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Dan Peters
Sports Editor
Suburban
Journals of Chicago
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Bear's practice
looked good......
©
Suburban Journals of Chicago photo by Dan Peters
Rashied Davis
Shines in third straight loss in pre-season.
by Dan Peters
Not much positive could be said about the Bears third straight loss
this preseason, except maybe the good performance by Kyle Orton and
Rashied Davis.
The Bears defense, usually the string point of the team, let
San Francisco move down the field at will most of the night.
Rex Grossman watches Kyle Orton
pass in practice, as he would during
the game.
©
Suburban Journals of Chicago photo by Dan Peters
This
night, even in a loss, Lovie Smith showed us why he chose Kyle Orton
over Grossman. Smith wasted no time praising his quarterback. “Very
pleased. We’ve run the ball fairly well. Kyle has done a great job
managing the offense and he’s making the throws he has to.”
Desmond Clark
Orton
used the veteran receiver wisely during his first half
performance, keeping the Bears close during the early stages of the
game. His favorite target, Desmond Clark was sidelined from an injury
he sustained in last week’s loss at Seattle.
After becoming a new dad last week, Davis scored one touchdown pass for
his wife, Dianna, and another for their newborn daughter, Alanna
“He’s had an outstanding training camp and just became a new dad, so a
lot of good things are happening in his life,” said Coach Lovie Smith.
“It’s hard for a guy to be perfect. But he made the plays. We need to
see that. It’s good to see a guy come up big like that.”
Davis scored touchdown passes of 21 and 7 yards in the first half,
Davis moved himself to the top depth chart at receiver. The former
Arena Football League star was not worried on how the performance would
help him.
Davis rests a moment during a good
work out.
“I’m not worried about that,” Davis said. “I do my job. I do it to the
best of my ability and try to win and just go out and make plays. It’s
great to go out and make plays.”
He nearly scored a third touchdown, but Orton’s pass was dropped in the
end zone on third-and-three from the San Francisco 6 late in the first
half.
“I shouldn’t have stopped,” Davis said. “I should have kept going. Kyle
expected me to keep going and I stopped. He put the ball a little bit
out in front of me. It was still a good pass. I should have caught
it.” It’s that attitude that has endeared the wide receiver to
his teammates.
“Rashied’s a great receiver and he’s getting better every week,” Orton
said. “He cares about it and he works hard. He puts the
time and effort in, and he’s seeing the benefits now. He can run some
great routes and he’s always in the right spot and he catches the ball.”
The Bright Spots. Dusty Dvoracek made a positive impression in his
preseason debut. Entering the game on San Francisco’s second
possession, Dvoracek forced the 49ers to settle for a field goal after
stuffing Frank Gore for no gain on first-and-goal from the 1 and
sacking J.T. O’Sullivan for a four-yard loss on third-and-goal from the
2.
“I felt good,” said Dvoracek, who missed the first two preseason games
while recovering from a calf injury he sustained before training camp.
“It was nice to get out there with the guys and run around. I have fun
when I’m out there. I love playing football.
“I hadn’t had a whole lot of practice, so I thought I might be a little
rusty. But after a couple plays it just kind of came right back to me,
kind of like riding a bike.”
Another player who made and impression was Kevin Jones. The former
Detroit Lion made an impact on his first play in a Bears uniform,
gaining 34 yards on the first snap of the second half. The veteran
running back made a nice move to elude a defender at the line of
scrimmage and then broke a tackle in the secondary.
“I was happy to break out in the open and make a few cuts,” Jones said.
“Hopefully the fans enjoyed it. I’m just excited to be a part of the
team moving forward.”
Jones, who rushed for 1,133 yards as a Detroit Lions rookie in 2004,
returned to action just eight months after tearing his ACL in the
second-to-last game last season. He finished the game with 30 yards on
three carries after gaining one yard before being dropped for a
five-yard loss.
“There was a little pressure I put on myself just to be back by this
time,” he said. “I’ve been working hard and it just feels good that the
work is paying off. I had a lot of help getting here, though, so I just
thank the people who helped me.”
The injuries mount. Linebacker Rod Wilson suffered a broken right
forearm while trying to tackle 49ers running back Thomas Clayton in the
second half. The Bears training staff put an inflatable cast on
Wilson’s arm and carted him to the locker room.
Lovie Smith tells it like it
is........
Smith summed it up in a nutshell. “Everything we saw last week: playing
hard and making plays. We haven’t done any of that tonight.”
The Bears have one more chance to get it right next week when they
travel to Cleveland. Then the games count.
© Oak Park Journal photo
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