If Bears coach Lovie Smith made a Christmas list this year, Sunday’s 26-21 comeback victory over the Detroit Lions at Ford Field came as close as he could have wished to supplying everything on it.
Forget about the way the Bears’ 13th win kept alive their chances of becoming only the fourth team since the NFL-AFL merger to go unbeaten in its conference. Focus on the way it served Smith’s and the Bears’ wants as much as needs.
For a game that was little more than a holiday inconvenience to many, it ultimately meant nothing and everything at the same time to a Bears team thinking Super Bowl.
Smith needed to know before January if his backup quarterback, Brian Griese, could lead the offense in a clutch situation if necessary. He found out with two Griese-led fourth-quarter scoring drives that set up field goals from Robbie Gould that gave the Bears the lead, then increased it.
Smith wanted to know if an injury-riddled defense falling apart in the secondary still had enough gumption to keep a team out of the end zone with the game on the line. Cornerback Devin Hester answered that, indirectly, by distracting Lions receiver Mike Williams just enough on the final play that the ball fell out of Williams’ hands.
Muhsin Muhammad would have made that catch. Bernard Berrian would have made that catch. An NFL wide receiver, especially one taken as high as Williams was in the first round of the 2004 draft, must be expected to make that catch. Williams didn’t.
To say Hester broke up the pass would be inaccurate. Hester said he thought he’d “kicked the ball away,” but replays showed Williams might as well have been wearing a red hat and boots for the gift he gave the Bears.
What Smith will not open Christmas morning is a quarterback controversy.
Rex Grossman detractors will cling to the 0.8 difference between Griese’s passer rating Sunday and Grossman’s, 81.2 to 80.4. But log off the message boards and stop holding for your favorite sports call-in show, Bears fans.
Nothing about the pecking order at the quarterback position changed or will change after Griese replaced Grossman with 10 minutes 7 seconds left in the fourth quarter and the Bears down 21-20 with the ball at the 7-yard line.
Griese did what the Bears paid him $5 million to do. He gave the team confidence it can win a game if Grossman ever gets hurt. The fact that he did so having to rally the offense was simply a Christmas bonus.
“I was a little bit surprised, but to be honest, I was happy it was that way,” Griese said about entering with a deficit. “Having a two-touchdown lead, it’s not as competitive, so I really enjoyed that part.”
Grossman had lobbied to stay in the game, but Smith made the right move in telling him no. Grossman’s comments about the decision to pull him–“I guess they had plans that they were going to get me out mid-third quarter . . . and it is what it is”–look more critical in print than they sounded coming out of his mouth.
Maybe Grossman and Griese never will share a secret handshake or exchange Christmas gifts off the field, but any simmering quarterback issue on the field has been doused over the last three games. Anyway, Grossman accomplished as much Sunday as Griese in completing 20 of 36 passes for 197 yards and a touchdown.
More significantly, Grossman has thrown 111 straight passes since the third quarter Dec. 3 against the Vikings without an interception.
“You have to ride the fine line of being smart about taking the throws down the field when they’re there [but] just check it down if you’re unsure if it’s gray at all,” Grossman said.
Despite that kind of headiness, Grossman thinking less and reacting more has made all the difference. Ten different Bears receivers caught passes against Detroit, and the open man is a lot less lonely than he used to be when Grossman was locking in too long on the primary target.
Now if Grossman could lend some of his rediscovered confidence to teammates in the secondary, the Bears may not look so lost back there. For the second straight week, one of the most beatable quarterbacks in the league, this time Jon Kitna, threw for three TDs and completed more than 50 percent of his passes.
Kitna came in with 21 interceptions, but the Bears appeared to be playing the man instead of the ball when it was in the air, a sign of a secondary that has lost some awareness.
Cornerback Charles Tillman sat out with back spasms, and he was missed as much as Nathan Vasher was a week earlier. But the problems go deeper than either cornerback, and the Bears are kidding themselves if they believe the return of both men to the field will eliminate the problems.
Safeties Danieal Manning and Chris Harris have ceased being factors, and when that happens in the Cover-2 defense, it spells trouble. Manning drops so quickly to gain a cushion that, as Kitna discovered, it opens a hole on the quick slant that corners needed help defending.
On the Lions’ first touchdown, a 23-yard pass to tight end Dan Campbell, it looked like strong-side linebacker Hunter Hillenmeyer was beaten. But what TV didn’t show was Manning cheating too much to the left to give Hillenmeyer the help he expected.
And the Hester experiment can end now. Put the Pro Bowl return man on offense, and keep him off the defensive side. The more the Bears use him as a cornerback on nickel downs, the more exposed Hester becomes.
Until everyone returns healthy, can veteran cornerback Dante Wesley be a worse option than Hester?
Every play on defense that keeps Hester off the field for a kickoff return, as it did twice against the Lions, is one more play the opponent can relax.
“We’re short-handed, No. 1,” Smith said in defending his secondary. “You take Charles Tillman out of the mix, you take Todd Johnson coming out and Nathan Vasher coming back after a long layoff, you’ll get yourself in that position a few times. I thought they finished strong, still.”
They will need to get stronger, or the holiday spirit will fizzle fast in Chicago.
———-
dhaugh@tribune.com
