The first play of the 2004 Chicago Bears season–after the kickoff–was a pass to David Terrell.
He committed offensive pass interference. It left the Bears in a first-and-19 hole with their season seven seconds old.
The last play of Sunday’s season opener–not counting Detroit’s quarterback taking a knee to run out the clock–was a pass to David Terrell.
It was intercepted.
Bears fans can tell themselves that if only Rex Grossman could have lobbed the ball a little farther with 28 seconds to play, Terrell could have made a game-winning catch. And then the final score would not have been Lions 20, Bears 16.
Terrell being Terrell, however, how do we know what might have happened if he had caught the ball?
He might have:
Taunted the two Lions who tried to cover him.
Taunted the other Lions, maybe by waving the ball in their faces.
Sung the fight song from his alma mater, the University of Michigan.
Pulled a blue Sharpie from his sock to sign the ball for a lucky fan.
Just as he couldn’t resist taunting the Lions after a catch late in the third quarter, Terrell might have caught a touchdown pass and then celebrated the Bears right back into hot water.
They could have been penalized on the kickoff, giving Detroit’s kicker a better shot at a field goal in a 23-20 game.
It is a sad day when a Bears fan needs to worry what might happen when a Bear does catch a ball.
The trade of Marty Booker, a class act whose idea of a TD celebration was to spin the ball like a top, left the Bears in the fix of depending on Terrell to be their No. 1 receiver.
Does he have the skills to fill this role? He does.
Terrell’s five catches for 126 yards should have qualified him as Soldier Field’s hero of the day.
But he is still pulling that same Terrell Owens stuff that he has in the past, showing off every time he does catch a ball, complaining to an official every time he does not.
Lovie Smith, who is new in town, acted as if what Terrell needs most is not a good talking-to but a warm Lovie hug.
When the coach was asked if he would have a word with Terrell about that 15-yard unsportsmanlike-conduct rap, Smith said no. On the contrary, he was “going to talk to David about all the good plays he did.”
And: “We’re sure not going to kick him off the field.”
George Halas or Mike Ditka would have kicked him to the moon.
One of these days, some Bears coach is going to realize what Dick Jauron and Dave Wannstedt never did, that because the Bears are not superior to most NFL teams, they need to be smarter.
They nearly got lucky Sunday against a bad team that also commits stupid penalties at the worst possible time.
But except for a five-year span during the 1980s, the Bears have never been talented enough to be able to get away with mental mistakes.
They can’t afford to draw 15-yard raps for rapping an opponent upside the head, the way Olin Kreutz did in the third quarter just as the Bears had crossed into Lions territory.
Yet at least Kreutz had the excuse of losing his temper. His cheap shot was uncalled for, sure, but Terrell’s was ridiculous. He drew a 15-yard penalty for being smug.
Grossman’s pass was good for 35 yards. It dug the Bears out of a deep hole–the line of scrimmage was their own 14–and they were behind at the time 13-7.
So what did Terrell do?
He felt so strongly the need to celebrate the play, a play that didn’t even cross midfield, that he flipped the ball to one of the Lions on the sideline.
Naturally, this was not his fault. Nothing is ever Terrell’s fault.
“I didn’t run into any of their players,” he said. “I just dropped the ball. I didn’t throw it at him.”
Those mean old officials, it was all their fault.
“They’re making bad calls,” Terrell said. “Ticky calls.”
If the 2004 Bears are to win some games–and Green Bay, Minnesota, Philadelphia and Washington are their next four opponents, so good luck with that–they need to know that Terrell can replace Booker, not only as a reliable pass catcher but as a reliable team leader.
So if the Lovie Smith era is going to get off to a good start, the coach does not need to tell Terrell how good he is. No one needs to tell Terrell how good he is.
Terrell and the Bears need to be told to play smart football, not good football. Lesson No. 1 being this: You celebrate victories, not pass completions.
