stay away from the turnovers, you have to win the turnover ratio,' said Bears head coach Lovie Smith. 'We weren't able to do that (Sunday). I liked the way we played defense early. We played with energy.
'I liked the way we played the run the entire day, going against the MVP. But in the end, they made more plays than we did.'
While Grossman wasn't awful, he wasn't good either. What he was obviously missing from last year was a solid running game to help alleviate some of the pressure.
Handed the starting job for the first time since being drafted fourth overall in the 2005 draft, Chicago's Cedric Benson was held to just 42 yards on 19 carries. His backup, Adrian Peterson, managed 38 yards on seven carries, good for a 5.4 average per attempt.
However, both players turned the ball over via a fumble, with Peterson's giveaway coming early in the fourth quarter. That eventually led to a seven- yard touchdown run by Tomlinson and a 14-3 Chargers' lead.
'We shot ourselves in the foot,' said Grossman. '(San Diego) played well. It wasn't our day. We'll learn from it and hopefully get better.'
Grossman shouldn't shoulder the blame entirely in this loss, but he needs to be better. He showed at times last year that he can be either really good or really, really bad. A stronger performance out of Benson will help Grossman immensely.
By the way, Thomas Jones, traded to the Jets this offseason after rushing for 1,210 yards and six touchdowns with the Bears last year, managed only 42 yards in his New York debut on Sunday.
INJURY UPDATE: BROWN OUT FOR SEASON
The Bears lost a pair of players for the season in Sunday's game, most notably safety Mike Brown. Brown and defensive tackle Dusty Dvoracek both suffered ACL ruptures in the loss and were placed on injured reserve Monday.
It's a frustrating setback for Brown, the team's all-time leader in defensive touchdowns with seven but who hasn't played a full season since 2003. Considered one of the leaders of Chicago's feared defense, Brown missed 14 games during the 2004 season with an Achilles' injury, four games in 2005 due to a calf injury, and 10 games last season because of a Lisfranc sprain in his foot.
'It's another sad day in the chapter of my football playing career, it looks like,' Brown told the Bears' official site on Monday. 'I don't know what else to tell you guys. It's a shame. It hurts my feelings really bad. It's just life, though.'
Brown suffered the injury in the second half of Sunday's game.
Dvoracek, 24, made his first career start on Sunday and was coming off a rookie season that he spent on injured reserve due to a foot injury.
ARCHULETA MAKES DEBUT; HARRIS RETURNS
Free-agent acquisition Adam Archuleta made his regular-season debut for Chicago and totaled seven tackles, all solo, and a pass defended. He was signed this offseason after playing last year with Washington.
Also, Tommie Harris returned to his defensive tackle position and registered two tackles. A two-time Pro Bowl selection who was named a starter for the NFC squad last year, Harris missed the final four games of 2006 after landing on injured reserve because of a torn left hamstring.
Another debut of sorts for Chicago was Devin Hester at wide receiver. The second-year playmaker, though, didn't have a catch in the game and made only one appearance on the offensive side of the ball.
Hester, who is listed as a third-string wideout on the club's depth chart, was also held in check by the Chargers in the return game. He returned just one kickoff for 29 yards and didn't get to take back a punt after making three fair catches.
NEXT UP: SOLDIER UP
The Bears will make their 2007 Soldier Field debut on Sunday against the Kansas City Chiefs.
Chicago is 5-4 all-time against the Chiefs but have lost two of their last three games against them. The club most recently dropped a 31-3 decision to Kansas City on the road back in 2003.
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