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Dan Peters
Sports Editor
Oak Park
Journal
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Chicago
Bears Battle the Saints, Must win to keep playoff chances alive.
By
Dan Peters
The Bears must win their next three games, and then they need not worry
what the
Vikings do. Their playoff fate rests in their own hands, not the
Vikings.
Game Notes: Heading
into the game Thursday..
Former College players face each other for the first time….Purdue
quarterbacks
Kyle Orton and Drew Brees. “I’ve had fun playing him in the past and
can’t wait
to do it this time,” said Orton, who won his only previous head-to-head
battle
with Brees in last year’s season finale at Soldier Field.
The quarterbacks were never teammates. Kyle Orton arrived at Purdue in
2001,
the same year that Brees was selected with the first pick in the second
round of
the draft by the San Diego Chargers.
Orton knew that he would be compared to Brees, who left Purdue as the
Big Ten’s
all-time leader in passing yards, touchdown passes, completions and
attempts.
“Every quarterback that goes through that place is going to be compared
to Drew,”
Orton said. “He was a great quarterback in college. He’s certainly an
outstanding
quarterback in the NFL and a good person to watch and try to model
yourself after.”
Had it not been for
Brees, Orton may not have enrolled at Purdue..
“I wanted to throw for all those yards and put up the numbers that he
did,”
said Orton, who finished his career ranked third on Purdue’s all-time
passing
list with 9,337 yards and 63 TDs. “No question he was a big influence
and a
reason why I went there.”
The two
Quarterbacks aren’t close Friends, but
they do keep in contact..
“It’s a good relationship,” Orton said. “It’s not like we talk on the
phone every
night, but whenever we get to see each other it’s always friendly and
good.
He’s fun to talk football with. “He’s an extremely smart player. I
remember my
freshman year, if I ever needed to find out how to run a play or a
certain look,
I’d just go and pop on [tape of] what he did and try to do that. It
seemed to
work for him.”
Saints rank second in the NFL in scoring with an average of 28.2 points
per game.
But that won’t change the way the Bears offense approaches the contest.
“We can’t worry about that,” said receiver Rashied Davis. “All we can
do is try
to do our best and go out and score as many points as we can. I have
faith in
our defense that they’ll be able to come out and make some plays and
give us
the ball. We just have to capitalize.”
The Saints are 1-5 on this road this season, but they’ve scored at
least 20
points in four of the five losses. "We’ve just got to go out and do our
job,”
said offensive coordinator Ron Turner. “We’ve got to go out and run our
offense
and execute and play with great efficiency Just like any other game
really,
we just have to go out and take care of our business.”
Saints linebacker Scott Fujita is tired of losing to the Bears at
Soldier Field….
“The first four or five years of my career, that was the one place I
really
wanted to play,” the seventh-year pro told The Times-Picayune. “I’ve
got a lot
of family in Chicago, [there's] a lot of history there. I was a huge
Bears fan,
always wanted to go and play. And now I’ve gotten kind of sick of it.”
The Bears beat the Saints 39-14 in the 2006 NFC Championship Game and
33-25 in
last year’s season finale.
“To lose two disappointing games the last couple of
years, the NFC Championship Game especially, you feel like they’ve got
something
coming,” Fujita said. "And you'd like to come out Thursday night and
play well,
because it's been disappointing. “And then last year's game, to go in
again,
and they really just kind of stuck it to us, when we thought that was
kind of a
revenge game for us. As much as I would say that I'm sick of going back
to Chicago,
I'm actually kind of looking forward to it this time around, because
I think we're due."
Tillman up for
prestigious award..
Charles Tillman has been named the Bears nominee for the 2008 NFL
Walter Payton
Man of the Year award. The prestigious award is the only NFL award that
recognizes a player’s off-the-field community service, support and
activities
as well as his playing excellence. The award has been in existence
since 1970 and honors NFL players who demonstrate
outstanding balance in their lives between civic and professional
responsibilities.
In 1999, the league renamed the Man of the Year award after Walter
Payton as a
tribute to his greatness both on and off the field.
All 32 finalists, one from each NFL team, will receive a $1,000
contribution
toward a charity of his choice, and the overall winner will receive
$25,000 to
donate to his selected charity.
The 2008 NFL Walter Payton Man of the Year winner will be announced
during
Commissioner Roger Goodell’s press conference prior to Super Bowl XLIII
in Tampa.
Tillman’s Cornerstone Foundation has been designated as the charity
that will
receive the $1,000 donation in his name.
The Injury Report..
Chicago Bears..
Wide receiver Marty Booker (ribs), fullback Jason McKie (quadriceps)
and running
back Garrett Wolfe (hamstring) did not participate in Wednesday’s
walkthrough
and were listed as doubtful on the injury report.
Tight end Desmond Clark (hamstring) and defensive tackle Tommie Harris
(knee)
both practiced without restrictions and were listed as probable.
The New Orleans
Saints..
Starting left tackle Jammal Brown has been ruled out of the game with
an ankle
injury. He will be replaced by third-year pro Zach Strief, who was a
four-year
starter at Northwestern. Running back Deuce McAllister was excused from
practice
Wednesday because of a death in the family. Defensive end Will Smith
returned to
the practice field after missing Tuesday’s workout for the birth of his
son.
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