Bears Drop Preseason Opener 25-10 To Chargers

The first pre-season is pretty much a meaningless exercise for fans. The starters make brief cameos before yielding to the guys fighting to make the roster or improve their standing on the depth chart. So last night's 25-10 loss to the Chargers means little in the scheme of things for the Bears. Fans hoping to get a real preview of Mike Martz's new offense were left wanting as Jay Cutler played just one possession. He completed both passes he threw, for 47 yards, and helped set up a Robbie Gould field goal. Second year QB Caleb Hanie took the majority of snaps, completing 10 of 17 passes for 148 yards. He threw a scrambling seven yard TD to Devin Aromashodu in the second quarter to cap an impressive 15 play drive, but also made a questionable throw under stiff pressure than resulted in an interception. Hanie left the game with an injured shoulder in the third quarter, suffered when he was sacked from behind by San Diego linebacker Antwan Applegate.

Injuries were perhaps this big story of the game. In addition to Hanie, the Bears lost safety Craig Steltz to an ankle injury and rookie Major Wright, who filled in well for Steltz left with after injuring his finger. Linebacker Hunter Hillenmeyer left the game with an injured foot. We'll know more about the severity of these injuries in coming days.

As for the most glaring issues on the field, the Bears special teams allowed the Chargers a number of long returns on kickoffs and punts and Brad Maynard also had a punt blocked that resulted in a safety. The offensive line also still needs some work. The Bears QBs were sacked six time and the running backs averaged just 2.3 yards on 21 carries.

The Bear take the field again next Saturday night when they host the Los Angeles Raiders at Soldier FIeld (7:00 p.m. WFLD-32 TV, WBBM 780 AM radio)