It was interesting to hear general manager Jerry Angelo go on a tangent Tuesday in reviewing the Bears' season and discuss how and why the defense was overrun in a 31-24 loss at Houston where the Texans put up 455 yards, the most Lovie Smith's defense surrendered all season. In a must-win game, the Bears didn't have an answer for Houston, even after mounting an early 10-0 lead.

"We played the Texans, they did a pretty good job, after I looked at that tape what they did in terms of their offense,'' Angelo said. ``Their offense was good for a reason. They did a nice job on our defense, it wasn't lack of hustle to the football or anything like that. We made some mistakes but good for them bad for us, but it wasn't a lack of effort.''

Good for the Texans offense. That means good for rookie play caller Kyle Shanahan too, the son of deposed Denver Broncos coach. As it turns out, Sunday's game was the first time Kyle Shanahan, 29, has called plays in an NFL game. Houston coach Gary Kubiak informed him the task was his two days before the game.

For all the hoopla surrounding the Bears' struggles defending the pass lately, especially Sunday against Tennessee, we went back and took a look at the tape of Kerry Collins' 42 drop backs.

A central complaint of defensive linemen, tired of hearing they are not generating enough pressure on the passer, has been that they're pretty much helpless against an onslaught of three-step drops. Well, we found nine by Collins from under center. We broke the pass plays down into five categories, first giving plays in the shotgun their own category. Then, we charted three-step drops from under center, five-step drops from under center, seven-step drops from under center and finally the play-fake rollouts Collins did, which seemed to warrant their own category.

We're not going to pretend to be able to diagnose with certainty what call the Bears were in on every down, so we will not try. But here's what we came up with when tabulating the results:

It was a sparse crowd in open locker room this afternoon at Halas Hall but cornerback Nathan Vasher stopped to chat about the shortcomings of the defense. We'll check in later with some comments and analysis of the situation.

After coaches' review of the game, linebacker Lance Briggs was credited with a team-high 13 tackles (nine solos) in the 21-14 loss to Tennessee, valuting him ahead of strong safety Kevin Payne for the team lead with 78 tackles. Payne is next with 77 after notching 11.

That was not just a good outing by the Bears when it came to stopping Tennessee's two-headed running game Sunday. It was a great effort, marking just the fifth time in the last 21 seasons the Bears have held an opponent to 20 yards on the ground or less.

A look at those games:

Nov. 9, 2008 Tennessee 28 rushes, 20 yards L, 14-21
Nov. 18, 2001 Tampa Bay 15 rushes, 19 yards W, 27-24
Nov. 9, 2003 Detroit 20 rushes, 17 yards L, 12-10
Oct. 28, 1996 Minnesota 14 rushes, 11 yards W, 15-13
Oct. 2, 1988 Buffalo 10 rushes, 0 yards W, 24-3

Adewale Ogunleye, who made three tackles for loss in Sunday's upset at Indianapolis, including a stop of Colts running back Joseph Addai in the end zone for a safety, was named the NFC defensive player of the week.

So much for the Bears' first-team defense rebounding against Cleveland.

With the Browns missing starting quarterback Derek Anderson, running back Jamal Lewis and wide receiver Braylon Edwards sitting out, Cleveland went through the defense on 11 plays before stalling at the eight-yard line and settling for a Phil Dawson 26-yard field goal.

Steve Smith will not torch the Bears' secondary this time around no matter what coverage they employ in their Sept. 14 trip to Carolina.

The Panthers' wide receiver has been suspended by the team for the first two games of the regular season for his training camp beat down on defensive back Ken Lucas. Smith broke the nose of Lucas during practice on Friday and according to one report he was striking Lucas when he was in a defenseless position.

That's the position you could say the Bears were in when Smith racked up 12 receptions for a career-high 218 yards in a 29-21 victory by the Panthers in the divisional round of the playoffs Jan. 15, 2006, at Soldier Field. Smith ran wild that day and pretty much single-handedly controlled the game.

Brett Favre is not the only future Hall of Famer who doesn't look to be welcomed by the Bears.

They do not have interest in adding veteran safety John Lynch, who mutually parted ways with the Denver Broncos. Lynch and Bears coach Lovie Smith have a close relationship dating back to their days with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers but Smith said he's not looking for a reunion with Lynch. The 16-year veteran has said he will need a perfect situation to continue playing.

That opportunity will not come here even though the Bears have more questions at safety than any other position on defense.

Practice is set to get underway in about 30 minutes. We'll see if newcomer Devin Hester is on the field. The Bears will be in full pads for the first time. It's also worth watching to see if rookie offensive tackle Chris Williams suits up a day after leaving practice with back spasms.

*** Cornerback Charles Tillman figures to get involved for the first time also.

*** It's Rex Grossman's day to work with the first team offense.

*** We'll Twitter some updates from the practice field and then Hester is set to meet the press on the field following practice.

INDIANAPOLIS—Coach Lovie Smith said earlier in the day that he hoped veteran Mike Brown would have a role this coming season, and general manager Jerry Angelo backed that up.

Brown, who turned 30 earlier this month, has missed 43 of the last 64 regular-season games with injuries. He tore the ACL in his left knee in the season opener at San Diego, and is entering the final year of his contract.

It’s interesting to consider what the extension of Alex Brown and commitment of $5 million up front to him means for fellow defensive end Dan Bazuin.

The second-round draft pick never got going last season as an ankle injury in rookie minicamp eventually led to him being placed on injured reserve and then surgery. Bazuin is fully recovered, but he was supposed to be the man to replace Brown. Remember, general manager Jerry Angelo was working to trade Brown heading into the draft last April and there looked to be a deal with Seattle.

A week before the Super Bowl, Alex Brown had an inkling something might happen with the Bears in his favor.

But he said he was serious about the disappointment in his contract and the fact that he lost his starting job at about this time last year to Mark Anderson. If something wasn’t worked out, he was going to show the team how upset he was by skipping the offseason workout program and in turn having to write a big check back to the team for failing to participate.

It won’t come to that, not after the veteran defensive end signs a two-year extension worth up to $15.5 million today when he arrives from Puerto Rico.