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Offense takes early lead on defense

Posted August 03, 2007 11:00 pm

Reed Schreck

Defensive personnel keep saying yes, yes, yes. The offensive side keeps saying no, no, no.

The defensive side seems to be winning the debate, while losing the battle on the field.

One of the early buzzes as the Chicago Bears entered Week 2 of training camp is how the offense seems to have the edge on the defense. Defensive players support the theory; offensive members apparently don't want to sound like they're bragging.

It's not night and day different. It's just that it's difficult to deny the offense has shown noticeable improvement from this time a year ago.

You will get the offense to admit that.

"Mike Brown came up and said, 'You've all got them frustrated over there,'" said wideout Bernard Berrian. "It's hard to say that because the Bears have been a defensive team all these years. It's good to say that, that the offense is coming out here and doing what it's supposed to do.

"I'm not surprised. I knew we'd eventually get there. It's about time we got there and we're trying to take it to another level."

Said Mushin Muhammad: "I think we're all highly motivated," wideout Muhsin Muhammad. "We know the potential of this football club. Our offense can be a very exciting offense. We've got some new weapons out there. We're all excited. We're all coming out here working extremely hard to maximize every single day and every snap and every practice."

Offensive coordinator Ron Turner's direct answer to the question about the offense giving it to the defense every practice is short as possible.

"No," he said.

He couldn't have been asked that question after Friday night's practice, because the defense caused six turnovers in their training camp coming out party. Before that, the offense would have graded higher than the defense nearly every session.

"We're going out and competing every day," Turner said. "We have a great defense, and going against our defense you have to be focused. It's a struggle every day."

It's obvious Turner doesn't want to "trash talk" against his team's defense.

"I definitely don't want to do that," he said with a laugh. "Not against those guys. We don't have any reason to."

Quarterback Rex Grossman concedes, "We have a lot of mismatches." Having added Devin Hester from defense and tight end Greg Olsen from the draft, Grossman said, "I'm excited about all the guys I have to throw to."

Brown says the offense "has tons of weapons, tons of speed."

"They can put a package out there where you've got guys running 4.4's all over the place. Even Greg Olsen is fast. I think they're going to cause a lot of mismatch problems.

"They're giving us all the problems we can handle in camp. We're having a difficult time stopping them. You can tell they have a lot of confidence just talking to the guys in the locker room. They're beaming in confidence and they're excited about what they've been doing."

Linebacker Brian Urlacher says the offense "is explosive. Look at all the weapons they have. Starting off up front, we've got all our offensive linemen back, throw Hester in there, Cedric (Benson)'s going downhill, Moose, Mark (Bradley) - you name a bunch of guys, Greg (Olsen), Des (Desmond Clark), Rashied (Davis) - you can go on and on. They're going to make us better practicing against that every day."

Brown paid the offense another compliment.

"I'm looking forward to Sundays, seeing them put some points up on the board. It's real exciting," he said.

So what's the head coach's take?

"I wouldn't say the offense is head and shoulders above the defense," Lovie Smith said. "The offense is improved - I'm not trying to take the easy way out, but that's all I'm going to say."

Reed Schreck is the NFL writer for the Rockford Register Star. He can be reached at 815-987-1381 or rschreck@rrstar.com.

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