Bears' first-string offense shut out by Cardinals

Watching Seneca's thrilling 30-27 prep football win over Coal City Friday night got me all pumped up about football season getting underway.

Watching Saturday's 14-9 Bears loss to Arizona was almost enough to make me want to watch Cubs baseball. Almost. But if we have to watch the Bears play like this all fall, then Blackhawks hockey can't get here soon enough.

The third preseason game is the dress rehearsal for the regular season, and the Bears faced an opponent that seemed like easy pickings in Arizona. Defensively the Bears were disappointing, allowing the Derek Anderson-led and Larry Fitzgerald-less Cardinals to do more than I felt they should have. But the defense was light years better than the offense. Chicago's first-string offense produced no points and two Jay Cutler interceptions. Except for one long Chester Taylor run, it did nothing productive or encouraging.

I'm as big a "the preseason means nothing" guy as anyone, but it's one thing to lose in the preseason, or even to struggle occasionally at incorporating some things. It's quite another to have an entirely new offense in place and to look so completely lost at running it. Receivers were out of place, Cutler was under pressure and very rattled and solutions seem to be nonexistent.

The regular-season opener is less than two weeks away, and only a final exhibition game Thursday against Cleveland that will not be taken seriously remains to prepare for it. Detroit once looked a great draw for the Bears for Week 1, but it's looking more and more like a potential loss ... and the start to a potentially very long and very painful season for Bears fans.