Jimmy Johnson didn't expect perfection in Miami's second exhibition game. However, the Dolphins coach did expect a better performance than his team gave in a 24-21 loss to the Chicago Bears.
"Everything's got to get better," Johnson said Sunday after the Bears won on Kevin Butler's final-play, 22-yard field goal."We had some dumb penalties - that's going to happen. You're going to have some sloppy play when you're playing a lot of players in the preseason. But it was too sloppy."
Butler's game-winner handed Johnson his first loss as Dolphins coach. The Bears had tied it on a late safety after squandering a 19-0 lead.
"We made a dozen different dumb big plays for the opposition. Anyone of those plays in the regular season can lose the game itself," said Johnson. "I'm disappointed that our guys didn't make smarter plays."
Bryan Cox, the temperamental Bears linebacker who spent his first five seasons in Miami, faced his former team without incident. He did force an interception by batting a Dan Marino pass.
"I enjoyed my time in Miami. I have good friends on the team there," said Cox. "As I said, this was no more special to me than any other game."
But Cox did take a slap at venerable Soldier Field, where he played as a Bear for the first time.
"This is the most raggedy place I've ever played in my life. I wish the politicians would get us a new stadium," said Cox, complaining about the lack of a large replay scoreboard and adequate running water.
It was the second preseason meeting between Johnson and Bears coach Dave Wannstedt, his good friend and former assistant. Wannstedt is now 2-0 against Johnson.
No big deal, said Wannstedt.
"We wanted to win the football game," he said. "The most important thing was we had a nice drive with our backup offense and we got into position to kick the field goal."
The Bears trailed 21-19 late in the game when Todd Sauerbrun's punt was downed on the Dolphins 3.
Miami rookie tailback Karim Abdul-Jabbar was tackled in the end zone by Greg Briggs for a safety, tying the game at 21 with just over five minutes left.
Following the safety, the Bears got the ball at the 30 and third-string quarterback Steve Stenstrom led them downfield.
He hit a 15-yard pass to Jack Jackson, flipped a fourth-down completion of six yards to Bobby Engram, carried for 14 and then tossed to Tony Carter for 18 more yards.
That gave the Bears a first down at the 7. After two running plays, Chicago called a timeout with five seconds left to give Butler a shot at the game-winner.
Miami, which beat Tampa Bay in its exhibition opener last week, took a 21-19 lead on Bernie Kosar's 18-yard touchdown pass to Robert Wilson early in the fourth quarter. The play was set by up Terrell Buckley's interception and a personal foul penalty on the Bears.
Chicago's Erik Kramer, who sat out the previous week with a sore hamstring, threw for two touchdowns - one an 83-yarder to Curtis Conway - as the Bears built their lead.
But Marino led scoring drives of 72 and 63 yards in the final 6:43 of the first half to bring the Dolphins within 19-14.
The Bears took a 12-0 lead early in the second quarter when Kramer lofted a pass to Conway, who caught the ball at the Dolphins 45 and sprinted in to complete the 83-yard scoring play.
On the next series, Kramer connected with Keith Jennings for a 4-yard score, a touchdown set up by rookie Engram's 41-yard punt return and a 16-yard pass to Jennings.
Marino took only 2:25 to bring the Dolphins back. The 72-yard, seven-play drive was capped when Marino hit Randal Hill with a 34-yard touchdown pass.
Cox batted a pass attempt by Marino with two minutes left in the first half and Al Fontenot intercepted for the Bears on the Miami 30. Chicago couldn't convert, however, when Carlos Huerta missed a 46-yard field goal.
Then Marino went to work again, completing three straight passes. A pass interference call moved the ball to the 4 and on the next play, Marino drilled a 4-yard scoring pass to Lamar Thomas with 10 seconds to go in the half.
Chicago got a 36-yard field goal from Butler and a 33-yarder from Huerta to take a 6-0 first-quarter lead.