Bears Take a Step Backward; Redskins Take Advantage

The Chicago Bears were driving in Washington Redskin territory in the fourth quarter, seemingly poised to make a winner of a rookie quarterback on opening day.

Then, in one brief sequence, the Redskins rattled the drive into oblivion. False start on Fred Miller. False start on John Tait. False start on Ruben Brown. Kyle Orton sacked by Demetric Evans. Suddenly, it was third and 38. The Bears’ last good scoring chance was over, and Washington’s defense showed it hadn’t lost a beat from last year in a 9-7 victory Sunday.

“I guess they know we’re a blitzing team,” Washington linebacker Marcus Washington said with a smile as he recounted the sequence. “A couple of times we’re looking like we’re going to come, with one foot up and eyes big. Those guys, they kind of panic a little bit, and they say, ‘This Washington defense is coming.’ Whatever it was, we were glad we were able to back them up a little bit.”

The Redskins allowed only 166 total yards and overcame three turnovers, several untimely penalties and the loss of starting quarterback Patrick Ramsey, who had his neck wrung in the second quarter by blitzing linebacker Lance Briggs. Mark Brunell entered and led three scoring drives, all ending in field goals by John Hall and powered in part by the running of Clinton Portis, who rushed for 121 yards in 21 carries.

Ramsey has only a mild neck sprain, but Coach Joe Gibbs would not commit to a starter for next week’s game at Dallas.

Hall also is questionable -- he strained his quadriceps on his last kick and might not be able to play next week.

No one expected much scoring in a game between tepid offenses and bruising defenses, so it was fitting that the winning team didn’t score a touchdown.

Chicago’s only score came after Washington’s Antonio Brown fumbled the second-half kickoff, setting up a short drive to Thomas Jones’ one-yard touchdown run.