Bears fall out of playoff contention
Maybe coach Lovie Smith will continue to prattle on about the Chicago Bears being a good football team, but it's now certain that they're not good enough to make the playoffs.
Like an overwhelming majority of what's transpired during the 2009 season, Sunday's 21-14 home loss to Green Bay was a disappointment. Though they were severely outplayed during the first half, the Bears actually led 14-13 early in the second half. They maintained the momentum until — what else? — an interception thrown by Jay Cutler swung control of it back to the Packers. Control of the lead soon followed, and the Bears' attempts at coming back were predictably feeble.
Smith's use of a timeout followed by a failed challenge was laughable and inexcusable, but I was happy about a few decisions he and his staff made. Among them were starting Chris Williams at left tackle and getting Devin Aromashadu an extended look at receiver. Williams bombed, but Aromashodu caught eight passes.
The Bears have to learn what they have in these young players so they can decide which of their many, many needs to deprioritize this offseason. Williams and Aromashodu, along with WR Juaquin Iglesias, OL Lance Louis, DLs Gaines Adams, Marcus Harrison and Jarron Gilbert, LB Jamar Williams and CB D.J. Moore should all get extensive looks the rest of the way, whether they're the Bears' best player at their position or not.
Of course, Smith might make the Bears' future less of a priority than it should be, given that he's no cinch to be a part of it. Sunday's extrordinary number of penalties called against the Bears, compled with Smith's awful management of timeouts and challenges, probably dealt a serious blow to his job status if the Bears were already reviewing it, as it's expected that they are. His future is now, and if Orlando Pace, Rashied Davis and Anthony Adams continue to hog all the playing time because of that, it's only one more bad thing for the Bears that will come out of this bad season.
