Dancing Bear Matt Forte Only One Of Team’s Numerous Problems

• They are eighth in the league in penalties. Smith says this isn’t common for his teams. Apparently lying is. The Bears have been eighth or better in penalties committed during four of Smith’s six seasons. They’ve been fifth or higher in penalties three times in his six seasons.
• They say they are a running team but they passed 52 times last week against San Francisco in a game they never trailed by more than seven points. Giving up on the run is something they’ve done well all year and currently are on pace for the most pass attempts in team history.
• With 17 interceptions, quarterback Jay Cutler is just off the pace for a franchise single-season interceptions record.
• The defense plays well only against poor offenses like Detroit, Cleveland and San Francisco.
• The offensive line has been blamed constantly for a running attack that is ranked 30th.  It’s been so bad the Bears have given up early on the run and are tied for 30th in rushing attempts.

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Chicago Bears Stuck in Long, Vicious Downward Spiral

Quarterback Jay Cutler hadn’t even thrown the third of five interceptions Thursday night in one of the worst Bears offensive displays since the one-year era of former offensive coordinator Terry Shea.

Yet the analysts, and experts with NFL Network, and Internet bloggers, had already begun crucifying Cutler. The trade of Kyle Orton had blown up in the Bears’ faces, the buzz went, and now they’re left with no first round draft picks until 2011, along with a quarterback who is Rex Grossman with legs.

This is the kind of garbage you normally get from the people with networks and national websites who look at the surface, check out a number, give a grunt, and point a finger at the obvious as a problem.

While it’s hard to defend someone after a five-interception effort against a bad San Francisco team, Cutler’s situation requires deeper thinking.

No good? A waste of draft picks?

If Cutler isn’t legit, how did he produce more TDs than interceptions, and higher passer ratings with a Denver Broncos team that had virtually as little complementary running game as the Bears?

For one, the Broncos at least blocked for Cutler to get him time to throw, even if they couldn’t block for the run. After being sacked 19 times in nine games, Cutler is only eight sacks from the total he went down last year. He’s been sacked already eight more times than in all 16 games for 2007.

Sacks don’t tell the whole story in this case. If Cutler lacked the ability to step up, move side to side, or throw on the run, he’d probably already be on injured reserve. There are plenty of crash dummies that suffer less of a pounding in nine weeks than Cutler has.

So it’s the offensive line’s fault. This much can’t be denied. They’re unable to block for the run. They can’t protect Cutler.

They also commit senseless penalties, like the one Chris Williams had for unnecessary roughness on the final drive with the game on the line. Center Olin Kreutz makes more than an allowable share of bad shotgun snaps, one of which was probably responsible for one Cutler’s interception.

The effect of all this is easy to see for someone who paid attention to Cutler when he played in Denver.

Cutler dropped back, and his feet were set when he threw. He looked through his progression of receivers and didn’t rush. Now, when he gets a rare three or four seconds to throw in the pocket, his feet are never set until just as he is supposed to release the ball, because he’s getting gun shy.

It happens to anyone who takes a beating.

Watch the running of Matt Forte. He looks a little slow this year, most likely the result of his lack of training in the off-season after a hamstring pull in organized team activities. It set him back when he should have been building strength, and conditioning for the season.

However, he also has altered his running style, because the offensive line has absolutely no push. Forte is more likely to cut back away from the blocking scheme, because he panics, a bit like Cutler does. There is no hole, and he can’t follow the scheme. When he cuts back, he cuts right into the back-side pursuit and goes down quickly.

Who can blame him? Who can blame Cutler?

The trouble here is who can really blame the offensive line?

Orlando Pace, obviously, has had it. Chris Williams is basically a rookie at right tackle. Frank Omiyale was brought in with no playing experience, and turned into a starter. You can’t assemble a viable offensive line this way.

So now we arrive at the real root of the problem with the Bears’ offense.

General manager Jerry Angelo drew praise on all sides after trading for Cutler. Now, though, it’s apparent he has failed miserably in other ways.

Angelo has been a complete failure in drafting on Day One. The only first-round picks made by Angelo still on the team are Tommie Harris, Greg Olsen, and Williams.

One of Angelo’s biggest failure has been relying on free agency over the years to retool the offensive line, instead of actually drafting good linemen and playing, or training them.

Heading into this weekend’s play, the NFL’s Top 10 offenses had only one 2009 free agent acquisition playing. Baltimore is the 10th-ranked offense, and the Ravens got center Matt Birk from Minnesota in free agency. The Top Nine teams have no 2009 free agent acquisitions starting.

In fact, almost all of those lines are entirely comprised of players drafted by their current team, and used immediately as starters—or trained for a few years before becoming a starter.

The failures in the running game occur because the Bears, once again, pieced together an offensive line and thought it would somehow mesh in time for the regular season. Perhaps Omiyale will develop by next year. Maybe Chris Williams will, too. But Pace is done, and they’re heading off into 2010 with aging Kreutz at center, and a GM who can‘t draft linemen. And he has no picks to draft them with now, anyway.

A second issue facing the offense is their poor talent at wide receiver.

Devin Hester is still inconsistent, much like any player who is doing on-the-job training at a high level in the wrong position. He should be returning kicks and punts, and perhaps playing as the third receiver, or even playing in the backfield in passing situations.

Hester shouldn’t have been paid $40 million to be a No. 1 wide receiver. He fails to complete his pass routes. One of Cutler’s interceptions occurred because of this Thursday, and another came due to Hester falling. On the same drive, Hester committed two stupid penalties and then fell, leading to an interception.

Hester had more than 500 yards receiving in the first half of the season, but he gets far too many of those yards with the team trailing badly, or hopelessly out of games. He’s facing loose coverage and catching passes underneath in those situations.

Other Bears’ receivers show this same flaw Hester has in route running. When Cutler starts to scramble, or step up into the pocket, they almost always stop and stare for a few seconds before trying to extend their route, or go to a pre-planned point.

You can pin this one on receivers coach Darryl Drake, as well as coordinator Ron Turner.

Turner can take all the blame for the offense being completely unprepared to start games. Defenses know exactly what they’re doing, and are ready for it.

The Bears have 20 points in the first quarter in nine games. They have two touchdowns and two field goals. They are the height of predictability, and defenses are ready each week for them.

Turner’s contract is up, as are those of other offensive assistants. The bad part about that is coach Lovie Smith faces a year that could be his last.

If they dispatch Turner, they’re left with trying to find an offensive coordinator, and possibly other offensive assistants who are willing to work on what could be a one-year job. Good look finding anyone of ability willing to accept that possibility.

So let’s summarize:

No offensive line, mediocre wide receivers, a general manager who can’t draft, and has no draft picks, an offensive coordinator who is too predictable, and a head coach who is getting $10 million the next two years, and thus cannot be fired.

Welcome to NFL hell Bears fans.

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Dodge Ball: Chicago Bears, Lovie Smith Like Skipping The Tough Questions

One of the inexorable underlying qualities about coach Lovie Smith’s Chicago Bears has been a complete insistence that outsiders really do not know their game well enough to accurately point out their failings.

Smith treats criticism of the team by skipping over it and going on to what’s next.

“We’ll go from there,” he likes to say.

The players imitate him. Fans and media almost never get real answers about what’s actually going wrong or even right for that matter.

It’s rather difficult to just skim over Sunday’s 41-21 loss to the Arizona Cardinals and move on to the San Francisco 49ers Thursday night, though.

Even players had to admit this time that all the criticism media members gave the team after a 45-10 loss to the Cincinnati Bengals and a butt-ugly 30-6 win over Cleveland ultimately carried a huge stamp of validity.

“It’s like I told people during the week, I wanted that Cincinnati game to be a learning point,” defensive end Adewale Ogunleye said. “It doesn’t seem like we took enough notes in that game.

“Especially at home, to play like we did, in front of our home crowd, with the ‘C’ on our helmet, it’s embarrassing.”

The only thing stopping the Cardinals’ offense was referee Ed Hochuli’s whistle Sunday when he raised his gunboat arms straight in the air. The Cardinals drove up and down the field for touchdown marches of 81, 74, 70 and 86 yards to start the game.

Those scores brought the total number of touchdowns scored against the Bears defense within the red zone to 16 in a span of 18 red zone possessions. It’s almost like the Bears’ defense has shortened the field to 80 yards for opponents.

Get in the red zone and it’s over, you’re in.

“We’ve got to get off the field on third downs,” offered safety Danieal Manning after the Bears allowed Arizona to convert 57 percent of their third downs.

Getting off the field on any down at any yard marker would be a welcome sight.

The Bears got a forced turnover Sunday when the Cardinals took pity on them and inserted their own version of Cade McNown — selfish, underachieving, left-handed first-round draft choice Matt Leinart. He threw a poor, floating pass in the open to Zack Bowman and it very nearly helped fuel a Bears rally.

Yet Smith, who calls defensive signals, went a long way toward snuffing the rally out by senselessly ordering a blitz of Warner on third-and-25 from the Arizona 5-yard line. The Cardinals hadn’t even completed a pass longer than 23 yards all game, so Smith blitzes.

The Bears got burned, of course, but “held” the Cardinals to a 24 ½-yard gain. But they lost a ton of field position with their failed gamble and a 56-yard punt took care of the rest of the field position.

Then Jay Cutler’s gamble resulted in an interception that sealed the game. It was Cutler’s only interception of the game, although the offense hardly looked sharp. Nevertheless, you can hang this one entirely on Smith’s defense — just like the Cincinnati game.

Quarterback Kurt Warner accomplished whatever he wanted a week after he threw five interceptions. The five TD passes he threw tied the most ever allowed in a game by the Bears to a quarterback.

“We didn’t start fast at all,” said cornerback-turned-safety Nate Vasher. “The score indicated that, especially in the first half (31-7 at halftime). We can’t wait that long to turn it on and I guess that’s what the most disappointing thing is when you’re a good football team but don’t perform like it all the time.”

The Bears haven’t performed like they’ve known what they’re doing since beating Pittsburgh at home in Week two. They beat a couple bad teams in Detroit and Cleveland, beat a weak Seattle team without its starting quarterback and Pro Bowl middle linebacker.

Sunday their defense faced the worst running team in the NFL and gave up 182 rushing yards.

Maybe defensive tackle Tommie Harris had the right idea Sunday. In a stupid fit of rage, he got tossed for throwing a punch four plays into the contest. More and more, Harris is looking like the new Curtis Enis or Alonzo Spellman — a total enigma.

They gave him $40 million and he repays them by missing practices, drawing a suspension, getting ejected. This week don’t be surprised if he’s out again thanks to a league-mandated suspension. His punch was a malicious act which should result in a game away if there is justice in the NFL.

And where was Harris after the game? Did he step up before his locker and answer media questions about why he did this? Did he accept the music? Of course not.

He slid out of the locker room before it was opened to the press.

Why should that surprise anyone, though. It’s the entire attitude displayed by Smith himself when he dodges questions or refuses to give up why things go wrong. The Bears believe they are responsible only to themselves, not the fans.

“You look at reality, to me, and we’re 4-4,” Smith said. “That’s all you can look at. We’re 4-4.

“We haven’t played the defending champs in our division. We have a lot of important football games coming up. You’re disappointed in today, which we are, but then you move forward and you just do everything you can to get a win the next time out, and that’s what we’ll do.”

Life is just one big back door for the Chicago Bears, from the players to their head coach.

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What the Chicago Bears’ Offense Needs Is (An) Execution

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More Trouble For Chicago Bears Defensive Tackle Tommie Harris

Remember the good old days when Bears coach Lovie Smith and defensive tackle Tommie Harris were fellow Texans in arms, working for a common cause?

Apparently those days are long gone.

Smith on Monday more or less admitted to benching Harris prior to Sunday’s 45-10 debacle at Cincinnati  because he didn’t practice last week.

“There isn’t anything wrong with Tommie,” Smith said Monday after the team sorted through a horror film, aka Cedric Benson‘s Revenge. “Tommie didn’t play this week, it was more a coach’s decision as much as anything.

“He has had some (knee) soreness. He didn’t practice all week. I thought we had better options.”

By better options, Smith meant Marcus Harrison, Anthony Adams and Israel Idonije playing the under tackle position in the Bears front four. He didn’t have Matt Toeiana or rookie Jarron Gilbert active on game day when both could have filled in at tackle.

“I mean all player decisions on who’s going to dress is a game day decision, who gives us the best opportunity to win,” Smith said. “Could Tommie have played if I wanted him to? Yes, but I thought we could get a better Tommie if we let him rest this past week and get ready for this week. We should see, Tommie should be good to go this week.”

So the Bears are definitely planning on Harris playing Sunday at Soldier Field against Cleveland.

“Definitely, those are strong words there,” Smith said. “But he should be in better shape to play this week than he was last.”

The key will be if Harris practices. Last week he didn’t practice at all. It has become a common practice for the Bears to rest Harris at least one day a week, if not two, due to the chronic problem he has had with his right knee since a 2007 injury.

“For a player to really prove he’s ready to go, it would help for him to be able to practice throughout the week, and we think Tommie will be ready to go all week,” Smith said.

Last Friday Smith announced Harris was doubtful after he missed a third straight practice.

Harris did warm up briefly on Sunday prior to the game but never dressed for the contest. After the disastrous game, he blurted  a couple phrases in answer to questions while getting dressed for the trip to the airport.

“It wasn’t true,” Harris said when asked if he was too hurt to play. “You talk to them.”
Apparently Harris thinks it’s all right to miss practices but play in games. Smith does not.

It’s not the first time the two have been at odds. Last year Harris got suspended for a game against Detroit because he missed scheduled knee treatments.

Smith claimed Harris is emotionally ready and focused, although the former Pro Bowl defensive tackle was nowhere to be found Monday at Halas Hall to confirm this.

“Tommie’s fine on where he needs to be emotionally, just like the rest of our football team,” Smith said. “Don’t know exactly how to answer that question. He’s just like the rest of the guys, he’s going to show up Wednesday, ready to go (to practice) try to help this team win.”

Harris received a $40 million contract extension after 2007 and has produced five sacks since then. He has nine tackles, no sacks and an interception this year for five games.

The Bears have plenty of problems with their defensive front, one they said would be drastically improved with the addition this year of defensive line coach Rod Marinelli.

They haven’t produced a sack the last two games and they seem to cave in when anyone gets near the goal line. Opposing offenses have scored touchdowns on 11 of their last 13 trips inside the red zone against the Bears.

Still, Smith isn’t down on the front four as a whole. He thinks Sunday was an aberration and the sack-free game with Atlanta the previous week totally unrelated.

“We held Atlanta down pretty good, except for a couple plays, so I feel pretty good with what our defensive line has been doing overall,” Smith said. “Let’s not make this any bigger, like the rest of our team, none of us did what we were supposed to do yesterday, defensive line included, but we have a good group on our defensive line and we all will play better this week.”

Including Harris—if he practices.

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Chicago Bears Defenseless Against Cedric Benson and Cincinnati Bengals

CINCINNATI—Apparently Tommie Harris was doing a lot more than everyone thought.

The Bears played without their once dominant, now perpetually convalescing defensive tackle, and made him look good by producing their worst defensive effort since Lovie Smith became coach in a 45-10 loss Sunday to the Cincinnati Bengals.

This was ugly. It wasn’t Patriots-Titans ugly, but it was ugly none-the-less.

“Early on it was just for some reason one of those games where we started slow,” said defensive end Adewale Ogunleye.

Starting slow has been a problem all year for the defense. Staying slow became the problem Sunday.

The Bengals rolled to 448 yards.

“It was a total breakdown by us. But you move on,” coach Lovie Smith said. “Experience teaches you a lot. I have been through this situation before. We lost 45-0 and came back and played for the championship that year.”

That was when he coached with Tampa Bay. This Bears’ defense is neither Tampa Bay’s of 1999 nor the Bears’ defense that went to Super Bowl XLI. It’s not even the defense that started out this year.

The Bengals exposed a Bears’ defense that has been on shaky grounds all year long, or at least since linebacker Brian Urlacher went to the sidelines at halftime of the first game.

When Carson Palmer threw a three-yard, play-action touchdown pass to tight end J.P. Foschi for a 21-0 Cincinnati lead, it marked the third straight time the Bears’ defense had allowed a touchdown on a Bengals’ drive inside the red zone. This has become a real trend.

It was also the eighth touchdown they allowed in nine opposing red zone possessions, and it was quickly followed by another one; nine-for-10 in the red zone for touchdowns.

“We weren’t ready to go,” Smith said.

The Bears wouldn’t admit to being taken by surprise by a Cincinnati unbalanced offensive line that used an extra tackle at the start, or by the use of the inverted wishbone on running plays with two fullbacks ahead of Cedric Benson. They played smash-mouth football.

“Not at all. They did what they normally do running-game wise,” Smith said. “It was the same plays they’d been running.”

The results, though, were better than what the Bengals had been churning out against other defenses. For Benson to get a career high of 189 yards on 37 carries against his old team made for a perfect revenge scenario.

“My hat’s off to Cedric,” Bears linebacker Hunter Hillenmeyer said. “I’m sure he’s feeling great right now, to have a game like that against guys who supposedly discarded you.

“But that’s the life of the NFL. I don’t think anybody on our side has been in that situation. I wish him the best. I hope he has a good year, is healthy. But we didn’t play well. We didn’t make tackles. We didn’t get lined up right. If he’s not getting hit until he’s 10 yards downfield, that’s bad defense.”

Ten yards? Try 15. It didn’t matter that it was Cedric Benson doing it. It could have been Robbie Benson back there carrying the ball. The holes were that big.

At least the Bears defense did find a way to silence motormouth Chad Ochocinco, who had 10 catches for 118 yards and two touchdowns—they let him run wherever he wanted and catch whatever he wanted. He was too out of breath to run at the mouth, or even come up with a creative touchdown dance.

“There was no blabber going or anything like that,” cornerback Charles Tillman said. “He was in his game. I was in my game.”

Ochocinco was a little bit more into his game on this day, and so were all the Bengals.

So we are left to ponder whether this was the exception to the rule, or the rule of the future.

While it may have been sarcasm to say the Bears showed today that Tommie Harris had been doing more than anyone thought, it’s dead serious to suggest that this team has hit a point where missing players has dragged down the level of play.

When you’re without the face of the team, Urlacher, for the rest of the year, and also strong side starter Pisa Tinoisamoa, it’s difficult to overcome. The Bears had been doing it.

But Harris is still the anchor of the defensive line even when he isn’t performing up to the level he had in 2005-06. He takes up double teams and helps cave in run blocking schemes before they start to a far greater extent than anyone on the roster.

Even with Harris out of the game due to nagging knee pain, the Bears didn’t have rookie Jarron Gilbert, or Matt Toeaina active for this game. They’ve only been active once each, which shows what coaches think of them.

Israel Idonije is too light to play the under tackle and Marcus Harrison too inexperienced. Without Tommie Harris and the others, this defense is in trouble.

“Obviously people will say that this week,” Hillenmeyer said. “We’ve played without Brian all year. Pisa has played less than half of a total football game. “So to blame it on the fact that we’ve been missing guys is letting ourselves off the hook.”

After Sunday’s performance, no one wants to let the defense off the hook. They’ll be on it until they get themselves off of it. And without unless they get Harris back, it might be a long time.

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Jay Cutler Earning His Money The Hard Way With Chicago Bears

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Jay Cutler-to-Greg Olsen Connection Falls Flat For Chicago Bears

A funny thing happened on tight end Greg Olsen’s way to becoming quarterback Jay Cutler’s go-to guy.

Cutler got to some other receivers.

So four games and 10 catches for 94 yards into the season, the Bears head into their Sunday night road matchup against the Atlanta Falcons trying for a re-launch on Olsen’s season as a Pro Bowl type tight end.

“I feel that I have that type of potential and that type of ability, and things have to go your way sometimes and get the breaks,” Olsen said Wednesday at Halas Hall. “But I feel good overall about how my game’s been through the first quarter of the season.

“I know a lot of the other stuff gets looked past—the run-blocking, pass-blocking; stuff like that—but I’m not really too concerned about all the stuff that gets said. I feel good about where I’m at and just have to continue to not press and when the chances come just make the best of them.”

So far, Olsen has struggled to come up with clutch third-and-short catches, which they hope will be his strength. He’s been targeted 25 times and has just 10 catches. 

Cutler has thrown to Olsen needing four yards or less for a first down or touchdown a dozen times. The Bears have two first downs, two touchdowns and eight incompletions on those 12 passes.

Like Tom Cruise was told in “Risky Business,” “… it isn’t quite Ivy League, is it?”

So why isn’t Olsen the Chicago version of Jason Witten when it seemed he was headed that way after 54 catches last year and 39 as a rookie in 2007? Cutler thinks it has more to do with the opponents.

“A lot of teams are going to try to take him away from us, which is fine,” Cutler said. “That’s why it’s opened up stuff for everyone else. There’s going to be a time and a place where Greg’s going to start getting his balls and really start getting involved and there will be a couple-week span  where he gets two or three balls. He understands that, this offense understands that.

“We’re not going to make a big issue out of how many balls anyone catches or how many yards we run for or pass for.”

Olsen thinks defenses are focusing on him a great deal more than his rookie season, but not necessarily a lot more than last year.

“A lot of guys around the league get different attention and different looks each week and you just have to adjust and take what’s there.

“Last (game) we were able to score a lot of points. At the end of the game, it’s not about how many catches and the stats. When the plays come your way, make them, and the rest of the stuff takes care of of itself. I’m not too worried about stats around here.”

It’s easier to take a tight end away from on offense than it is to take away wide receivers or even running backs.

“Because if he has to line up in the natural tight end position it’s a lot of people that are around him,” tight end Desmond Clark said. “And you can have the defensive end bump him, and then from there you got the linebacker who can bump him and then you’ve still got the safety.

“So you can do so much with so many different levels of your defense to shut a tight end down where with a receiver he’s out in space more and there’s limited stuff that you can do.”

That said, Clark isn’t so sure it’s the way defenses are trying to stop Olsen as much as it is other targets making themselves available to Cutler.

“Instead, it’s a situation where everybody is stepping up and playing an equal share in this,” Clark said. “At the beginning of the season nobody was expecting Johnny (Knox) to be making catches like he’s making, so I don’t think people are shutting (Olsen) down. The ball is just getting spread out more.”

Clark speculated that Olsen’s time will come simply because he’ll get hot and Cutler will start looking his way more often as that happens.

“With football, somebody is hot for a couple weeks and then they try to take them away and it switches to somebody else,” Clark said. “He’s going to have his three or four or five games where he’s going to heat up and he’s going to get those catches and get those stats that everybody thought he would get.

“It’s just that right now the receivers are making some outstanding plays. Because they’re making plays, we don’t have to look to Greg to make those plays everybody thought he was going to make.”

But the numbers say Olsen is getting the chances. He has yet to produce in a way that‘s expected.

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Numbers Adding Up For Bears’ Defense, But Not All Of Them

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Special Kind Of Victory For 3-1 Chicago Bears Over Detroit Lions

The Bears could call it a special victory Sunday, even if defeat and Detroit have become synonyms in recent years.

Everyone from the special teams, to the defense, to quarterback Jay Cutler, to running back Matt Forte and even the coaching staff had big parts in a 48-24 victory at Soldier Field over the Lions.

“To get to 3-1 takes a lot, especially after starting out with a loss,” coach Lovie Smith said. “Guys did a super job.

“We know how to finish a game, but need to start stronger and faster.”

The Bears finished by outscoring Detroit in the second half 27-3 after struggling to a 21-all halftime tie. The Bears played better in the second half of all four games this year, but Sunday it took a special teams play to pave the way for the strong finish.

Johnny Knox took the second half kickoff back 102 yards for a touchdown on a day when special teams ruled.

“We’ve won a lot of games with our special teams and today that was definitely the case,” Smith said.

Besides the kickoff return — second longest in Bears history behind Gale Sayers’ 103-yard return in 1967 — Devin Hester returned a punt 24 yards, Earl Bennett returned punts 25 and 21 yards, Robbie Gould kicked a  personal best 52-yard third-quarter field goal and Brad Maynard dumped all four of his punts inside the 20-yard line.

The end result: the Bears’ average starting point for their 13 drives was their 46-yard line. The Lions’ average starting point for their 13 possessions was their own 13.

“We had short fields, a lot of short fields from the defense,” said quarterback Jay Cutler, who had to throw for only 141 yards in a 48-point game. “They kept pinning them down there.”

The special teams or defensive play which resulted in the best field position was the TD return by Knox, who went out with a shin injury that didn’t appear serious after the game. Coordinator Dave Toub got a great deal of credit from players for the call, which was an attempt to take advantage of the way Detroit overpursued to cover kickoffs.

“It’s a designed bounce or naked, however you want to call it,” Toub said. “Everyone is blocking left and then he bounces it out naked to the backside.

“We saw that they were overpursuing. We ran left, left, left in the first half and then we came out in the second half with the left and bounced it to the right.”

Another reason the Bears called this a special win was the defensive linemen delivered in the second half to deliver their new mentor, former Lions coach Rod Marinelli, a victory over his old team.

They came up with a season-high five sacks, including 2 ½ by Adewale Ogunleye who recovered a Matt Stafford fumble caused by Israel Idonije. Defensive tackle Tommie Harris made his first career interception to set up a TD.

Afterward they gave Marinelli a game ball.

“My career has been up and down, up and down,” Ogunleye said. “I think I’ve finally got a (coach) who has helped me forget about each play. Even after the sacks I don’t think about it and try to get another one. I just play for the now.

“I credit coach Marinelli. He’s helping the whole defensive line.”

Marinelli wasn’t the only coach getting credit from defenders. Smith made a halftime adjustment after Stafford hooked up with 6-foot-5 Calvin Johnson five times for 119 yards in the first half.

“We came in  (at halftime) and coach Smith made an audible,” cornerback Charles Tillman said. “He told me I would follow Calvin. That was it.”

Tillman no longer was the left cornerback, but the Calvin Johnson cornerback. All over the field he watched Johnson, who made only three more catches for 14 yards.

The Lions offense vanished.

The Bears own offense moved along at an unsteady but effective pace as they were outgained 398 yards to 276.

“Offensively we didn’t really get into a rhythm,” Cutler said. “It was tough. To score 48 points and have that few yards, your defense and special teams have to do a great job, which they did today.”

The Bears’ offense did chip in with two more goal line TD passes by Cutler to tight ends, one each to Kellen Davis and Greg Olsen, and the running game came to life for the first time as Matt Forte broke a 61-yard first-quarter run en route to a season-high 121 yards on 12 carries. He also had a 37-yard second-half TD run.

“The offensive line did an excellent job pushing them off the ball, and when you get movement off the ball, that just gives me time to make a move or to read, use my vision to see what’s going on in the play,” Forte said.

The injury to Knox, a shoulder injury suffered by Hester in the first half, a knee injury by running back Adrian Peterson and a shoulder injury to cornerback Zack Bowman clouded the future beyond the bye week. The severity of each will be known later in the week.

“(Winning) makes the bye more enjoyable,” Olsen said. “You kind of get your bodies healthy and get ready for the long haul for the rest of the season.”

 

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