Brian Urlacher stood on the sideline Monday night, the blinding rain running off his head in a steady stream. He seemed oblivious to the drenching and to the fact he was holding the hopes of an entire television network for the evening.
Urlacher was it for the Bears, as far as ABC was concerned, surely the only player on the team known to a national audience anymore and, in all likelihood, the only player capable of scaring the Dolphins.
When it was over, the only reaction elicited from the Dolphins that really mattered were their giggles as they came off the field. You could hear the giggles because Pro Player Stadium was one giant echo chamber, clearing out in waves as soon as it was evident Ricky Williams’ work was done.
One can only imagine how many desperate souls at home were still tuned in at that point.
Last week Urlacher had expressed concern that if he played hurt he would risk further injury to his shoulder, or worse, injure something else while protecting the shoulder. But even with one good arm there seemed to be little doubt he would play Monday night, even though he had practiced only on Saturday.
Was that smart? As Bears defensive coordinator Greg Blache had said: “This is our franchise player. Last week (against Green Bay) he said he could go and he didn’t play as well as he can. You look at the film and you really kind of cringe and say, `That wasn’t real wise on his part.'”
Was it any wiser for the Bears to trot out Jim Miller again, so obviously impaired by the tendinitis in his throwing arm that he ended up with minus-1 yard passing in the first half, a statistic as hard to imagine as it was to watch?
Despite the deep bruise to his left shoulder that rendered him mortal the last two weeks, Urlacher led the team with four first-half tackles, forced a fumble and finished with a game-high nine tackles.
“He’s kind of our blood that keeps our organs together,” Blache said in a way only he can. “He brings fire, he gets everything lined up, he’s the man in the middle, he’s the guy who makes things happen for us. To get him back and have him playing like he did was huge for us.”
If Urlacher’s presence gives the Bears a chance, the Bears’ offense negates it. A show of hands from anyone tuned in to Monday night’s game who thought for a minute, at any point, the Bears had a chance to win.
Three Bears quarterbacks combined for 11-of-32 passing for 101 yards. Henry Burris ran for 52 yards on five carries to lead the Bears in rushing, which qualified for more offense than the entire team managed through the better part of three quarters.
Miller was occasionally spelled by Burris early on, a plan designed to get Burris some action more than it was to get Miller off the field, which happened soon enough when Miller was wheeled off with a potentially serious knee injury midway through the third quarter.
You got the feeling that if Chris Chandler, still recovering from a bad ankle sprain two weeks ago, wasn’t able to lurch onto the field at that point, somehow Miller would be forced to get up off the X-ray table and hobble back, once again raising the question of why Burris made the team in the first place.
At least Chandler could get the ball downfield. When he found Marty Booker for a 26-yard completion with just seconds left in the third quarter, it was such an unfamiliar sight it almost begged for a play stoppage to let it soak in.
So impotent were the Bears in a first half in which they managed just two first downs, one of them by penalty, that coach Dick Jauron had to praise Brad Maynard’s punting in a halftime interview with Melissa Stark. So bad were they the entire night that Jauron repeated his praise of Maynard afterward.
But just when there was nothing left to talk about, there was the sideline shot of Urlacher and the John Madden trivia question about his jersey sales leading the league.
This is as good as it gets anymore for the Bears. Miami’s Williams joined O.J. Simpson and Earl Campbell as the only backs to rush for more than 200 yards in consecutive games, but, hey, we’ve got the leading jersey seller.
When Mike Brown went down on a special-teams play to open the game, necessitating the 44th different starter for the Bears this season, it made you realize that any time the leading jersey seller actually plays, it’s a bonus.
“We play hard no matter what the situation,” a stoic Urlacher said afterward. “We may not play good, but we play hard.”
