Aging offensive line still effective, productive

BOURBONNAIS -- Nowhere on the Bears' roster is age more of an issue than on the offensive line.

Left guard Ruben Brown is 35. Right tackle Fred Miller is 34. Left tackle John Tait is 32. Center Olin Kreutz is 30 and right guard Roberto Garza is 28. They have a combined 51 years of NFL experience.

But to Bears offensive line coach Harry Hiestand, age isn't an issue.

"So much is made about age," Hiestand said. "We just look at production. We look at how they play. If the guys are playing good football, that's the bottom line. When they hit the field and we start playing games, how are they playing? Are they getting their guys blocked? Are they doing their job? The age is for you (media) to talk about."

This is the third year that the unit has been intact, and they spend a lot of time together off the field developing cohesiveness.

"Being a unit is really important," Hiestand said. "Being together, being able to communicate and knowing what the other guy is thinking. Also, to be there to back each other up at all times, and they're able to do that."

Catching up: For most of the first week of camp, the offense has been abusing the defense in 11-on-11 and all other drills, completing a high percentage of passes and going downfield almost at will.

But all that turned around Friday night under the lights at Ward Field. The defense picked off 5 passes, 3 from Rex Grossman (who has been razor-sharp almost every time out) and 1 each against Kyle Orton and Brian Griese.

Charles Tillman, Mike Brown and Brian Urlacher all victimized Grossman, while rookie Kevin Payne picked Orton and linebacker Rod Wilson stole a pass from Griese.

"Our offense has made a lot of plays, but we've played good defense around here for a long time," coach Lovie Smith said. "I thought the defense really stepped it up tonight. We harp on takeaways always, and they got quite a few of them, finishing up with the two-minute drive (Wilson's interception)."

The offense's domination hasn't gone unnoticed on the other side of the ball.

"We talk a lot about takeaways, and they were in tune to that," Smith said. "They talked a lot about it before practice, of how we haven't had a lot of takeaways."

Like hot cakes: The Bears Family Night on Sunday, Aug. 5, at Soldier Field is sold out. Ticket sales for the event were capped at 40,000. Tickets will not be available for purchase at Soldier Field on the day of the event.

Injury update: Wide receiver Devin Hester (hamstring) returned to practice but said he wasn't quite ready to go 100 percent, although he still looked pretty quick, and defensive tackle Tommie Harris (general soreness) and defensive end Alex Brown (shoulder) were also back in action.

Linebacker Hunter Hillenmeyer (ill) and defensive end Mark Anderson did not practice, and wide receiver Muhsin Muhammad (general soreness) was held out for a third straight day. Dan Bazuin (knee), Garrett Wolfe (hamstring), Fontel Mines (quad), Antonio Garay (hamstring) and Jon Goldsberry (hamstring) also remained out.