CHICAGO – It’s not that the Bears weren’t interested in winning Thursday night’s preseason finale. It’s just that their focus was more on the important task they’ll face Sept. 13 at Lambeau Field.

Resting several key players in advance of their Sunday night season opener in Green Bay, the Bears rallied from a 13-3 deficit to defeat the Cleveland Browns 26-23 at Soldier Field.

Spectators for most of Thursday night's game, Jay Cutler and Greg Olsen chat on the Bears sideline.

Jay Cutler didn’t throw a single pass, most of the No. 1 defense played only one snap, and starters Matt Forte, Devin Hester and Olin Kreutz never stepped on the field. 

“Whenever you can win a football game, I think that’s big,” said coach Lovie Smith. “But everything we’ve done so far is to prepare ourselves for this big one coming up against our rival up north, and we’ll be ready.”

Returning to action after missing the first three preseason games with a hamstring injury, Zackary Bowman made it a short night for the starting defense, intercepting a Brett Ratliff pass on the game’s first play from scrimmage and returning it one yard to the Cleveland 45.

Ratliff started the contest because the Browns opted to rest both Brady Quinn and Derek Anderson.

Like the defense, the Bears’ first-team offense was also slated to play only one series, and Cutler handed off six straight times to Kevin Jones. The backup running back gained 19 yards, setting up the first of four Robbie Gould field goals without a miss, a 43-yarder, to give the Bears an early 3-0 lead.

After Ratliff’s 7-yard touchdown pass to Mohamed Massaquoi put the Browns (2-2) on top 7-3, the Bears (3-1) suffered the type of injury they were desperately trying to avoid with the season opener looming.

Jones was carted to the locker room with a left ankle injury he sustained while being hit late out of bounds by linebacker Marcus Benard on a 6-yard run. A 15-yard penalty for unnecessary roughness was assessed, but that was of little consolation to the Bears.

“We were anxious to give him a lot of carries and see where he was, so that was tough,” said offensive coordinator Ron Turner. “I feel bad for him. He’s had a good training camp and I know he was looking forward to getting a chance to make some plays and was excited about playing, so you hate to see it.”

The Bears plan to evaluate Jones in a couple days.

“We don’t know the extent of the injury right now,” Smith said. “Hopefully it isn’t anything serious.”

With the Bears due to cut 22 players to reach the NFL’s mandatory 53-man roster limit by 3 p.m. Saturday, several individuals made the most of their final opportunity to impress.

No one had a better game Thursday night than rookie receiver Johnny Knox. The fifth-round draft pick from Abilene Christian caught two passes for 62 yards—including a 43-yarder from Caleb Hanie for the second straight game—and had returns of 50 yards on a kickoff and 38 yards on a punt.

“I thought he did some good things,” Turner said. “We know he has excellent speed and he’s played with that kind of speed since the day he got here. A lot of guys have great timed speed, but they don’t necessarily play that way. We noticed the first day he showed up here that he played that fast. He’s still got a long way to go and he’s got a lot of work to do, but there’s no substitute for that speed.”

Rookie Johnny Knox displayed his playmaking ability on offense and special teams in the Bears' victory.

Brandon Rideau seemingly also helped his cause, shaking off two defenders on an 18-yard TD reception from Brett Basanez on a quick slant. The score, which came on fourth-and-one, knotted the game 20-20 with 5:07 remaining in the third quarter.

“I just didn’t want to go down that close to the end zone,” Rideau said. “That’s just part of how you’ve got to play. You’ve got to play hard and try to get everything you can.”

Rookie Juaquin Iglesias also made an impact, catching a team-high five passes for 72 yards.

With Hester, Earl Bennett and rookies Knox and Iglesias expected to make the 53-man roster at receiver, some believe that Rideau, Rashied Davis and Devin Aromashodu are competing for two spots. Davis did not dress for Thursday night’s game in part because the Bears already know what he can do, while Aromashodu did not make any catches.

“It’s a tough situation because we’re probably going to have to get rid of one or two of these guys and I think they’ve all earned a spot on this team,” Cutler said. “Johnny had a good night and Rideau had a good night. DA’s had good nights. They all had exceptional training camps, so it’s going to be tough.”

With Cutler resting his rocket arm, the Bears’ backup quarterbacks both performed well against the Browns. Hanie completed 9 of 13 passes for 119 yards with 1 touchdown, 1 interception and a 91.5 passer rating, while Basanez connected on 10 of 13 passes for 144 yards with 1 TD and a 138.0 rating.

Hanie’s pass deep down the left sideline intended for Knox was intercepted by safety Mike Adams in the second quarter. But Hanie rebounded on the opening drive of the third period, completing 4 of 4 passes for 58 yards including a 25-yard TD strike to tight end Michael Gaines, tying the score 13-13.

Gould's fourth-quarter field goals from 47 and 39 yards gave the Bears a 26-20 lead. Phil Dawson's 33-yarder drew the Browns to within 26-23 with 2:21 left in the fourth. But the Bears ran out the clock by picking up three first downs.

While the competition for jobs has been fierce, Smith insisted that he doesn't face any difficult choices.

“I don’t think there are any tough decisions really,” said the Bears coach. “We’ve evaluated most of these players for a long time. We have some good players. We’re going to cut some good players, but the [ones] that we go with, we’ll feel good about them.

“I don’t think our job is that hard with these cuts. We have some players and it was good that we got one more good look at those guys. But I think for the most part what we saw tonight is what we’ve seen throughout camp.”