Bears' meek defense once again has no answers
Two-and-a-half seasons removed from their last Super Bowl appearance, the Bears are who they never imagined they would be -- just another mediocre football team.
Now, after two humiliating losses in a span of three weeks, you have to start wondering if the McCaskeys and general manager Jerry Angelo are starting to become fed up with who they have become because no one can say a blowout loss at Cincinnati was an aberration -- not after the Arizona Cardinals destroyed the Bears 41-21 Sunday at Soldier Field, another low point in the tenure of Lovie Smith.
(John J. Kim/Sun-Times)
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Cardinals 41, Bears 21
The Bears are now an even 20-20 since Smith asked the public to ''trust me'' after losing the Super Bowl and reshuffling his staff. Smith's glass, even in the wake of this disaster, might remain half-full, but his credit on ''trust'' surely is running low.
There will be focus, and rightfully so, on the ejection of defensive tackle Tommie Harris on the fourth play of the game, but looking too long and too hard at that only obscures the bigger issue --the defense is broken, and the offense wasn't right from the start.
The Super Bowl hangover is well known: The club that loses the Super Bowl typically falls flat the next season. Well, the Cardinals (5-3) are looking OK right now.
The myth has been that the window remains open for these Bears. But when they failed to reach the postseason last year, they joined company no one wants. In the 20 seasons prior to Super Bowl XLI, the Super Bowl loser failed to return to the postseason in two years just twice -- Oakland in 2002 and Atlanta in 1998. Yes, the Bears joined company with Al Davis when they didn't make the playoffs last season, and now at 4-4 and three games behind NFC North-leading Minnesota, it doesn't look good for January.
''Don't have a lot of reasons ... why we played that way,'' Smith said. ''I know we're a better football team than that. But of course our play didn't say that today.''
Arizona's Kurt Warner passed for five touchdowns two weeks after Carson Palmer accomplished the same feat in a 45-10 Bengals' victory at Paul Brown Stadium. How striking is that? Prior to Palmer doing it, the Bears hadn't had an opponent throw five touchdown passes against them since Brett Favre in 1995.
Without wide receiver Anquan Boldin (sprained ankle), the Cardinals rolled up 320 yards and 21 first downs in the first half in storming to a 31-7 lead. Arizona, which scored on its first six possessions, came in averaging 64.9 yards rushing per game (last in the league and worst in the NFL since the merger, according to Football Outsiders), and they ran roughshod over the Bears as Tim Hightower (15 carries, 77 yards) and Beanie Wells (13, 72) both averaged more than five yards per attempt.
Singled up on receiver Larry Fitzgerald, cornerback Charles Tillman was no match until he left with a shoulder injury. Fitzgerald finished with nine catches for 123 yards and two touchdowns.
When the Bears ran into the Bengals, they fought a two-dimensional attack they couldn't repel. The Cardinals were one-dimensional until they encountered the Bears, who again didn't generate much in the way of a pass rush, and three of Warner's five touchdown passes came vs. blitzes.
After the Cardinals effectively had called off the dogs by replacing Warner with Matt Leinart, the Bears briefly got back into the game. Jay Cutler (29-for-47, 369 yards) threw his third touchdown pass of the game to Greg Olsen to pull within 34-21 -- but after a rare defensive stand, Cutler was picked off by Matt Ware to end the threat, and then the Cardinals tacked on one final score for good measure.
Cutler lost his cool and was called for unsportsmanlike conduct for arguing with the officials, and the running game again was abandoned. So, the Bears have proven they don't have the firepower to match top offenses, and they're certainly not equipped to stop any as only three NFC teams have allowed more points.
''I don't know what the hell is wrong, but we have to change it,'' defensive end Alex Brown said. ''I know a lot of people like to think we're better than 4-4, but hell, our record is 4-4, so that's where we are. If we want to have any aspirations of going further or making it to the playoffs and stuff like that, then we've got to play a hell of a lot better.''
The only thing they have going for them is it's a short week with a game at San Francisco on Thursday night. But this is a team lacking an identity right now.
''I'd also like to compliment the Bears because they played hard, and they came back,'' Cardinals coach Ken Whisenhunt said. ''And the last thing I'll say is, 'We didn't let them off the hook.'''
That's because the Bears probably were who the Cardinals thought they would be.