The game is about mismatches. They were everywhere you looked Monday night, starting with the uniforms.
The Bears came to the Edward Jones Dome dressed for a tractor pull. Their black shoes looked stuck in mud even though they were playing on plastic. The Rams arrived ready for their usual indoor track meet, their white shoes polished for the Greatest Show on Turf.
It was the tortoise against the hare, only this one had a surprise ending. The hare won. It was a better race than expected, but this is not a fairy-tale season for the Bears.
The hare’s name is Isaac Bruce. He is a superstar receiver who often gets lost amid the array of big-play Rams. But he beat the San Diego Chargers last week, and whenever the Rams were in trouble Monday night, they turned to Bruce.
In each of the Rams’ first three touchdown drives, Bruce made big catches–21 yards, 22 yards, 33 yards, 32 yards, 20 yards. The Bears had no answer for him defensively or offensively.
They also had no answer for Marc Bulger, the third-string quarterback who is now 5-0 as the Rams pulled even after an 0-5 start, matching last year’s feat by the Washington Redskins, the first NFL team ever to do it.
Bulger will go to the bench now–or will he? When Bulger bruised the index finger on his throwing hand in the first half, Kurt Warner came in to the roar of the crowd, only to last one series.
Rams coach Mike Martz had a chance to keep Warner in the game, but Bulger tapped Martz on the shoulder and told him he was all right.
“I didn’t want Kurt to play at all,” Martz said.
Asked whether Warner will return for next week’s game against Washington, Martz said yes at first, but later left the door slightly ajar to change his mind. Asked whether Bulger was out, Martz said: “He’s not out. Who knows? We’ll see how this works out.”
Warner played for one ineffective three-and-out series.
“I called a little sprint-out and the coverage was wrong,” Martz said. “I could have called better plays for him.”
Warner threw behind Torry Holt on a slant for an incompletion before a short completion to Bruce.
After starting the season 0-4 and throwing one touchdown pass and eight interceptions, Warner broke the pinkie on his right hand. But Martz wants him back in the lineup.
“He needs to get in the flow of practice this week and get a lot of throws and he’ll be fine,” Martz said.
Wallowing in the throes of the longest losing streak in the NFL, the Bears came so short-handed that the Rams agreed to play them with one hand and one leg tied behind their backs.
The Bears trotted out 37-year-old backup quarterback Chris Chandler, awkwardly taking snaps from an untested center, so the Rams left their twin MVPs, Warner and Marshall Faulk, on the sideline.
So on the very first series, when the Bears defense had forced a third-and-10, Bulger found rookie running back Lamar Gordon wide open on the Bears’ star linebacker, Brian Urlacher, for a first down.
It was the third play of the game and already it looked like it was going to be a long night. By the time it was over, Chandler had been sacked seven times and the only thing that looked close about the game was the only thing that counts, the score.
The Bears were trading field goals for touchdowns and trying to fool themselves into thinking they could compete.
As futile as it looked, the Bears had chances, as every NFL teams seems to have every week. A fake punt and run by Brad Maynard helped them get inside the St. Louis red zone, where the Bears promptly turned purple.
Five plays inside the 18-yard line and not once did they threaten the end zone. Not even a questionable roughing penalty on Leonard Little for tackling Chandler helped.
The Rams, sleek and fast, swarmed the immobile Chandler. The Bears appeared unprepared to handle the blitz. with hot reads or maximum protection.
It was the Rams’ seventh straight win against Chandler, who used to face the Rams twice a year when he played for Atlanta. Martz said it was “only coincidence.”
“He’s a very fine quarterback. He’d fit well in our system,” Martz said.
Ricky Proehl, the Rams’ fourth receiver, caught the winning touchdown pass. He’s an ex-Bear who also fits into Martz’s system.
“Ricky made a Ricky catch,” Martz explained.
