While continuing to praise Kyle Orton’s won-lost record and leadership, Lovie Smith on Monday challenged him to improve for the second straight day in as publicly direct a manner as the Bears’ coach uses.
“We need to improve our quarterback play,” Smith said at his Halas Hall news conference. “We need to improve our passing game as a whole. Anyone involved in the passing game needs to pick it up a bit in order for us to continue this path to win our division and get in the playoffs.”
Asked directly if he envisions any change at the position based on performance over the regular season’s final four games, Smith said:
“Every position we have is based on performance. If you’re the starter, you have to perform at a certain level to continue to play.”
Both Smith and General Manager Jerry Angelo also emphasized that Orton remains the starter.
In Sunday’s 19-7 victory over Green Bay, Orton completed 6-of-17 passes for 68 yards and an interception.
It’s the second time this season he has thrown for fewer than 100 yards, and his 23.7 passer rating was better than only a 14.7 rating in Orton’s five-interception debacle Sept. 25 against Cincinnati.
Rex Grossman, the starter before fracturing his ankle in an Aug. 12 exhibition game at St. Louis, has dressed as the emergency third quarterback for the last two games. Both Grossman and the coaching staff have noted improvement in his mobility each week of practice and are hopeful he can be the No. 2 quarterback against Pittsburgh on Sunday.
“[Grossman] definitely will improve the quarterback position once he’s 100 percent healthy,” Smith said. “We think this week he’ll get closer to that, hopefully. The plan eventually is to get Rex to the second position. We’ll just see where he is this week.”
The Bears are riding an eight-game winning streak for the first time in 20 years based on the league’s top-ranked defense, a ground game that ranks fifth with 133.1 rushing yards per game and game management by Orton that has offered heady play in lieu of highlights.
For a franchise that considers stability at the position a foreign concept, Orton has at least provided that. Not since Erik Kramer in 1995 has a Bears quarterback started all 16 games. The last three seasons have featured three different starters twice and four last season.
Though he agrees that the passing game must improve, Orton insists he isn’t frustrated or worried about his statistics. The rookie has thrown for more than 150 yards just once.
Only three of Orton’s 13 interceptions have come in Bears territory, and no opponent has scored off an Orton interception since Cincinnati.
“I’ve never looked at stats,” Orton said. “That’s pretty much unimportant. I look at our win-loss record. And right now it’s doing pretty good, I think.”
– – –
Sinking ratings
Kyle Orton ranks last among all NFL starting QBs when it comes to the all-knowing
QB rating, although he also has faced six top-11 defenses and will face another this Sunday in Pittsburgh. Here’s a look at the bottom five in passer ratings.
RankName, team TDs INTs Rating Team’s record
28 Josh McCown, ARI 6 8 69.1 4-8
29 Aaron Brooks, NOR 12 17 69.0 3-9
30 Gus Frerotte, MIA 12 11 67.5 5-7
31 Joey Harrington, DET 8 11 66.5 4-8
32 Kyle Orton QB, BEARS 9 13 60.2 9-3
BEARD-O-METER
Does Kyle make the cut?
Each win thrusts more attention on the Bears–and the newly formed beard of their rookie quarterback. Kyle Orton’s beard has spawned a blog (shavekyleorton.blogspot.com) and an online petition (petitiononline.com/nckbeard/) to shave the thing off. But do you really want to mess with the winning streak?
Here’s where the beard ranks so far:
CLEAN SHAVE: Pee-wee Herman
STUBBLE: Kevin Federline
NECK BEARD: George Clooney in “Syriana”
FULL THROTTLE: Santa Claus
HAIR SCARE: Squatch from the Seattle Sonics
