For a brief moment, Nathan Vasher’s body shut down.
He couldn’t wiggle his hips. He couldn’t shrug his shoulders. He couldn’t extend his neck to see the replay on the video screen.
The Bears cornerback had enough trouble comprehending what had happened, let alone trying to diagnose it. The last thing Vasher remembered was lining up outside, then seeing Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo sprint from the pocket in the Week 3 game. He ran to try to stop him.
“I just overextended,” Vasher recalled. “I was bursting out in the Cover-2, something I’ve done 1,000 times. But what happened at that moment … you just never know what that is.”
It was a partial tear of a groin muscle, an injury that knocked Vasher out of the Cowboys game with 6 minutes 24 seconds left in the third quarter. He hasn’t played since.
But as the Bears move into the second half of the season, Vasher continues to inch closer to returning.
“Feeling pretty good,” Vasher said after Monday’s practice. “[I haven’t gotten] the green light quite yet. We still have a whole week to prepare, but feeling pretty good.”
It’s too early to say whether Vasher will return for Sunday’s game at Oakland, but the backpedaling drills he completed on a side field Monday gave reason for optimism.
“He’s getting better,” coach Lovie Smith said. “We’ll be excited once we do get him back — he’s a good football player. But we’re going to go with the guys who are ready. And if he’s not ready to go, we feel good about Trumaine McBride.”
With due respect to the rookie McBride, who said Monday he would happily step aside when Vasher returns, the Bears would feel better with Vasher back. A defense once known for making big plays has sorely missed one of its biggest playmakers.
Fellow cornerback Charles Tillman said there’s no question the Bears’ takeaway numbers would be better with Vasher, who has 16 career interceptions.
“Well, [the cornerbacks] don’t have any interceptions, so I’ll say we’re definitely missing ‘the Interceptor,'” Tillman said.
There’s another reason Tillman feels empty without Vasher. The two have developed a bond on the field as the team’s top cornerbacks, and not because they both signed lucrative contracts before the season.
“Trumaine has done a good job holding down the right side of the field,” Tillman said. “But if you’ve [played] with a guy, there’s nothing like chemistry. And Nate and I, we have the chemistry. We play well together.
“Going against teams, we’ll go back to the sideline and he’ll assess things. We’ll have a quick two-minute meeting on the opposing receivers. We have good communication.”
Vasher is eager to get back on the field, but he won’t rush it. He has spent long hours rehabbing, arriving at Halas Hall before 7 a.m. every day for a trip to the hot tub, followed by stretching. It took Vasher weeks to start running again.
“Basically, you’re just trying to do range-of-motion things to let those muscles continue to fire,” he said. “It’s not a lot of weightlifting or anything like that. Just a lot of small things, a lot of ice, and a lot of rest.”
Vasher believes he finally started to show progress two weeks ago, when he warmed up before the Eagles game. He was listed as questionable for the last game against the Lions but didn’t play.
“That’s a whole lot different than being out on the field and backpedaling, turning and running, sprinting full-speed to cover receivers,” he said. “That’s what you ultimately want to get back.”
Vasher said he’s not worried about his conditioning, and he doesn’t expect to make a cameo appearance once he gets the green light.
“I can get my couple of plays in during practice,” he said. “Whenever I get out there for the game, I’m ready to go, full-tilt.”
Extra points
Both Devin Hester and Vasher were fully aware that the Chargers’ Antonio Cromartie returned a missed field goal 109 yards for a touchdown against the Vikings on Sunday, setting an NFL record. Vasher established the previous mark with a 108-yard return against the 49ers only to have it equaled by Hester against the Giants last season.
“That’s one thing that I didn’t miss,” Hester said of Cromartie’s return. “Just watching that and seeing that … records are meant to be broken.” …
Smith was asked how much more challenging it will be to compete in the NFC North with the Packers, Lions and Vikings winning convincingly Sunday.
“Did most of the other [division] teams win convincingly? Ah, I wasn’t watching a lot of football,” Smith joked.
It’s no laughing matter that the 3-5 Bears are four games behind the North-leading Packers.
“Even if everybody lost this week, it still wouldn’t change what we have to do,”‘ defensive end Alex Brown said. “We still have to win.”
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vxmcclure@tribune.com
