Sep/17/08 10:09 PM Filed in:
Greg Olsen
The glass is more than half
full for the 1-1 Chicago Bears.
“We’re a couple of mistakes away from being
2-0 as the only team to start with two road games,
against two good teams,” tight end Greg Olsen
said.
He should know. He made two of Chicago’s biggest
mistakes in Sunday’s 20-17 loss at Carolina,
fumbling away his only two pass receptions.
Chicago’s 2007 No. 1 draft pick – the only
first-round pick on the Bears’ offense –
has had to cope with the unfamiliar experience of being
a goat. He said teammates have been silently
supportive.
“What are they going to say?” Olsen asked.
“Obviously, they know I was disappointed and not
happy with those two plays. They know I hold myself to
higher expectations than that. I was harder on myself
than anyone else could be.”
Offensive coordinator Ron Turner knew what to say,
consoling Olsen after the Bears’ plane landed at
O’Hare.
“You are a great player,” Turner said he
told Olsen. “You have made a lot of great plays
for us. You are going to make a lot of great plays for
us. We’re going to come to you. You made a couple
of mistakes. I made some mistakes in that game, too.
“It wasn’t one play that cost us that game.
It wasn’t two plays. It was several plays.”
Not everyone saw it that way. An online poll on
Comcast’s Bears postgame show identified
Olsen’s fumbles as the runaway No. 1 reason the
Bears couldn’t hold on to a 17-3 lead.
“Obviously, everyone on the outside has a lot to
say about it,” Olsen said. “That’s
part of it. I’ve just got to move on and know
what I’m capable of doing. I’ve shown it
many times. Now I’ve just got to get back to
doing it.”
Quarterback Kyle Orton remains confident in Olsen.
“He knows we can’t have turnovers,
especially on the road,” Orton said. “He
feels bad about it. It was a tough game for him, but
he’ll bounce back and make some good plays for
us.”
“You never want to let your team down,”
Olsen said, “but there was nothing I could do
about it after the fact. I didn’t intend to do
that.
“I just have to focus more on tucking it away. My
whole career, I maybe fumbled one time, my freshman
year in college, and I didn’t lose it. So maybe
you take it for granted. Things like this will refresh
your mind, so you don’t take it for granted. Get
back to doing what you’ve done your whole life.
There is nothing more to it than that.”
Actually, ESPN.com statistics show Olsen with zero
career fumbles before Sunday, either in college at
Miami or with the Bears.
“Greg is a competitor,” Turner said.
“He knows that we believe in him. He will bounce
back.”
(galesburg.com)