Safety first next time for Orton

On a third-and-12 Sunday night, quarterback Kyle Orton scrambled for 10 yards, coming up short of the sticks but positioning Robbie Gould for a 41-yard field goal that gave the Bears a 10-6 lead.

At the end of the play, instead of sliding feet first and protecting himself from punishment, Orton lowered his shoulder and knocked Indiapolis Colts cornerback Kelvin Hayden back a few feet. Orton picked up a few extra yards, but that's the kind of play that makes coaches cringe.

"I was close to the first down," Orton said. "Obviously, if it's a situation where I can't get the first down, then I'll go ahead and slide. But on third down with a chance to pick up three more downs, I'm certainly going to go in and try to pick it up. You see the first-down marker and you're trying to get there."

Offensive coordinator Ron Turner would have been perfectly happy with a 7-yard gain and a safety-first slide.

"Hopefully he'll learn from that," Turner said. "He did a nice job of getting out of the pocket, took off and gained some nice yardage to shorten the field goal, now get down.

"He wasn't going to get the first down. I'm just glad it wasn't No. 21 (Bob Sanders). Hopefully if it was 21, he'd have gotten down, but 26 (Hayden) is pretty physical, too."

He's here all week: He's not quite in the same league as Yogi Berra, but defensive tackle Tommie Harris can turn a phrase like few others, especially when he's in one of his playful moods.

The three-time Pro Bowl defensive tackle disagreed that the Bears are a surprise team.

"A surprise to you guys, yes, for the 'arm watchers,' " Harris said, apparently meaning "armchair quarterbacks."

"Hopefully we can go out there and display what we believe we have in this locker room, like we did Sunday," he said. "Hopefully it can be contagious to our mind frame and we can carry that on the rest of the season."

Mind frame?

Harris added that the Bears have nothing to prove to the doubters and haters.

"I don't think we play this game to prove people wrong," he said. "We have a point to prove to ourselves that we are what we say we are. We are what we thought they were."

Apologies to Dennis Green.

Harris also was asked what stood out about the Carolina Panthers, this week's opponent.

"That their (uniforms) are light blue and white," Harris said. "And Moose (former Bear Muhsin Muhammad) plays for them."

Sticking to business: Players and coaches haven't spent much time patting themselves on the back after the upset victory over the Colts.

Coaches actually have been critical of players in film review.

"We were not very pleased with our technique overall as a unit," defensive coordinator Bob Babich said. "And I think we can clean up some missed tackles. Those are two things we definitely need to improve on with the running backs we're facing this week."

Panthers running backs DeAngelo Williams (86 yards on 18 carries) and rookie Jonathan Stewart (10-for-53) combined for 139 of Carolina's 142 rushing yards last week.

Injury update: Linebacker Lance Briggs (ankle), defensive tackle Tommie Harris (ankle), wide receiver/return specialist Devin Hester (foot) and offensive tackle John Tait (groin) all practiced Thursday but were limited for the second straight day, although all are expected to play Sunday.

Cornerback Nate Vasher (shoulder) was a full participant in practice after being limited Wednesday.