Nobody from Canton will call Halas Hall on Monday asking the Bears to go through Kyle Orton’s laundry and find his bloody sock.
That doesn’t mean the sock can’t symbolize something on a day largely lacking significance. It wrapped Orton’s left calf Sunday after the Bears’ 23-10 victory over the Jacksonville Jaguars, not that he noticed.
“It’s a football game — that’s how it goes,” Orton said nonchalantly.
He couldn’t remember how or when the sock had been bloodied and sounded as if he would need DNA testing to determine if it was even his blood.
“I think it’s mine, yes,” he said.
Confidence and beards, Orton can grow. But forget about legends.
Apparently, the Bears don’t air their dirty laundry.
“I told him he was Curt Schilling,” kidded tight end Greg Olsen, whose flair for drama was appreciated.
Schilling’s blood-stained sock from his legendary pitching performance in Game 2 of the 2004 World Series sits in the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y. Orton’s probably was in the spin cycle before he left Soldier Field.
But Orton didn’t need to encase his sock in glass to frame what it stood for on this day: When the Bears’ ace is oblivious to adversity of any kind, good things happen.
Against the Jaguars, Orton was a different quarterback from the guy who had been favoring his sprained right ankle since he injured it Nov. 2 against Detroit.
The quarterback who completed less than 50 percent of his passes in the three games after the injury looked worried about his ankle and the rush. He lacked mobility and struggled as the Bears went 1-2.
The quarterback who completed 20 of 34 passes for 219 yards, two TDs and one interception on a frigid day against the Jaguars looked familiar.
He performed like a guy who realized that a strong showing in the final four games will lock up a long-term future in Chicago with a new contract.
He hit receivers in stride, as he did with Devin Hester on a 31-yard strike across the middle at the end of the first half and Olsen on a 22-yard TD pass four plays later.
He checked into big plays, as when he noticed Hester was in man coverage and called for a fade route that turned into a 30-yard gain. He spread the ball around to six receivers and would have had at least four more completions if not for a case of the drops that some Bears can’t shake.
Other than the one interception by a linebacker he never saw, Orton made safe, smart decisions that typified his first half of the season.
The sighs of relief from the coaching staff were nearly as strong as the winds that made it feel like the temperature was in single digits.
“I don’t know if I’d say sense of relief,” offensive coordinator Ron Turner said. “We all have a lot of confidence in Kyle. We knew he was going to play well.”
Really?
What Turner can’t say is that he hoped so but couldn’t be sure until Orton had proved he could play on an iffy ankle that’s limiting him.
Conspiracy theorists might wonder if the Bears smeared fake blood on Orton’s sock to deflect attention from the black tape that practically served as a soft cast around his ankle. It reinforced the ankle and the idea that the better Orton feels, the firmer the footing on the Bears’ short- and long-term futures.
“It’s going to be a yearlong battle,” Orton said of his injured ankle. “Just keep on treating it and get it ready for Thursday.”
That’s when the Saints come from the same Southern climes from which the Jaguars came. There is no getting around the weather as an ally in this unlikely playoff push. In visits here the last two years, the Saints have looked as equipped for winter elements as a kid with a windbreaker.
“We love it, you know,” Orton said of the weather. “If it’s going to be like that, you might as well embrace it.”
These Bears are hard to hug.
They did little to convince skeptics they can win three more games, as they likely will need to do to have a chance at the NFC North title. The Vikings beat the Lions and own all tiebreakers with the Bears. If they go 1-2, the Bears have to finish 3-0.
Forget the Vikings’ schedule. Did the Bears’ win make you think they could hold up their end?
On defense they sacked David Garrard three times and held Jacksonville to 278 total yards — but they should have, given how injuries had depleted the Jaguars’ offensive line.
Frostbite was a bigger threat than their offense.
On offense, the running game started well, but Matt Forte gained only 17 yards on 10 carries in the second half after getting 52 on 11 in the first half.
The most clutch performance came from the kicking game, which got three field goals from Robbie Gould and four punts inside the 20 from Brad Maynard.
But how can you get too excited about special teams when Hester fumbled two punts and continues to make Bears coaches squirm more than their opponents when he’s deep?
You can’t. You can take away the image of a bloody sock and the satisfaction of seeing the franchise’s 700th victory, but you can’t take much more.
This was a day for survival, not excitement.
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dahaugh@tribune.com
