Dolphins Bring Out the Competitive Juices

Andy Dalton appreciates the way Miami's defense is testing the Bears offense with more of a man-to-man look in practice

Andy Dalton could appreciate going against the Miami Dolphins in practice Wednesday even if it could be a little different when it's live in Saturday's noon preseason opener at Soldier Field.

"They do a good job," Dalton said. "It was a lot of just in-your-face man coverage and they expect you to go out and win. It's great for our guys to get that.

"Now, getting a chance to go against different people, different team, different guys in front of you, you expect to go and get your job done. I thought we handled it well. There were times that there were things we could do better. This is practice right now. We'll look at the tape and we’ll improve from it."

When it's live on Saturday, the Bears could find it different because they'll be trying to block a different style of defense.

"I would start out with the O-line full speed with all the looks we're gonna get with the fronts and blitzes and stuff," coach Matt Nagy said. "They need that because we haven't done a whole lot of that right now, you know?"

Facing a blitzing defense when your offensive line is in tatters isn't exactly the thing a 30-something quarterback normally enjoys. The Bears did get Lachavious "Pig" Simmons back from a concussion and plugged him Wednesday at right tackle, allowing them to move Alex Bars back to right guard where starter James Daniels remains sidelined with a groin injury.

"Obviously injuries are tough and we've had guys go down but in the long run it's going to make us better," Dalton said. "Guys are getting opportunities in other spots and we are seeing what we have in everybody.

"It would be nice to say, 'all right, we have our five guys out there and those are the guys we are going to be rolling and they are in their spots and they know exactly who that is going to be.' But right now just with everything that has gone on guys have had to move around. Yeah, we are finding out a lot about what we have up front."

The linemen still out besides Daniels are left tackle Teven Jenkins (back), right tackle Germain Ifedi (hip-flexor) and tackle Larry Borom.

Dalton hasn't played in this offense before in games and temptation might be there to play him more, but Nagy said he can resist this. However, it's been Nagy's evaluation so far that Dalton is so far ahead of the curve he can get by with maybe a series or two. It's Justin Fields Nagy wants to get a look at in Saturday's game.

"I would say that if (Dalton) wasn't at the point that we wanted him to be at, we would play him more in the preseason," Nagy said. "He's exceeded that. He could play tomorrow in a game and I would feel great about it. Our players would feel great about it. That's probably why he'll play less snaps.

"If we go out there and score a touchdown on the first drive, I can promise you if it's three plays, he's out. But if we want to see more and he feels like he needs more, too, we'll do that. It'll be a chance for us to talk through it. And again, we need to evaluate Justin, so we're gonna want to see him do some stuff, too."

As advanced as Dalton seems to be to coaches, it doesn't mean he's perfect. He made a mental error in a walk-through practice.

"Yeah, you know, I'm frustrated," he said, laughing. "I forgot to send the (player in) motion. That was my mental error. When they told me that was my first my mental error, I said, 'Well, I expect to not have any of them. It's one too many.

"But, yeah, I think just being comfortable with the offense and the amount of time that I've spent making sure I know the ins and outs of what we're trying to do and so yeah, it was my mental error and like I said, one too many."

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