Orton's status unclear

Lauren M. Anderson - landerson@nwherald.com
The Chicago Bears' Kyle Orton stands on the sidelines Sunday during the game against the Tennessee Titans at Soldier Field in Chicago. The Titans stayed undefeated, beating the Bears 21-14.

By NICK HUT - nhut@nwnewsgroup.com

LAKE FOREST - There was no further word Monday on the status of Kyle Orton, who said the day before he was hopeful of playing next weekend.

Orton's sprained right ankle has been healing quickly, and initial reports of a possible four-week absence seem to have been overblown.

"Kyle Orton continues to get better each day," coach Lovie Smith said. "Hopefully we'll have good news as far as him playing this week."

Orton aims to return for Sunday's game at Green Bay, which trails the first-place Bears and Minnesota by a game in the NFC North.

The Vikings have a tough game at Tampa Bay, so the Bears could regain sole possession of the division lead.

"We talked about some of the things we would like to correct," Smith said, "and what better way to see if we have [than] against a good Green Bay team?"

Off the mark: Smith said the passing game with Rex Grossman at quarterback Sunday against Tennessee was inadequate.

"We didn't get much production from it," Smith said.

"[We] had some opportunities for some plays and weren't able to capitalize on it."

The wide receivers totaled only five catches, four by Devin Hester and one by Rashied Davis.

Asked whether timing with Grossman was an issue, Davis became a bit defensive.

"I'm not going to throw anybody under the bus," Davis said. "Maybe I wasn't as deep as I needed to be on my routes or maybe I didn't run a good route. We'll see when we watch film."

On the verge: The passing game could get a spark from the return of wide receiver Brandon Lloyd, who has missed five games because of a knee injury. Lloyd was listed as probable on last week's injury report, but remained sidelined.

"He was close this past week," Smith said. "Probably could have [played]. I made the decision as much as anything not to. He was close and we decided to wait one more week."

Linebacker Hunter Hillenmeyer (thumb) also was listed as probable last week and did not play. Smith would not say whether Hillenmeyer would regain his starting job from Nick Roach upon returning.

"We'll let Hunter return and then we'll go from there," Smith said.

Nowhere to run: One measure of the Bears' dominance against the Titans' running game Sunday was in their nine tackles for losses.

Brian Urlacher and Mike Brown had two "TFLs" apiece. Lance Briggs, Corey Graham, Tommie Harris, Alex Brown and Marcus Harrison had one each.

Briggs led the Bears with 13 tackles and safety Kevin Payne added 11. Urlacher officially was credited with only four tackles, which ranks as one of the six lowest outputs of his career.

Comments - Comment on this Story

There are no comments on this story.


	©2008 Northwest Herald. All rights reserved. Site design by Ryan Glab. Published in Crystal Lake, Illinois, USA, by Shaw Suburban Media. Submit News \| Subscribe \| Subscriber Services \| Advertise \| Place a Classified Ad \| Privacy Policy \| Editorial Principles \| Newspapers in Education \| Feedback \| Contact Us \| About Us \| Work for Us \| Shaw Suburban Media \| RSS

Orton's status unclear

Comments - Comment on this Story

Recent Stories