This city is where NFL immortals live forever and where the 2005 edition of “Monday Night Football” began with the annual Hall of Fame Game.
That’s a lot of greatness and tradition for a Bears franchise that is familiar with those concepts, even if it hasn’t mastered them of late.
Their exhibition opener at Fawcett Stadium offered a mixed bag of revival and rawness, ending with a 27-24 victory over Miami preserved by Jerrell Pippens’ interception of a Brock Berlin pass in the end zone with 51 seconds remaining.
Reserve fullback Zack Abron had provided the winning points with a 4-yard touchdown run with 1:50 to play, capping an impressive drive in an impressive debut by rookies Kyle Orton and Mark Bradley and disappointing the pro-Dolphins crowd of 22,292 in town to cheer Hall of Fame inductee Dan Marino.
But it was Rex Grossman’s return to the field that eclipsed all story lines for Bears fans, even Miami running back Ricky Williams’ return to the NFL after a one-year retirement.
Grossman, in his first action since tearing the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee last Sept. 26, didn’t play like Marino. But he did direct one scoring drive in four possessions with the first-string offense and finished 5-for-12 for 77 yards and a passer rating of 63.5.
Those numbers included a nifty 34-yard connection with free-agent signee Muhsin Muhammad that set up Thomas Jones’ 1-yard scoring plunge with 8:14 left in the first quarter, giving the Bears a 7-0 lead.
“My knee feels great and I didn’t feel anything at all because our offensive line did a great job and I didn’t get touched that much,” Grossman said. “I had a little bit of the butterflies, but one of my goals was not to get antsy in the pocket. I thought I did that.”
Offensive coordinator Ron Turner’s starting unit got off to an inauspicious start when it went three-and-out on the game’s opening possession.
But on the next drive, Bernard Berrian made a leaping catch that turned a third-down play into a 23-yard gain. Back-to-back Miami penalties, including a pass-interference flag on cornerback Sam Madison that kept the drive alive, led to Grossman finding Muhammad for a 34-yard gain to the Miami 1.
Muhammad, who later showed more athleticism by breaking up a Travares Tillman near-interception on a Grossman underthrow, froze Miami cornerback Reggie Howard with a hesitation move.
“It was a go route, but I stuttered a little bit and took off,” Muhammad said. “I thought I scored on it.”
Between Jones’ 47 yards on 10 carries, Muhammad’s sparkling debut and Grossman exiting with his health intact, optimism abounded on offense.
“I feel real comfortable in the system,” Grossman said. “We made mistakes, but we’ve got a lot to build on.”
The No. 1 defense surrendered just three points on five Miami possessions and featured sacks by Adewale Ogunleye and Brian Urlacher, the latter knocking quarterback A.J. Feeley out on the next-to-last snap of the first quarter.
Forced to step up in the pocket by pressure from Alex Brown, Feeley was buried by Urlacher and injured his left gluteus muscle. But the Bears’ defense missed a chance for an even bigger play when linebacker Lance Briggs whiffed on a sack attempt that would’ve dropped backup quarterback Gus Frerotte for a safety.
Frerotte instead completed a 44-yard pass to Chris Chambers despite pass interference by Nathan Vasher. With Jerry Azumah out following arthroscopic hip surgery, Vasher committed two pass-interference penalties, one of which was declined.
The second wasn’t, costing the Bears 23 yards on a Frerotte attempt to Chambers that led to Olindo Mare’s 33-yard field goal.
“We played well against the run and did well in the eight-man front, but we have to get takeaways,” Urlacher said.
Coach Lovie Smith said the second-string defense must improve after it surrendered a 12-play, 80-yard drive on its first appearance and another touchdown on Miami’s opening drive of the third quarter, which was aided by defensive penalties on Bobby Gray and Pippens.
Miami went up 24-13 when linebacker Jason Glenn intercepted a badly throw ball by Orton and returned it 26 yards with 10:30 remaining.
But Orton looked impressive, connecting with Carl Ford on a 43-yard scoring bomb with 7:23 left and finishing 7-for-11 for 175 yards. That included back-to-back completions of 43 and 26 yards to Bradley.
The rookie wideout finished with five catches for a Hall of Fame Game-record 131 yards, posting one-half the total of 100-yard receiving games the Bears had all last season.
“It’s hard to stop a train once it gets going,” Bradley said.
The Bears hope that continues to ring true.
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kcjohnson@tribune.com
