Mike Brown gets paid big money to make quick reads of football situations.
Thus the veteran safety’s instant recognition late Friday night of the dire straits suddenly confronting the Bears’ secondary confirmed what others in the locker room were reluctant to acknowledge.
“It’s going to be a struggle if R.W. [McQuarters] is not out there,” Brown said after the Bears’ 17-13 exhibition loss to the Saints.
“He is an easy person to play with. Communication is real smooth with him, doing things on the run, making adjustments. With veteran guys, you can do that on the field. [But] bring some younger guys out there, the communication as far as doing things on the run, we’ll have to wait to get to the sideline. That’s going to be one thing that’s really missing. If he ends up missing any time, somebody’s going to have to step up.”
Veteran Todd McMillon took over at right cornerback in the second quarter after McQuarters left with a slightly pulled right hamstring, the 11th such injury for the Bears so far this year.
The Bears took Saturday off and the team had no official update on the injury, but a source said an initial prognosis called for McQuarters to miss three weeks.
That timetable would bring McQuarters back in time to play the Packers on Sept. 19, though Brett Favre would sense a gimpy cornerback the way a shark smells blood in the water.
If the muscle heals quicker than expected, McQuarters could be ready for the season opener Sept. 12–though that sounded like a long shot Friday night.
Coach Lovie Smith has enough experience this month dealing with hamstring pulls that he seems resigned to expecting players will miss at least four weeks once they go down.
The injury weakens the Bears at two critical positions–right cornerback and punt returner–as they begin preparations for Detroit.
Punt-return duties figure to go to wide receivers Bobby Wade, whose costly muff of a punt didn’t help his cause, or Bernard Berrian. Rookie Nathan Vasher returned punts at the University of Texas.
Vasher also will factor in the mix at right cornerback, with McMillon likely to get the first shot.
In the span of a couple of hours Friday night, McMillon went from a candidate to get cut to a candidate to start the opener. He committed four penalties on special teams, but those sins will be forgiven quickly given his sudden importance to the defense and the Bears’ alarming lack of depth at cornerback.
“I’m up for it,” McMillon said. “Let’s just wait and see how bad R.W. is because we can’t afford another injury.”
Before McQuarters, the Bears already had lost cornerbacks Jerry Azumah (neck), Josh Minkins (knee) and Brock Williams (ankle) to injuries since training camp started.
McQuarters also became the fourth defensive starter to go down since camp began, joining Azumah and linebackers Marcus Reese and Brian Urlacher.
Two other projected defensive starters, tackle Alfonso Boone and end Alex Brown, have missed blocks of time with leg injuries that have contributed to the unit’s inability to develop any cohesion.
When the Bears’ defense takes the field against the Lions, for instance, it might be the first time Urlacher and Adewale Ogunleye have been in the same huddle.
Ogunleye and the pass rush will take on even greater importance with McQuarters out and his replacement wearing a bull’s-eye on the back of his jersey. Opponents’ primary receivers on many routes in the first three exhibitions have lined up on the opposite side of the field from cornerback Charles Tillman, and that tactic will be even more obvious now.
“They’ll continue to do that, we realize,” Smith said. “Charles is a very good corner. That just says more guys have to pick up the slack, whoever we have out there. Our pass rush has to get better too. We’ll have a young guy out there and they’ll throw at him, but he’ll have some opportunities to make some interceptions now.”
Tillman noted that nobody knew much about him either until after his first opportunity.
“We have guys who are good players, they’re just young,” Tillman said. “I was like that last year, I was the young player and turned out OK.”
It’s a nice thought, but the Bears don’t appear to have any budding Tillmans on the roster. They do have a potential crisis.
“It’s not an ideal situation,” Smith said.
