It was a big victory for the Browns and a bigger loss for the Bears.
The Bears and second-year coach Lovie Smith are supposed to be a year ahead of the Browns and rookie coach Romeo Crennel. The 20-10 loss Sunday made it look like they are at least a year behind. Blame rookies if you like. Blame turnovers. Blame penalties. You can even blame quarterback Trent Dilfer’s experience if that makes you feel better.
But don’t forget to blame the Bears for playing strictly not to lose. They thought they could win a 10-6 game. They thought running and defense and a field goal could win. They thought they could win without using a quarterback at all.
The Browns’ defense didn’t even have to try to stop Thomas Jones and put the ball in rookie Kyle Orton’s hands. The Bears took the ball out of Orton’s hands before the game started.
“That had to be their game plan,” Browns safety Brian Russell said. “The whole game the secondary was saying, `All this running, the play-action is coming, the play-action is coming.’ So we were trying to be on top of that.”
The Browns weren’t trying to let Jones run for 137 yards.
“He’s an incredible back,” Russell said.
Still, Orton didn’t test the Browns downfield and there was little success on play-action passes. Strong safety Chris Crocker was blitzing up the middle “a lot” and ended up with nine tackles, a sack, two forced fumbles and a fumble recovery.
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“You hate to turn a rookie quarterback’s back to a defense on play-action, especially when we’re coming up the middle,” Crocker said.
Russell said the Bears ran a few deep routes but Orton made good decisions in checking down to short receivers.
“He would have been forcing the ball,” Russell said.
Crocker’s hit on Jones’ knee knocked him out midway through the final quarter.
“That’s big,” Crocker said. “He’s the focal point of their offense. He’s everything to them, especially with [Rex] Grossman being out. You can’t put the onus on a rookie quarterback.”
The Browns expected the Bears to cut off Orton’s arm after his five interceptions against Cincinnati two weeks ago.
“We saw the Cincinnati film. We saw a few mistakes there,” Russell said.
The Browns also expected the Bears’ favorite defensive coverage, cover 2, when Dilfer hit the go-ahead touchdown pass with 3:02 to play.
With two early interceptions, Dilfer had resembled the quarterback the Tampa Bay Buccaneers gave up on in 2000. Bears general manager Jerry Angelo was in Tampa then and when he was looking for veteran quarterbacks to come to Chicago, he never seriously considered Dilfer, whom the Baltimore Ravens also jettisoned after winning the 2001 Super Bowl with him.
As Dilfer said Sunday, “I knew I wasn’t playing good. Lots of times, I haven’t played good.”
But from the Bears’ 33, he saw Antonio Bryant get a step on rookie safety Chris Harris after cornerback Charles Tillman passed him off.
“I thought to myself, `We at least have a chance,'” Dilfer said. “Dan Marino told me years ago there’s no defense for a perfect throw. I just kept telling myself, `Make a perfect throw, make a perfect throw.’ Theoretically, they had him doubled.”
Half a minute later, he threw the clinching touchdown to Bryant after Orton’s fumble.
“We were playing for three,” Dilfer said. “As soon as Mike Brown jumped (fullback) Terrelle Smith in the flat, I knew Bryant would be man-to-man (with Tillman). Their defense has been susceptible this year in man coverage.”
Said Bryant: “I knew they could not play us man-to-man.”
They were Dilfer’s 100th and 101st touchdown passes in his 100th game. It was Crennel’s first home victory and the Browns’ first at home in seven games. They aren’t a very good team and they know it.
“We made two plays all day,” Dilfer said. “Our offense never clicked. I’m not going to lie to you. It was ugly out there.”
Said Crennel: “Things looked a little bleak out there on offense. In the second half, it looked a little bleak on defense, also.”
That was the winning coach.
“There were throws I’m sure Trent would like to have back,” Crennel said. “Basically, he was inaccurate. If a guy is open and the quarterback’s not getting hit, that’s not the defense. Hopefully, we can win some more games. We know we have work to do. We’ll try to get better.”
He sounded apologetic.
Where does that leave the Bears? Still treading water, uncertain, tentative, scared of mistakes, worried about their youth, trying to win field-goal games while wondering who their kicker will be next week.
They don’t trust themselves yet and they have given themselves no reason to do so.
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