It might have changed nothing Sunday, but the Bears believe it changed everything.
Thomas Jones took a short swing pass and turned it into a 77-yard touchdown on the Bears’ first offensive play of the game. But a pass-interference penalty called on David Terrell on the other side of the field when he decked Buccaneers linebacker Derrick Brooks negated the score and stuck a pin in the Bears’ balloon of momentum.
They never regained it.
A day later, the call still bugged coach Lovie Smith.
“When a play is going away and what happens is on the back side, if it doesn’t affect the play, to me it’s insignificant, and on that play, I thought that was the case,” Smith said. “The officials saw it differently. Brooks can make a lot of plays, but I don’t know if he could have made that play.”
Questionable calls
Two other officiating calls bothered Smith: a pass-interference penalty on R.W. McQuarters that wiped out an interception by McQuarters in the fourth quarter and a taunting penalty on safety Mike Green that knocked the Bears out of field-goal position after a turnover at the Tampa 24.
“R.W. was in decent position and made contact at about 5 yards and the receiver probably slipped by himself more than [from] R.W. making contact with him,” Smith said.
As for the taunting penalty, “We were told that two guys celebrated on the field, [but] it’s not on the copy we have,” Smith said. He was looking for a TV copy of the game Monday night to investigate further. …
Mental mistakes hurt
Six games into the season, Smith vowed not to tolerate the mental mistakes that have plagued the Bears.
“If another team beats us and we’ve played our best game, you have to live with that, but I don’t think that’s the case right now,” Smith said. “We’re beating ourselves a little bit with some of the mental things we’re doing wrong.”
Extra points
The Bears claimed tight end John Owens off waivers from Detroit and waived defensive end Alain Kashama to make room for the 6-foot-3-inch, 270-pound Owens, a Notre Dame product. That gives the Bears four tight ends on the 53-man roster. … Backup fullback Jason McKie felt the pain in his right knee immediately Sunday when Tampa Bay’s Keith Burns hit him on the kickoff return to open the second half. Instinctively, McKie grabbed for his knee and let go of the football–and the Bucs’ Torrie Cox recovered. “I thought I broke my leg, I knew it was bad,” McKie said. “I didn’t think about the ball, and that’s how it came out.” McKie suffered a sprained medial collateral ligament that will not require surgery, and he expects to miss two to four weeks. … Smith said Jones (quadriceps) should be fine but was less certain about guard Mike Gandy (hamstring). Gandy missed all but three plays. … Linebacker Hunter Hillenmeyer already knows enough about the 1-5 San Francisco 49ers to feel confident. “Their offense isn’t great, and they’re a team we should beat,” Hillenmeyer said. “We need to go in and play well on offense and defense.”
