Positives

• Grossman played pretty good, and didn't force any balls into traffic like he did at times last year. His stats (12-23, 145 yards, 0-1, 52%) were modest against a Chargers defense that blitzed him heavily throughout. His one interception might have been Berrian's fault because it looked like he ran a confused route. You'd like to see some bigger plays, 23 yards was his longest completion, and they have get the ball in the end zone from now on, but Rex isn't the reason the Bears lost. I think is self control shows some maturation.

• How awesome is the Bears D? LaDanien Tomlinson, maybe one of the five best running backs ever, in his prime right now, the Bears hold to 1.5 yards per carry. Those stats (17 carries for 25 yards) just look stupid. Clearly, he was their focus for the entire week leading up to the game, and they completely shut him down. Remember, the cover-2 isn't designed to stuff the run, so the Bears doing this is very impressive. Hopefully they'll keep it up next week with Larry Johnson coming to town.

• Tommie Harris and Mike Brown, two guys who were hurt at the end of last year, both played great. Harris especially, who's tackle of Rivers before he could even hand the ball off was one of the best plays I've ever seen a d-tackle make. He's just so fast and so strong, it's almost not even fair. Even though he was offsides, his play to force a fumble on the on the goal line was just unreal. Brown played awesome too, but his performance is tempered by yet another injury. If he's going to miss a significant amount time, like MDS is saying, then Daniel Manning is going to have to step up big time, and I think he can. Brown's presence will be missed for sure, but with D-Manning out there, the defense gets a lot faster.

Negatives

• More Hester, please.

• The Bears offense is predicated on pounding the ball inside, and then hitting the home run on play action. Yesterday, neither of those things happened. Grossman didn't stretch the field at all, and the running back was pathetic. My chief concern for this team is officially Cedric Benson. He shouldn't be bad, just look at how productive he was in college, but the dude just doesn't seem all there mentally. If Benson sucks, this team is in trouble. Adrian Peterson isn't an every down back, not by a long shot, and neither is Wolfe, though I'd like to see him get at least a few touches. I'm certainly not writing Benson off yet, but this was not a good debut.

Overall

You have to think that some of the bad things that happened this week were a little fluke-y. I'm not taking anything away from the Chargers, they're a great team, better then the Bears right now, but don't expect the Bears to have the same things happen to them the rest of the season. The punt McGowan touched which resulted in a fumble could have been the turning point in the game, and that was plain unlucky. As I said earlier, Grossman's pick wasn't that bad, it might not have been his fault. Peterson probably won't fumble again all season. The only worry is Benson, who has the potential to screw this whole thing up. He's the most boom-or-bust player on the team, and his first showing this year was anything but impressive.