Sep/15/08 08:10 AM Filed in:
Greg Olsen
CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Nobody
felt worse than tight end Greg Olsen after
Sunday's loss to the Carolina Panthers. And nobody
should have. It was a pair of turnovers by Olsen,
fumbles in the first and third quarters, that
turned the game against the Bears. Well, it was
the second fumble more than the first that doomed
the team, but fumbles are never a good thing.
''Anytime you have two critical errors that lead to
your team losing, it's tough to swallow,'' Olsen said.
''That's really all there is to say. It's
unacceptable.''
The first came on the Bears' second possession after
the team had reached the 25-yard line with a chance to
add to a 7-0 lead after driving down the field from the
shadow of their own goalpost. Olsen coughed up the ball
after taking a hit from linebacker Thomas Davis. The
ball was picked up by Jon Beason and returned 12 yards,
but the Panthers couldn't get anything going.
The second fumble came one play after the Panthers
closed the deficit to 17-6 with their second field
goal. Olsen caught a pass in the flat from Kyle Orton
and turned upfield for a nine-yard gain before former
Bears safety Chris Harris poked the ball out while
tackling him.
''It was a takeaway on their part, but we look at it as
a turnover,'' Bears coach Lovie Smith said. ''We have
to secure the football. It's kind of as simple as that.
We know coming in, both defenses, that's what they live
by, stripping the football. Learning experience for us,
we have to protect the ball better than that.''
NFL coaches hate turnovers, and Olsen is lucky he's a
good enough player to survive those kinds of mistakes.
The coaches put him right back on the field for the
next series. Former Dallas Cowboys coach Jimmy Johnson
once famously cut a player on the Soldier Field turf as
he walked back to the sidelines after a second fumble
in the season finale. The Cowboys won the game in a
blowout, mind you, and went on to win the Super Bowl.
But two fumbles in one game is simply not allowed.
''Both times the same thing happened,'' Olsen said. ''I
caught it and I was bringing it in to tuck it and he
reached around and punched it before I could tuck it
away,'' Olsen said. ''The fact is you can't turn the
ball over, especially in those situations. You can't do
that to your team. You can't put them in those
situations.''
Harris forced a league-high eight fumbles last year and
already has two this season.
''That's an easy one when I'm tackling on the side,''
Harris said. ''Most ball carriers will try to give you
a stiff arm or something, or they are not paying
attention. It's kind of like when you are playing
basketball with lazy defense and the guy tries to poke
it out from behind. Those are the easy ones in
football.''
(suntimes.com)