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Dan Peters
Sports Editor
Oak Park
Journal
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Plenty of Play
Action, but the numbers weren't playing right. Each team had the
same numbers but Miami's were arranged better....31-13.
©
Oak Park Journal photo by Dan Peters
Dolphins
Spoil The Bears “Perfect” Season again, with dominating 31-13 Victory
by Dan Peters
Heading into Sunday’s game against the
Dolphins, The Chicago Bears had a
margin of Victory of 21.7 points & were
7-0 for the first time since the Super Bowl
year of 1985 & Only the fourth time in franchise
history.
13-0 in 1934
11-0
in 1942
12-0
in 1985
Until today.
The Dolphins won the last meeting between
the two teams to snap a 2-game win
streak by the Bears. Chicago has won two
of the last three games with the Dolphins &
three of the last five dating back to 1988. The Bears lost to Miami in
2002 at Pro Player Stadium.
The last time the Miami Dolphins faced a
7-0 team was, yes you guessed it, the 1985 Bears. Chicago entered
the game 12-0. Miami dominated that game, similar to
today’s game beating the Bears 38-24. The only loss of the
season for the Bears. Deja Vu? Time
will tell.
Another near perfect day for football, Sunny with expected temperatures
in the mid to upper 50’s with very little wind again this week.
“This isn’t exactly the way we planned today’s outing,” said
coach Lovie Smith “I have to give Miami a lot of credit. They
played a lot better than we did today. Any time
you have that many turnovers,
it’s hard to win the football game. It’s tough to overcome that.”
Rex Grossman threw three interceptions, one of which defensive end
Jason Taylor returned 20 yards for a touchdown, and lost a fumble on a
sack as the Bears had their 10-game home winning streak snapped. Not
all of his interceptions were his fault. His quarterback rating today
was 36.8 passer rating, a far cry from his previous
seven games.
“Jason Taylor is a beast. He’s a great, great player, and he made a lot
of plays. Hopefully we can just learn from that and improve and get
better. Obviously he’s a defensive end and (I) just kind of dropped and
I didn’t really see him and (wasn’t) expecting him to be there,”
Grossman said. “It seems simple that he’s right there, don’t throw him
the ball. But I’m looking downfield and he’s such a big guy who jumped
up and got it. It was a great play by him."
Grossman, the NFC Offensive Player of the Month for September, entered
Sunday’s game having thrown 11 TD passes and no interceptions in four
contests at home this season in leading the
Bears to wins by margins of 27, 31, 33 and 31 points. “We didn’t
take advantage of some opportunities and didn’t play real well,” said
Grossman, who completed just 18 of 42 passes for 210 yards. “The
Dolphins played extremely well. It was a combination of them playing
really well and us playing not up to our capability. In this league,
everyone is good, so if you make mistakes like that, bad things are
going to happen.”
Despite losing their first game of the season, the Bears (7-1) still
have a three-game lead in the NFC North over the Minnesota Vikings
(4-4). The Vikings lost 9-3 to the 49ers in San Francisco on Sunday.
Former Bear
makes his presence known early…
Marty Booker was traded two seasons ago for Adewale Ogunleye
tossed the ball to a young fan in the first row and Blew kisses to the
Soldier Field crowd as he jogged off the field.
It was only the second time that the Bears have trailed at home this
season and the first time since Oct. 31 when Seattle took a 3-0 lead
before Chicago rallied for a 37-6 victory.
The Bears entered Sunday’s game with a takeaway-giveaway ratio
of 15-2 in their four home contests before matching a season high set
Oct. 16 in Arizona with six turnovers. Chicago rallied to win that game
in dramatic fashion with two touchdowns on defense and one on special
teams.
“It’s hard to win when you have that many turnovers,” said Bears wide
receiver Mushin Muhammad. “We’ll go back to work and we’ll
correct those things and try not to make those mistakes and give
ourselves a fighting chance to win games. You can’t do that in this
game and expect to win. Miracles only come once in a while.”
The Bears suffered key injuries early and late in Sunday’s loss.
Wide receiver Bernard Berrian hurt his ribs while making a 10-yard
reception on Chicago’s first play from scrimmage and did not return. He
was replaced by Jusrin Gage who had two receptions for 51 yards.
All-Pro middle linebacker Brian Urlacher then hurt his foot while
making the tackle on Ronnie Brown’s 1-yard run on third-and-goal from
the 3 with 1:13 left in the game. Asked if Urlacher’s injury could be
serious, Smith said: “I hope not. We’ll evaluate him and go from there.”
The Bears defense allowed three touchdowns Sunday after permitting four
in 40 quarters during the team's 10-game home winning streak.
The 31 points were the most that Chicago has given up at Soldier Field
since a 31-14 loss to the Packers in the 2004 season finale.
“I just saw guys trying to get to where they needed to be way too
soon,” said defensive coordinator Ron Rivera “If you’re going to get
over, you’ve got to go through your gap first and guys were just trying
to make plays and because of that they gashed us a couple of times.”
Robbie Gould made a pair of 38-yard field goals, tying Kevin Butler’s
franchise record of 24 straight field goals. Gould's first kick gave
the Bears a 3-0 lead late in the first quarter and his second
drew Chicago to within 21-13 late in the third period.
The closest the Bears got came when Grossman’s 30-yard TD pass to
Muhammad made it 14-10 with 1:57 left in the first half.
The Bears committed their fourth turnover on the first play of the
third quarter as safety Yeremiah Bell forced Gage to fumble after a
17-yard reception. Cornerback Andre Goodman returned the loose ball 33
yards to the Chicago 12, setting up Harrington’s 6-yard TD pass to
Welker that gave the Dolphins a 21-10 lead.
Safety Renaldo Hill later picked off a Grossman pass and returned it 12
yards to the Chicago 24. Harrington’s 24-yard TD pass to Chris Chambers
on the next play then increased Miami's lead to 28-13 with 10:00
remaining in the fourth quarter. Olindo Mare provided the game’s final
points with a 20-yard field goal with 1:09 to play.
The Bears will look to rebound from their first defeat next Sunday when
they begin a difficult stretch of three consecutive road games against
the New York Giants (6-2), who’ve won five straight since their bye
week.
“We know what kind of football they’ve been playing the last few
weeks,” said tight end Desmond Clark “It’ll be a big one. We’re looking
forward to it. We’ve got to get this bad taste out of our mouths.”
The best defense the Bears had today was Staley the mascot attacking
Miami’s Dolphin on the Bears sideline. He looked like a fish out of
water, like the Bears do today. At least the fans had some fun and
entertainment today.
Bears/Miami connections…
Bears linebacker Brendon Ayanbadejo spent two
seasons with Miami from 2003-2004 Playing in all 16 regular
series games each season. Ayanbadejo was traded to
the Bears For tight end John Owens and a conditional draft pick
on 8/28/05.
Defensive End Adewale Ogunleye played four seasons in Miami
after joining the team in 2000 as an undrafted free agent. After
spending his rookie season on the reservation/non-Football injury list,
Ogunleye spent the next 3-seasons with the
Dolphins recording
25 sacks, including an AFC best 15 sacks during a Pro Bowl Season in
2003. he was traded to the Bears for Marty Booker, who ranked 5th in
Bears history with 315 catches, 6th with 3684 receiving yards and
tied for 8th with 23 touchdown catches. He owns the record for
receptions in a single season with 100 in 2001.
It’s just not the Bears day today, and now they have to go on a long
three game road swing out East. It won’t get any easier for them with
two of the three games against the AFC East Jets and Patriots.
Next up, The New York Giants next Sunday Night. The Giants are 6-2
©
Oak Park Journal photo by Dan Peters
Miami
quarterback Harrington looked sharp today..or was it the Bear's
lack of pressure?
©
Oak Park Journal photo by Dan Peters
Robbie Gould
Ties Kevin Butlers Field Gaol record today..one of few bright spots
today
© Oak Park Journal photo by Dan Peters
Rex Grossman
was under pressure all day Sunday.
©
Oak Park Journal photo by Dan Peters
© Oak Park Journal photo
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