Dominant, but disappointed
In the preseason game that most resembles a regular-season contest, the Bears' first-team defense showed its stuff.
Playing the entire first half and a portion of the third quarter, the defense lived up to its reputation and produced some significant stats in a 31-28 victory over the San Francisco 49ers on Saturday night at Soldier Field.
In the first half, the 49ers managed 1 first down and 44 net yards of offense, even though they did score an offensive touchdown when Bears rookie Drisan James muffed a punt and gave the visitors the ball on the 6-yard line.
The Bears' reaction to that 6-yard scoring drive? Utter disappointment, which shows how much the unit expects of itself.
"Especially because we were in the best defense. They ran 'power' and we were in an eight-man front," said linebacker Hunter Hillenmeyer of Maurice Hicks' 2-yard TD run. "They shouldn't be able to get those kind of yards down there. It's a small thing, but that is a situation where we should win, and we didn't."
"It's uncalled for,'' safety Adam Archuleta said. "We understand we are in that (short-yardage) situation, but we are trying to set high standards for ourselves. We are pretty disappointed. That was our chance to make a stand."
The 49ers also scored a first-half touchdown on a blatantly inappropriate interception thrown into the flat by quarterback Rex Grossman. Statistics will show the 49ers scored 4 touchdowns in the game, but only 1 came against the first-team defense.
The 49ers are a team expected to struggle offensively, and their first unit did that Saturday. Working without starting running back Frank Gore, the 49ers' only first down of the first half came on the touchdown.
The defense is much the same as the one that took the Bears to the Super Bowl last season, with the addition of Archuleta at strong safety.
On San Francisco's first play from scrimmage, Archuleta ran hard from the outside right, forced Hicks to stutter-step directly into the waiting grasp of linebacker Rod Wilson and defensive end Adewale Ogunleye for a 1-yard loss.
"That's part of what playing that position is, being able to play aggressively,'' Archuleta said. "We want to play aggressively as a unit and cause a lot of havoc and free other guys to make plays."
The first half included 1 sack (Ogunleye), 1 forced fumble (Brian Urlacher) and recovered (Nathan Vasher) and less than half a football field in yards allowed.
Not good enough, apparently.
"I thought we shut them down, but we didn't get the turnovers we would have liked,'' coach Lovie Smith said.
Despite the obvious coach-speak, the Bears' starting defense played about as well as a team should in a preseason game.
"Nobody ever doubted we could do it, but it is a matter of making sure that we do,'' Hillenmeyer said. "We don't want to play our best football in the preseason or in September. We want to start high and keep going up."