No defense for this mess
CINCINNATI SKID | Debacle vs. Bengals proves Lovie's Tampa-2 has been figured out
The temptation is to issue a threatening proclamation of sorts -- something along the lines that if the defense suffers another collapse like it did in Cincinnati on Sunday, then Lovie Smith needs the ''Jim Zorn treatment,'' meaning someone from ownership or management has to pull play-calling duties from the coach.
Sunday's loss was a double-whammy for Smith, a combination of failure in defensive tactics and the nonfulfillment of the first basic tenant of coaching: prepare your team to play.
The Bears are supposed to be in the middle of a cultural revolution, transitioning to a new era of offensive football. They were offensive in an unexpected way Sunday, as in unpleasant or disagreeable. The performance in a wretched 45-10 loss to the Bengals was worse than offensive. It was repugnant. It was abominable to the point of adjusting to a new reality about the Cutler era, the fact that even a franchise quarterback can't save this team or this season.
Mercifully, a bad Cleveland team comes to town next Sunday. Smith always has been able to get his teams to bounce back from bad losses and the schedule will help him do it this time. But Sunday's game may well prove to be Lovie's Waterloo.
''Shouldn't adjust our expectations,'' Cutler told reporters afterward. ''Everyone in the NFL wants to go to the Super Bowl. We have those expectations. We still think we have a good football team, and we still think we can make a run. There's 10 football games left.''
But make no mistake, the Bears' season is on the brink. The worm of doubt has been planted. It took up residence in a miserable first half that revealed the teasing proximity of great defense has been an illusion. The Bears' season, Smith's life's work, the new era of team wholeness created by adding offense to defense -- it all seems like a sham after this miserable loss. If Cutler came to Chicago thinking his unique skill set would be complemented by a top-10 defense, he obviously was sadly mistaken.
What Cincinnati did in the first half was expose the lie that the Bears are a capable defense. The unit suffered a total breakdown, failing once again to stop a team that has multiple dimensions to their offense. The Bears came out unafraid of Cedric Benson, declining to load the box against a player clearly motivated to beat them. What's the bigger embarrassment, drafting Benson with a No. 4 overall pick or allowing him to leave footprints on the corpse of a once-great defense en route to a career-best 189 yards?
The real problem is that the signature coverage of this defense simply doesn't work against a good quarterback. The Tampa-2 is a beaten scheme. If that wasn't already clear, it was revealed once again with more third-and-long success by the Bengals quarterback Carson Palmer. Whenever he needed a completion, Palmer could simply look to Chad Ochocinco, who was given a free release off the line time and again and simply ran into the hole between the cornerbacks and safeties behind retreating middle linebacker Nick Roach.
The problem remains putting people in position to have success. The Bears do that to other offenses, not their own players. The safeties are so deep, it's like playing 11 men with nine. The Bears allow receivers a free release and let quarterbacks make easy conversions. It's a devastating combination.
Throw in the fact that cornerbacks Charles Tillman and Zack Bowman both simply lost coverage on touchdowns and you have the makings of a horrible afternoon.
The Bears' offense committed turnovers, but for the most part they came after the fact. This game was lost when the Bengals scored touchdowns on their first four possessions against a defense that played with little effort.
What now? At 3-3, the Bears were leap-frogged by Green Bay (4-2) for second place behind Minnesota (6-1). Ten games remain, but the season is looking like 8-8 or 9-7 at best. There is just one blue-chip player on offense in Cutler and he's being asked to do way too much. He's not going to be able to carry a defense that can't get a stop.
Mike Mulligan and Sun-Times colleague Brian Hanley host ''The Mully and Hanley Show'' from 5 to 9 a.m. weekdays on WSCR-AM (670).