Warner Ties Career Mark, Routes Bears

NFL News - November 8th, 2009 - Written by John

Last week couldn't have been any worse for Kurt Warner.

This week couldn't have been any better.

The aging signal-caller threw for a career-high five touchdowns touchdown on each of his first four drives and the Arizona Cardinals blew past the Chicago Bears, 41-21, on Sunday.

But the crowd at Soldier Field could only gasp as Warner enleashed his vengeance, torching the Bears' secondary for 261 yards. He picked on Charles Tillman more than any. Tillman's man, Larry Fitzgerald caught a game-high nine passes for 123 yards, and was the recipient of two touchdown strikes in the first half.

It was a vast improvement over last week, when Warner three five interceptions in a blowout loss to the Carolina Panthers. In that game he was harrassed for two sacks and four knockdowns, suffering a season-low 47.8 passer rating.

In the loss, Chicago's Jay Culter was almost as effective as Warner, throwing three touchdowns to Greg Olsen and had 369 yards. The difference was the running game. A week after Matt Forte ran for 100 yards for the first time, he only carried the ball five times and the Bears as a whole only had 12 rushes.

Arizona came into the game with the league's worst rushing attack in the NFL with a miserable 454 yards on the ground. They almost halved that on Sunday, running for 182 primarily on the legs of Beanie Wells and Tim Hightower. Both had at least 70 yards and averaged over five yards per carry for the first time this season.

The Bears were shorthanded from the beginning when defensive lineman Tommie Harris was ejected for punching a defenseless Cardinals lineman. Those frustrations only mounted. On the first drive of the game, Warner connected with Fitzgerald on an 11-yard out pattern, which the sixth-year receiver turned and deposited into the end zone.

The Bears countered with a touchdown of their own on the next drive, which preliminarily turned the game into a shootout. Cutler lobbed a ball to Olsen and the tight end did the rest, carrying it 33-yards to the end zone for the game's only tie.

On the next three drives, Warner threw touchdown passes to Ben Patrick, Fitzgerald, and Anthony Becht. Neil Rackers added a field goal to take a 31-7 lead into the break.

By the time the Bears got their offense going again, the Cardinals already led 34-7 in the fourth quarter. Olsen had two more touchdown catches of three and 20 yards in the quarter, and with nine minutes left, it appeared Chicago could get back into the game. But those hopes were dashed when Warner capped a long drive with his fifth touchdown of the night, this time to Steve Breaston, with four minutes left.

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