DECLAWED
Orton's five interceptions lead to Bengals rout

By: Gary Zahara

Back to reality.

Kyle Orton's rookie colors showed early and often in his third game of his NFL career. Orton threw five interceptions in crashing back to earth as the Cincinnati Bengals toyed with him like a ball of string, routing the Chicago Bears 24-7 on a dreary, wet Sunday afternoon in front of 62,045 at Soldier Field.

It started promising for the Bears(1-2) as they held the AFC's top ranked offense to three and out on their opening possession. But for Orton and the offense, the day started out bad from the first possession and only got worse. Orton's first pass to a open Justin Gage was bobbled and intercepted by Cincinnati linebacker Brian Simmons, who then fumbled to Odell Thurman at the Bears 18 yard line. One play later, Bengals QB Carson Palmer fired a laser beam that split Nathan Vasher and Mike Brown for a 18-yard touchdown to human bullhorn Chad Johnson for a lead they would never relinquish.

Chicago's lone bright spot was Thomas Jones. He rushed for 106 yards on 27 carries, his second straight 100-yard game. Jones' two-yard run early in the fourth kept the Bears from being completed embarrassed.

"They played a good game, but we gave it to them on offense," Jones said. "We didn't really execute the way we should have on certain plays and we took ourselves out of a lot of good situations just because of the turnovers."

Orton's problem's continued.

He was intercepted at his own 37 by Keiwan Ratliff, and thanks to a Charles Tillman pass interference call, Cincinnati was able to keep the drive alive and settle for a Shayne Graham 33-yard field goal making it 10-0 with 2:27 left in the opening quarter.

"I'm not going to put this on me being young, Orton said. I played like crap today. I had chances to make plays and didn't do it and the result of that is us losing the game."

Orton completed 17 of 39 passes for 149 yards with a quarterback rating of 14.7

The Bears, who came into the game second to the Bengals in NFL turnovers generated, got a big one late in the half when middle linebacker Brian Urlacher forced the Bengals’ first lost fumble of the season when he stripped running back Chris Perry at the end of a pass play with 3:53 left. But the Bears couldn't’t cash in either. Chicago finally got running back Thomas Jones in gear, ripping off 43 of his 79 first-half yards on the drive. But a late hit called on rookie receiver Mark Bradley killed the drive and Doug Brien hooked his 39-yard field-goal try left for his fifth miss in his last six kicks.

The Bears held the Bengals to 72 total yards on 31 plays in the first half. In the first two quarters, Orton completed as many passes to the opposition as he did his own team, four. Chicago also did not convert a third down opportunity until the second half.

One glaring stat is the Bengals top ranked offense was held to just 244 total yards on 58 plays, but the Bears offense could muster only one long drive, the touchdown run by Jones.

"Last week we won as a team and a lot of things went right for us," said head coach Lovie Smith. "Today was a total team loss. On the offensive side of the football, you can't have six turnovers. It doesn't matter what else you do. If you have six turnovers, it's going to be a long day for you."

The Bengals extended the lead to 17-0 as Tillman was abused again, as Palmer(16 of 23 for 169 yards) hit rookie Chris Henry with a 36-yard TD strike with 7:03 left in the third.

"Peanut had a great training camp. He hasn't played well, as well as he can the last couple of games. He'll come back, he's a good football player," Smith said.

Johnson rubbed salt in the wound hauling in a 40-yard strike from Palmer for the final score. The brash receiver, who earlier in the week said the Bears' Jerry Azumah was on the cornerback hit list, even though Vasher was assigned to him, was surprisingly contrite afterwards.

"I have a ton of respect for all those guys over there. I really do."

The Bears have a bye week next Sunday. They will try to regain the swagger they had in week two Oct. 9th in Cleveland.

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