CHICAGO -- Get well, Kyle Orton. The Chicago Bears need you.
In case you missed it, the Bears are tied for first in the NFC North, which is good. But they're playing without their starting quarterback, which isn't. And that's why they need Orton back in the lineup.
No Orton means no chance, and, yeah, that's a harsh indictment of backup Rex Grossman, but let's face it -- after the first series in Sunday's 21-14 loss to unbeaten Tennessee he disappeared until it was too late.
OK, so the Bears were bottled up near their own end zone most of the time. Twice they started at their 2. Twice they started at their 10. Once at their 9. Another time at their 15. Then their 17.
I think you get the idea.
But that's the challenge for an offense and its quarterback, and Grossman and the Bears failed their latest exam. After scoring on their first drive -- a 14-play, 75-yard march that consumed 7:06 -- they went on an extended break, making just one first down in their next seven series.
"No excuses," said Grossman. "We all had plays we'd like to have back, and I can think of three or four I wish I had back. But they weren't made, and the result was we lost."
That's pretty much it in a nutshell. As usual, Grossman gave us a little Bad Rex and Good Rex, but mostly he gave us No Rex -- which is why the Bears lost. When they absolutely, positively needed him to make a throw, he didn't. Or couldn't. It doesn't matter which.
I think of a bomb down the middle of the field to Devin Hester, with the speedy wide receiver three steps ahead of cornerback Cortland Finnegan. It was the third quarter, and the Bears trailed by seven. A touchdown -- especially a 70-yard jolt -- was just what Chicago needed to climb back into this game.
Only Grossman's pass sailed to the inside and fell incomplete.
I don't know that Kyle Orton makes that throw, but I know Rex Grossman can ... and he didn't. And he missed an easy third-down throw to the sidelines, too, when Rashied Davis was wide open.
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| The Bears need Kyle Orton to heal fast. (US Presswire) |
"It's always tough when you have three-and-outs," said Grossman. "You need to be able to get some first downs to get to the rest of your game plan. Football boils down to opportunities, and we just didn't make them."
Make no mistake, this was Grossman's opportunity to make a name for himself -- and, like his teammates, he failed.
Two years ago he took the Bears to the Super Bowl. One year later he lost his job to Brian Griese and, later, Orton. But with Orton sidelined by a sprained ankle, he had a shot to convince the city of Chicago it was wrong about him and that he could be The Guy to take the Bears back to the playoffs.
We're still waiting for the closing argument.
Grossman fans can rejoice in a drive midway through the fourth quarter when he took the Bears from their 32 to a second score -- in fact, Grossman's score -- and made this a game. But he turned right around and missed the passes that counted one series later when the Bears had the ball first-and-10 at the Tennessee 41.
One was a third-down incompletion to Marty Booker. The other was a fourth-down incompletion to Hester. Only it didn't get to Hester. Finnegan batted the ball down, and the Bears were cooked.
"He went to the Super Bowl, so you don't want to take anything away from him as a quarterback," Finnegan said. "But he likes to gamble, and, as a defender, you feel like you can gamble as well.
"He's a good quarterback, but he gives the defense an opportunity to make plays. That's the way we felt coming into the game. Not a lot of quarterbacks take the chances he does, and, as a defense, we were able to take advantage of it."
Actually, Grossman didn't take that many chances. He just missed big passes, and that's my biggest beef with his performance. This was the perfect setting for him to redeem himself, and he screwed the pooch.
The Titans were without pass rusher Kyle Vanden Bosch. Backup Jacob Ford bowed out on the first series. Linebacker Keith Bulluck was sore. Cornerback Nick Harper got hurt. And the Titans couldn't run, held to minus-5 -- you heard me: minus-five -- yards in the first half, and 20 overall.
Yet Grossman and the Bears seemed paralyzed. In fact, their 14 points were the fewest for the team all year, which begs the question: When, exactly, can we expect Kyle Orton back?
"He's made a lot of progress, and he's able to do some things," said coach Lovie Smith "Hopefully, he is ready to go (next week)."
Hopefully is right. Because if he's not the Bears are in for another long, cold winter.
Look, Kyle Orton isn't the reason Chicago won five of its first eight, but he's one of them. He not only didn't make big mistakes, he made big plays -- and, brother, could the Bears have used them Sunday.
In Orton's last four games he has five touchdowns and no interceptions. The Bears won three of them and should have won the fourth, literally kicking away a last-second loss to Atlanta. They survived with Grossman in relief last week, but let's be honest: It was Detroit.
The litmus test was Tennessee, and now we know. And what we know is that Chicago needs Kyle Orton back in the lineup.
"We have to figure something out," said defensive end Alex Brown.
I think we just did.
