By Rikki Greenberg
A fan’s worst nightmare came true last week. Chicago Bears quarterback Kyle Orton rolling around on the Soldier Field turf wincing in pain. The blow came courtesy of an out-of-bounds tumble with Lions defensive lineman Corey Redding and Dewayne White. Captain Neck beard caught most of the brunt from the 273-pound White as he steam-rolled over Orton, bending his ankle awkwardly. The nausea turned into “I think I’m going to hurl” when I caught sight of a defenseless Orton in a John Deere cart speeding off the field.
Fans waited in terror as the Bears had no choice but to bring Sexy Rexy Grossman back one more time in the second half. Haven’t they heard of Caleb Hanie? Grossman doesn’t even sport a full hat. The least the Bears could do is give him a snazzy Bears cap instead of that sad visor he wears at every game. Just a wondering thought.
But as a glass-is-half-full kind of gal, it’s not fun to dwell on the negativity. The Bears (5-3) did pull off a sexy 27-23 win over the still winless Detroit Lions (0-8) at Soldiers Field last Sunday. The win wasn’t pretty, but at least Grossman (9 of 19 for 58 yards) didn’t get sacked. Or throw an intercept…never mind.
But he did score a go-ahead touchdown from the 1-yard line with 5:36 left in the fourth quarter. The touchdown sneak helped the Bears bounce back from a 10-point deficit to win the game. The sloppy victory by the Bears provided other key moments such as running back Matt Forte’s 101 of his career-high 126 rushing yards in the second half and rookie safety Craig Steltz mammoth of a turnover to the Bears 14 in the fourth quarter.
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Looking ahead to Week 9
According to the team website, K.O.’s speculated sidelined timeline cannot be determined. However, one thing is for sure. Sexy Rexy is going to be your Chicago Bears starting quarterback against the undefeated Tennessee Titans (8-0) at home next Sunday. A statement like this can send any Bears fan into hysterics, but this fan is trying not to completely lose it. Not easy to do when fate is in the hands of a quarterback who posted a salty 49.9 passer rating against a team ranked 32nd in well pretty much everything.
Quarterback Kyle Orton did not practice on Thursday and does not look like he’d be able to play Sunday, but it also didn’t appear that he’d be out a month, as some reports claimed last Sunday, shortly after he was injured just before halftime. It was also reported that the injury was a high ankle sprain, which normally take much longer to heal than the conventional “inversion” ankle sprain, where the ankle rolls outward and the foot turns inward. So we may seem him in a week or two.
The frustrated Lions of the NFC North go on to face the Jacksonville Jaguars (3-5) during this week. Losing to the Cincinnati Bengals (1-8) last Sunday can’t be good for team morale, so it would be to the Lions advantage to really make them suffer by losing again to a team in desperate need of a win. Detroit coming close to a win in the fourth quarter for the fifth consecutive time is within the realm of possibility and would do wonders for Head Coach Rod Marinelli’s future with the team.
Predictions: Titans 23, Bears 3; Jaguars 23, Lions 20
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