Quarterback Jim Miller finished the game in street clothes after sustaining what he called a hip pointer late in the second quarter of Sunday’s 37-31 overtime victory over San Francisco. Miller held out hope he will be back next Sunday when the Bears play host to Cleveland.
“Hip pointers don’t normally take that long to heal, so we’ll see how it goes,” Miller said.
Miller, who had achieved a career best in starting his fourth consecutive game, injured the hip when hit by 49ers linebacker Derek Smith after a pass intended for Marty Booker.
“I took a shot at halftime and tried to numb it up, but it just wasn’t going to happen,” Miller said. “The muscles around the back were too stiff and I just couldn’t throw. I felt like my whole pelvic bone was out of place. . . . I could’ve gone out there and handed the ball off, but if it came to where I needed to let it loose and rip it, I probably couldn’t have done that.”
Miller, who has had his share of bad luck over his Bears career between injuries and a suspension for unknowingly taking a banned dietary supplement, said he does not take a here-we-go-again attitude.
“I’m happy to be part of this team, in whatever capacity it is,” he said. “I plan on playing again. I plan on being in there again. I’ve just got to heal up and see what happens.”
Asked if he thought he should keep his job, Miller wouldn’t speculate. He won the starting job after Shane Matthews hurt his ribs in the second game of the season.
“Dick Jauron always said he’s going to go with who the hot guy is, whether it’s a running back, a receiver, a quarterback, whatever,” Miller said. “Whatever helps the team win, that’s all the matters.”
As for Matthews, who practiced for the first time since the injury last week, he said the muscles between his rib cage are still tender.
“[I’m] not 100 percent but well enough to play,” he said.
Strong words: Tight end Fred Baxter had an angry exchange with offensive coordinator John Shoop immediately after a Miller pass to Marty Booker in the corner of the Bears’ end zone was intercepted.
Baxter was upset that on five straight plays inside the San Francisco 20-yard line, he was not used as a receiver.
Baxter, who scored on a 1-yard TD pass against Cincinnati, apologized to Shoop and went on to match his previous season total with three catches, all for first downs.
“That was just the emotion of the game, about the routes I was running,” Baxter said. “I just got caught up in the emotion of the game and I apologized to coach Shoop. I have the utmost respect for him and he has that for me. But when we get down into the red zone, I want to go to work.”
Near-miss: Safety Mike Brown nearly was not in the game to make his winning interception return in overtime. Brown injured his left knee on the last play of the first San Francisco series and talked to the doctors and trainers about the possibility of risking further injury, something that would have taken him out for the day.
He was told there was looseness in the joint–not a good sign–but Brown only wanted to know whether he was risking additional injury by playing.
“They told me it was up to me,” Brown said. “We put some tape on it to hold it tight. I like to play. I just wanted to be in there.”
Feeling safe: The Bears’ first points of Sunday’s game came in the second quarter when a snap went through the hands of punter Jason Baker and out of the San Francisco end zone for a safety.
Contained: The Bears held quarterback Jeff Garcia to eight carries and 22 yards, far below his season’s pace as the 49ers’ No. 3 rusher with a 5.2 yards-per-carry average.
The key was a change in the Bears’ pass rush to more of a “run rush,” designed to keep Garcia from running.
“We spent most of our day trying to contain him,” defensive end Phillip Daniels said. “It takes a lot to bull rush almost every play, but that’s something we had to do. Sometimes you give up something just to win a game and that’s what we did today.”
Time changes: Sunday’s home game against the Browns has been moved to 3:15 p.m., as has the Nov. 18 game at Tampa, to accommodate TV.
Well protected: The Bears’ offensive line has not allowed a quarterback sack in 120 consecutive pass attempts, a span of more than three full games.
Upon further review: The Bears tied the game 31-31 on David Terrell’s 4-yard TD reception and Anthony Thomas’ conversion run with 26 seconds remaining.
Officials reviewed both plays, trying to establish that Terrell came down with both feet inbounds and Thomas broke the plane of the goal line before his knee hit the ground. Both calls went against the 49ers, but coach Steve Mariucci was surprisingly sanguine.
“You’ve got coaches upstairs, they might see things a little differently than the guy looking through the little gizmo on the sideline,” he said.
“It’s a game of inches, and it’s been that way for us all year–we won two games in overtime and it would have been nice to get a third.”
Planned play: The Bears tied Sunday’s game with Thomas’ two-point conversion run.
“That was something we have been practicing since March,” Shoop said.
“There wasn’t any guessing. Everybody [on the Bears’ offense] knew what we were going to call and I am glad it worked. I’m sure not going to [make up a play] with the game on the line.”
