Nov. 18--Bears coach Marc Trestman reviewed the video of Sunday's 21-13 victory over the Vikings, then turned his attention to the upcoming game against the Buccaneers.
Coach Lovie Smith and quarterback Josh McCown are returning to Chicago for an intriguing Week 12 reunion, but Trestman did not want to discuss it in any depth during his news conference Monday.
Trestman succeeded Smith as head coach in 2013 after Smith's nine-year tenure.
"I have tremendous respect for him as a person in all areas," Trestman said. "That's the only thing I can speak of at this point, and I truly mean that."
Trestman was equally guarded in discussing McCown, who won three of five games he started for the Bears last season.
Besides throwing 13 touchdown passes and only one interception, McCown earned widespread praise from teammates for his positive attitude and the support he provided starter Jay Cutler.
"We all have our own relationships with Josh, and I'd rather keep it at that," Trestman said. "I just stand by what I said when Josh left here: We were happy for him and his opportunity to continue his journey, and I don't think anyone here feels any differently about that now. The fact of the matter is we're not playing Josh on Sunday. We're playing the Tampa Bay Bucs."
Wasted time: Trestman questioned how he conservatively handled the end of the first half against the Vikings.
"When I looked back at it today, I thought I could've done a better job managing it," he said. "Part of the process is try to get them to eliminate their timeouts so they don't have them if they get the ball."
The Vikings had second-and-12 coming out of the 2-minute warning. Jared Allen's sack put them in third-and-18 from their 39-yard line. The Bears, however, did not use one of their two remaining timeouts, so the Vikings let 35 seconds run off the clock before the next play.
The Bears gained possession at their 26 with one timeout and 1:05 left in the half.
Trestman called a first-down run and didn't stop the clock after it gained 7 yards. But after running back Matt Forte carried to the Bears 48 on second down, the Bears called their final timeout with 15 seconds remaining and tried to salvage points.
On Cutler's afternoon show on WMVP-AM 1000, he was told of Trestman's admission.
"I think everyone is going to agree with that," he said. "We went into (that drive) saying we were going to sit on it, which was (the coaches') call. That was the message we got: 'We're going to run it, run it and we're going to sit on it. We've got the ball coming out of the half.' And then it just went downhill from there."
Pulling punches: Neither Trestman nor receiver Brandon Marshall would divulge what came of Trestman's vow Friday to address Marshall about his Twitter boxing match episode.
"I'm not into the TMZ thing. I'm not a real fan of that type of journalism, so I refuse to go there," Marshall said when asked if he faced repercussions. "If you want to go there, you can do that on your own time."
Said Trestman: "That's an issue between Brandon and (me), and I'm going to leave it at that."
Marshall had seven catches for 90 yards and two touchdowns Sunday.
Tribune reporter Fred Mitchell contributed.
rcampbell@tribpub.com
Twitter @Rich_Campbell
