Bears digest, Day 7: QB, offense plays better

BOURBONNAIS — Backup running back Daniel Thomas plunged 1 yard into the end zone on the final play of practice, drawing cheers from the offense.

“It’s so hard to punch it in,” said Thomas, who spent his first four years with the Dolphins. “You’re so close but yet so far. It’s probably the toughest part of the game, the goa- line situation.”

Not all coaches allow physical goal-line drills this early in camp.

“The guys enjoy it,” coach John Fox said. “It’s a hard thing to practice unless you walk it through, short yardage or goal line, because it’s such a tight play.

“Just over experience, you learn that you’re better off just going live and you can see how guys execute. And you can do a little bit of that in practice because we don’t practice that way all the time.”

Other highlights:

• Fox compared training camp to college spring practice, down to the inconsistencies of which units play better every day. Thursday, it was the offense.

“One side of the ball is always PO’d,” he said.

• Backup quarterback Jimmy Clausen looked better Thursday, completing back-to-back passes to Marc Mariani in a team drill. Clausen has struggled, but said his shoulder, surgically repaired almost two years ago, has never felt better.

• Jay Cutler took two plays to score a fictional touchdown, finding Martellus Bennett open on a broken coverage and then passing to Eddie Royal for a touchdown. Royal might be the most impressive player in camp thus far.

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