Cardinals 41, Bears 21
Boooooooooooooooo!!!
Chicago Bears players and coaches deserved every bit of the rough treatment they got from the Soldier Field crowd as they walked off the field at halftime Sunday. They couldn't have been more ill-prepared, more lethargic, more overwhelmed than they were in the first half. They were down 31-7 by the end of the second quarter and went on to lose by 20 in another game against a team they supposedly were pretty equal with going in.
I'd been a bigger Lovie Smith supporter than most Bears fans, meaning only that I haven't been clamoring for his firing for the past couple of years. I thought a Super Bowl berth and a career record that now stands at 45-35 should have earned him some leeway. Now I'm as fed up as anyone. It's one thing for him to be condescending and reveal nothing to the media and, by association, Bears fans during press conferences. It's another for his team to come out and get blown off the field by decent, but hardly great, teams from Cincinnati and Arizona in the span of three weeks.
Even in the Bears' most quality wins over Pittsburgh and Seattle, they haven't played well from the get-to. The Bears did drive right down the field and score on their first series — ending a miserable stretch of opening drives for coordinator Ron Turner's offense — but they didn't score again during the first half. Smith's defense had absolutely no answers for Kurt Warner and the Cardinals, at least not before halftime. Where on Earth is the pass rush that Rod Marinelli — supposedly the greatest defensive line coach around — was suppposed to get out of Adewale Ogunleye, Mark Anderson, Alex Brown and, oh yes, Tommie Harris?
In case you missed it, Harris wasn't on the field beyond the first few plays of the game — and I don't mean that in the sarcastic sense I may have said it for previous weeks of his very disappointing season. He was quickly ejected for punching Cardinals guard Deuce Lutui. I don't care that Lutui had been playing Harris dirty, as many Bears claimed. Harris reacting like he did is an embarassment for him and for an organization that has to be astounded by how little it has received from its highly-paid lineman after all the promise he showed ealry in his career.
Harris was far from the only Bear to have a bad day. Charles Tillman, prior to exiting with an injury, showed once again that he's incapable of covering a top-flight receiver like Arizona's Larry Fitzgerald one-on-one. Why the Bears keep throwing him out on the Fitzgeralds, the Ochocincos and the Smiths of the NFL without regular help is beyond me. Then again, Tillman was hardly the worst player in the Bears secondary. Zack Bowman had another rough day, and the safeties were ineffective in all aspects of the game.
Jay Cutler actually had his best game as a Bear. I liked everything about the way he played, even his interception, which came when Earl Bennett ran a bad route and Cutler forced a ball in a spot where his team needed to take risks. Greg Olsen came alive a bit, and neither the receivers nor Matt Forte had bad days. Any and all positives that the Bears had on offense, however, were overshadowed by their countless mistakes on defense and special teams.
