Mark Anderson moves slowly, not at all like a 23-year-old who has established a Bears rookie record with 10 sacks but like a veteran who has just played his 14th game of the season and is feeling every second of it.
In the wake of Tommie Harris’ season-ending injury and Tank Johnson’s absence, Anderson has a busy Sunday. He normally backs up Alex Brown at right defensive end and plays only on passing downs, but he is rotated liberally and plays more than he had in any other game this season.
For all his effort, however, Anderson’s name does not even appear on the postgame defensive statistics. “Average. I was average,” he says softly. “I could have been much better.”
He adjusts his ice bag. It has been a long week.
Tank
Anderson isn’t eager to be interviewed Friday or Saturday, and one explanation is that he simply wants to avoid questions about his absent defensive linemate, who in a two-day span was arrested on gun charges and saw his longtime friend shot to death at a Chicago nightclub. But Anderson says Johnson’s troubles are not a distraction.
“We have a job to do, and that’s just what we do, stay focused,” he says. “We’re professionals, and that’s how we handle situations. I felt bad. It was a terrible situation. I wish . . . I just felt bad, that’s it.
“[But] you put all that aside. Our main focus was to get this win and get home-field advantage, and that’s what we did, so mission accomplished.”
The real world
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Normally, Anderson rolls over the morning after a game, thankful for as many hours of sleep as he desires. But on this morning, following the Bears’ Monday night victory in St. Louis, his body is talking to him in a language only NFL players understand.
He arrives at Halas Hall by 10 a.m. Tuesday, gets iced up on more parts of his body than he wants to think about and then has a massage.
“It’s starting to get to me now because it’s a long season,” he says. “My [college] season would be over with now. I don’t know if it’s hitting the wall, but you do feel it, especially if you’re playing a lot. My legs, my whole body is just sore, so I’m just trying to do everything to get rejuvenated for the game Sunday.”
A massage generally does the trick, but Anderson has to take his place at the back of the line.
“I get them every once in a while when they let me, but . . . because I’m a rookie I don’t get the full hour. I get 30 minutes. The head trainer decides. I need about an hour and a half, but I don’t get that.”
Back to work
Wednesday was a day off, but Anderson comes in again at 8 a.m. for treatment, then works out and watches film of Monday’s win. The rookie treatment, he says, is pretty much a thing of the past.
“It’s not really like that anymore,” he says. “It was like that earlier in the season. But now, I don’t want to say we’re on the same level, but I get a little more respect. It’s not too much getting them coffee, but if they ask something of me, I’ll go get it for them, just being nice. Everyone is equal. We’re all just trying to win.”
Anderson says watching game and practice film of himself has helped most in his preparation each week.
“That helps me a lot to see what I need to work on, see if I’ve gotten better from last week, lets me know how much progress I’ve made,” he says.
Watching film, Anderson is learning, is a skill in itself.
“I’m getting a little better at that,” he says. “At first I wasn’t too good at watching film. Now I’d say I’m OK. I kind of know what I’m looking for now, and I just try to focus on one thing and go step by step.”
Rushing 101
Specifically, “real big, wide players” are the toughest for Anderson to handle “because it takes so long to get around them,” he says. “The smaller guys think they’re athletic and can hang with you in whatever you do. But the bigger guy just has to take a couple of steps and he’s already in your way.”
The first priority, he has learned, is the stance.
“Positioning yourself so you can see the ball and anything, anything that moves down the line,” he says. “It’s really anything you can see move obviously, but it’s mainly the ball.”
In college, because he was simply better than most opponents, he would focus on the player and see the ball peripherally. But now the focus is on the ball and the peripheral on the player.
At the snap, Anderson has from 2.5 to three seconds before the quarterback releases the ball.
“You have to be thinking in multiple moves or at least have that ready, maybe go outside and then counter inside or a different technique,” he says. “As a speed rusher, I’m trying to establish my speed [in the blocker’s mind] to set up other things, not simply outrun a man with speed alone. It really is a little chess match because I’m working to set up moves with him, and a good blocker is doing the same to me.
“The coach tells us to think in terms of a point and beat him back to that launch point. If you can beat him there, then work a move like a `rip,’ you should be in good shape. In the end, you just try to get back there the best way, any way, you can.”
Big brothers
Anderson says he tries to take advantage of the fact that he has well-qualified, veteran NFL players available if he needs a little guidance.
“They’re real good about that,” he says. “I still get advice from everybody every once in a while. I talked to Tommie [Harris] after the [St. Louis] game and got a little advice from him. I always ask for advice because I know there’s always something else to work on.
“The other night when I talked to him, I was just checking on him to see how his surgery went, and he was telling me to play hard, keep the adrenaline flowing, keep excited out there when I’m playing and play every down like it’s your last.”
On the field, Anderson says, he will often check with fellow ends Brown or Adewale Ogunleye between plays.
“Every time before I go in, I always ask Alex or Wale what the tackles are doing, what kind of sets they’re getting or what kind of looks they’re giving us so when I go in I’m ready. I watch them, but I don’t know how it is on the field. So they let me know how it goes.”
During the week Anderson relies heavily on offensive tackle John St. Clair, a seven-year veteran who “helps me a lot,” he says. “I always come to him asking him stuff I need to work on. We talk about stuff he has problems with on the pass rush and he always helps me out.”
Single guy
Free time is sack time for Anderson, something he wasn’t able to do last year at Alabama.
“That’s a big luxury,” he says. “I hated studying. I just lie down when I’m home and watch TV. I’m the type of dude who will just stay in the bed, just relax, get as much sleep as possible.”
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When he’s not sleeping, he admits to the stereotypical bachelor existence.
“Sometimes I cook,” he insists unconvincingly. “I cooked myself an omelet two nights ago because I was kind of hungry and I didn’t feel like leaving, but all I had was eggs.”
So he watches his diet?
“Nah, I still eat junk,” Anderson says of a typical rookie affliction. “I’ll go to McDonald’s. It’s right down the street from my house, so I’ll go to McDonald’s all the time.”
It’s not always fair
The NFL fined Anderson $5,000 for what it deemed was an illegal hit on St. Louis quarterback Marc Bulger.
“It bothers me,” Anderson says. “I’m appealing. I’m hoping everything works out. I know I’m not a dirty player. It was an accident.”
If pro ball is getting easier, Anderson isn’t ready to admit it just yet. On Sunday, he seems to try every move he has in his arsenal but doesn’t get close enough to the quarterback to merit even a hurry.
“Everybody is so good,” he says. “There’s nobody weak on this level. You have to bring your best every time you’re on the field. That’s the main surprise. You have to be focused every week, before the week and during the week.”
He shifts his ice bag again.
“I would say it’s getting easier if my body was feeling better,” he says. “It’s a hard business, a hard job. But it’s fun, too, so the fun is really outweighing the hardness of it right now.”
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