Against Ced's Bengals, Bears pull off historic underachievement
CINCINNATI -- This was something nobody had ever seen before, making it like Secretariat's 31-length victory in the 1973 Belmont Stakes and Nadia Comaneci's perfect 10. Replace goose bumps with the gag reflex, and it was like witnessing Nolan Ryan's seventh no-hitter or Roger Bannister's sub-four-minute mile.
It was an athletic contest that made the 64,900 in attendance want to keep their ticket stubs as souvenirs because the Bears turned in what might've been the worst performance in franchise history.
Some might argue that. The Bears have, after all, fielded some perfectly putrid teams since George Halas helped found the league in Ralph Hay's Hupmobile showroom 89 years ago. But when you consider the expectations put on this team, when you factor in the presence of the first franchise quarterback since 1950 and how the teams that played at Paul Brown Stadium on Sunday were supposedly evenly matched, this had to have been the worst.
''It was really embarrassing,'' quarterback Jay Cutler said. ''I'm embarrassed. Everyone in that locker room -- coaches and players -- are embarrassed.''
I'm embarrassed, and all I'm doing is writing about it. Maybe that's because it wasn't turnovers or inefficiency that resulted in the Bengals' 45-10 smackdown, although the Bears produced gobs of both. Coach Lovie Smith's players didn't lose their luggage en route to the Queen City: They lost their hearts, their desire, their professionalism. It didn't seem medically possible for an entire team to take the field without an individual or collective pulse, but that's the only explanation for the worst loss of the Smith era.
How bad was it? The Bengals scored touchdowns on their first four possessions and points on their first seven as quarterback Carson Palmer completed 20 of 24 passes and threw five touchdown passes -- four in the first half. The Bears' defense didn't force the Bengals to punt until midway through the fourth quarter, only to be flagged for running into the punter, giving Cincinnati a first down. Cutler fumbled two shotgun snaps and threw three interceptions. He now has a Rex Grossman-like 10 in six games.
''It was a total effort on their part as far as them knocking us around,'' Smith said.
And Bears players thought Cedric Benson was soft when he played in Chicago? Defenders are still rubbing the tiger stripes off their chests from Cedric the Avenger's helmet. The Bears' 2005 first-round pick, who was often ridiculed in Chicago, rushed around and over his former teammates for a career-high 189 yards. Every time he left the game for what appeared to be the final time, he would re-enter to seemingly rub the Bears' noses in it some more.
Fans seated near the tunnel held up Benson jerseys as defeated Bears players walked silently off the field when the game mercifully ended. What, after all, could players say after Matt Forte, drafted to replace Benson, finished with less than 25 rushing yards for the second straight game?
Chad Ochocinco, who has never had an unspoken thought, covered more topics than AM radio on scan this week and backed it up (10 catches, 118 yards, two touchdowns). Tank Johnson, another Bears expatriate, contributed to a defense that toyed with the Bears' offense.
''Everybody knew it was going to be an emotional day,'' Benson said. ''Everybody knew. What a wonderful day and a wonderful thing, to go out there and strut your stuff.''
Those hoping Sunday's game would bring some long-awaited clarity after an up-and-down first five games never expected this. The Bears aspire to be a playoff entrant, but even with the division-leading Vikings falling from the ranks of the unbeaten, it's hard to imagine a team capable of turning in this wretched of a performance overtaking Brett Favre and Adrian Peterson to win the division. That means the Bears will be vying for a wild-card spot, and having already lost to early wild-card favorites such as the Falcons and Packers, and with the Cardinals, 49ers, Eagles, Vikings (twice), Packers and Ravens still on the schedule, the outlook suddenly looks grim.
Several players pointed out that the Bears still control their destiny. But their margin for error keeps shrinking. Coaches and players claim they've yet to play their best game, which may be true. But if they haven't by now, who's to say they will, especially after this fiasco?
''We've been here before,'' Danieal Manning said. ''Sometimes you get sick of being in this situation. You have to get back and look at the man in the mirror and man up to the mistakes we made. We deserve everything that's going to be said.''
Had the Bears manned up after last week's loss to Atlanta, we would never have known what it was like to watch Jesse Owens in the 1936 Olympics, Bob Beamon shatter the world long-jump record or Jack Nicklaus win the Masters at the ripe old age of 46. It didn't make the hair on the back of your neck stand up, but this was history in the making, all right, even if it wasn't the kind of history the Bears set out to make.