The Bears’ quarterback situation was settling into its final form Saturday night in a 24-20 loss at Soldier Field, but the offense was shut out in the first half by an Arizona Cardinals defense that was 30th in the NFL last season in yardage allowed and 29th in points given up.
The scoreless first half left them trailing 14-0, but the Bears rallied for 20 second-half points, topped with a 38-yard field goal by Paul Edinger to go up 20-17 with 2:56 remaining.
But a fourth-and-20 conversion by Arizona set up running back Marcel Shipp’s touchdown that gave the Cardinals the final margin.
After rookie defensive end Karon Riley had appeared to clinch the game for the Bears with a blindside sack, Arizona quarterback Chris Greisen threw a 45-yard pass to tight end Tywan Mitchell to the Bears’ 4-yard line.
That set up Shipp, and then the Bears could not come back in the final 1:01 of the game.
The sack gave Riley 2.5 for the game and moved him past Rosevelt Colvin and Brian Urlacher for the team lead through preseason.
Not until the second half under Jim Miller did the offense show signs of life in front of a crowd of 34,111. Miller, who completed seven straight passes in the second quarter, directed three straight scoring drives in the third quarter to put the Bears ahead 17-14, the first time they led since a 2:22 stretch early in the Aug. 11 game at Tennessee.
R.W. McQuarters’ punt return of 49 yards gave the Bears the ball at the Cardinals’ 8-yard line, from where Miller had the Bears in the end zone two plays later.
Miller’s 7-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Ahmad Merritt, a prep All-American at St. Rita High School, brought the Bears back to 14-7. Miller guided the offense to the Arizona 19 on the next possession. Paul Edinger’s 36-yard field goal closed the gap to 14-10 midway through the third quarter.
Skip Hicks, who converted a fourth-and-1 with a dive to keep the third drive alive, finished the scoring push with a vault into the end zone to finish a 17-yard scoring run.
Hicks moved convincingly ahead of Marlon Barnes in the battle for the No. 2 running back spot. Through three quarters, Barnes ran seven times for a total of 5 yards, a 0.7-yard average. Hicks, who was again paired with Jerry Azumah as the deep men on kickoff returns, ran six times for a total of 43 yards in the third quarter and added 8 yards on a safety-valve pass from Miller.
But if Hicks was winning a job, Miller likely was not. Coach Dick Jauron has said that either Matthews would have to lose the No. 1 job, or Miller would have to win it outright.
Matthews did nothing to lose the job. He completed 4-of-6 passes for 62 yards, including a 39-yard completion on a diving catch by wide receiver Dez White. Matthews finished the preseason with all four starts and passing totals of 23 completions in 35 attempts for 265 yards.
Matthews threw for one touchdown, was intercepted once and demonstrated his ability to make quick decisions and get rid of the ball on time, being sacked only once.
Miller’s first pass was tipped by defensive end Jabari Issa and intercepted by cornerback Tom Knight, who returned the ball 49 yards for a touchdown to give the Cardinals the game’s first points with 10:56 remaining in the second quarter.
Miller shook off the bad start to produce the best run of Bears offense this preseason in the third quarter.
On the possession following the Merritt TD pass, Miller completed a 17-yard pass to Scott Dragos on a rollout and a well-timed dump-off pass to Hicks to beat an Arizona blitz
Danny Wuerffel took over the offense for most of the fourth quarter. Issa tipped a Wuerffel pass in the fourth quarter to set up a 36-yard field goal that tied the score at 17-17 with nine minutes remaining.
