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Brutal Effort by Bears in 45-10 Thrashing

Posted Oct 25, 2009 8:40PM By Matt Snyder (RSS feed)

Filed Under: Chicago Bears, Bengals, AFC North, NFC North

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Bengals 45, Bears 10. It was 45-3 before the Bears finally got into the end zone, but the game had long been over at that point. It was one of those games that makes you wonder -- were the Bengals that good or the Bears that bad? As is usually the case when you ask that question, it was a combination of both. You have to give the Bengals credit, especially Carson Palmer for his precision passing. Well, really, the entire team deserves loads of credit.

Still, this game was more about how pathetic the Bears played. For a team with Super Bowl aspirations, that was a simply despicable attempt at playing football on nearly every front. More games like that, and the playoffs won't even be a possibility come late November.

The offensive line is awful, just downright atrocious. Jay Cutler has about two seconds to throw before being hit, and this was against a team who just lost its best pass rusher. Matt Forte has maybe six inches of running room on any given play. And make no mistake about it, Cutler made some awful passes, while Forte is running like he's planning on living off his rookie reputation for the rest of his career. Receivers are playing volleyball (Cutler's second pick was batted upward by his intended receiver before being intercepted) and losing fumbles (Devin Hester, though he otherwise had a nice stat-line).

The defense was an absolute sieve. Palmer had more touchdown passes (five) than incompletions (four), which sounds like a video game stat. Chad Ochocinco schooled Charles Tillman, just like he said he would. Cedric Benson proved his point, I guess (don't even get me started on him, he's still a joke of a man -- even if he's a good running back now). The defense as a whole misses tackles with alarming frequency, mostly due to trying to rip out the football instead of simply making the tackle (which is Lovie-ball -- he wants takeaways, after all). There was no pass rush.

The stats look pretty bad as well, not surprisingly. The Bears were outgained by 169 yards, earned only half as many first downs as Cincy did and turned it over four times. They allowed the Bengals to convert on eight of 12 third downs. And they can't run, rushing for just 35 yards.

Did the team not know they had a game Sunday? Were they unprepared? Were they satisfied with only losing to the Falcons by seven the previous week?

Whatever the reason, that wasn't a playoff-caliber team Sunday. Lovie Smith was outcoached, the offense sucked and the defense sucked. That wasn't even the work of a six-win team. Beating the Browns at home next week won't mean things are all of a sudden better, either. The Bears have some serious work to do in order to live up to expectations.

Tags: carson+palmer, CarsonPalmer, cedric+benson, CedricBenson, chad+ochocinco, ChadOchocinco, charles+tillman, CharlesTillman, devin+hester, DevinHester, lovie+smith, LovieSmith, matt+forte, MattForte

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