By MIKE McLAIN CLEVELAND – It wasn’t pretty, but the Browns ended the
preseason with a 3-1 record after defeating the Chicago Bears, 24-10, Friday.
Rookie quarterback Luke McCown led a second-half comeback for the second time
in as many weeks.
McCown, who completed seven of 10 passes for 104 yards, connected with Andre King on a 4-yard touchdown throw with 8:46 remaining in the fourth quarter, and
McCown added a 35-yard touchdown pass to Richard Alston to seal the win.
The game started ugly for the Browns’ first-team offense, which scored on its
third possession when quarterback Jeff Garcia connected with Andre Davis on a
37-yard touchdown pass.
The Browns were penalized seven times for 50 yards in the first quarter,
including four infractions against the offense.
“It was nice to end on a scoring drive,” Garcia said. “Obviously, we needed
to get the ball into the end zone to have any sort of positive feel out of
today’s game. Starting out the way we did wasn’t a positive feel, but those are
things we’re going to concentrate on and improve on. We’re going to eliminate
those types of things.”
Garcia still isn’t pleased with the play of the offense. He admits that the
unit still has a lot of room to improve just nine days before the season opener.
“No team in the league is where it wants to be at the end of training camp,”
Garcia said. “Everybody is looking at themselves as gradually improving week in
and week out. I’m not saying I’m disappointed where we’re at right now. It’ s
not diminishing the fact that we’re a pretty good offensive team.”
Garcia completed just one of four passes on the first two possessions, when
the Bears had their first-team defense on the field. Working against Chicago’s
second-team defense on the Browns’ third series, Garcia completed an 11-play,
80-yard drive with his touchdown throw to Davis.
“All the problems we had at the beginning were really eating at me,” Davis
said. “We can’t afford to do that. Once again the penalties seemed to bite us a
little bit. We were able to turn around from that and move on.”
Coach Butch Davis didn’t play running back Lee Suggs, who has a minor
shoulder injury. Running back William Green was a healthy scratch.
James Jackson started at running back and played the entire first half.
Jackson had 20 yards on 11 carries.
The Browns’ first-team defense blanked the Bears on their first two
possessions. Chicago scored on a 44-yard field goal by Paul Edinger against the
Browns’ second-team defense late in the first quarter. Chicago took a 10-7 lead
when Adrian Peterson ran 1 yard for a touchdown with 37 seconds remaining in the
second quarter.
The Browns tied the score at 10-10 on a 33-yard field goal by Phil Dawson
with 50 seconds remaining in the third quarter. The score was set up when Bears
running back Brock Forsey fumbled, and Felipe Claybrooks recovered for the
Browns at the Chicago 33.
INJURY REPORT: Right offensive guard Kelvin Garmon left the game in
the first quarter with a hamstring injury. Paul Zukauskas, who started at left
guard, switched to the right side, and Enoch Demar replaced Zukauskas on the
left side.