Hines Ward on Bears WR's coach

Steelers WR Hines Ward came to the defense of Darryl Drake, the Bears' wide receivers coach.

Drake has taken some heat for the performance of the wide receivers.

This is what Hines Ward had to say:

"Any criticism of him is not fair, look at the quarterback situation. They don't have a stable quarterback. I know the quarterback situation there and I don't care who you bring in to catch the ball. You could bring in the best receiver in the league. Look at Randy Moss going out to Oakland and what happened there. His stats went down. It wasn't based on Randy, it was based on the quarterback play.''

"It's unfair for Drake to be criticized because you have to factor in the quarterback play there,'' Ward said. ``If you're not getting quality quarterback play, it's hard for any receiver to put up huge numbers or really go out and do something. That's not to say that Muhsin or Berrian were any less as wideouts, it's just the quarterback situation Chicago had, they didn't know who was going to be quarterback week to week. When you have that, a lot of that is reflected on the wideouts. It's unfair. Drake is a phenomenal coach. He's coached a lot of guys in this league. He was my college coach and the player you see out on the field today has a lot to do with coach Drake.

"He motivated me. I got recruited as a quarterback and I didn't know anything about wideout. I played two years under him and all and all, he taught me the game itself, how to block, how to be a complete player and I owe it all to him. The quarterback has a major factor in what the receivers are going to do.''

``Drake's on my speed dial,'' he said. ``I've probably got a message from him right now. He's a good man and a good coach.''

all quotes from chicagosuntimes.com