Eagles – 24

Bears – 20

The Bears failed to close out a winnable game last night at home against the Eagles.  Ahead 20-17 late in the game, the Bears defense allowed the Eagles to march down the field for a go ahead touchdown drive.  With the offense given one final chance to lead the Bears to a win, a second down throw by Jay Cutler was tipped by a defender and picked out of the air by another Eagle for his only interception of the game.

The Best thing about Cutler’s performance last night was that he only threw one interception.  Other than that, he was awful.  He finished 24/43, with 171 yards, one touchdown and one interception.  Hidden in the stats however is the fact that Cutler horribly missed three wide open receivers throughout the game.  One of those misses came on what could have been a go ahead touchdown pass to Johnny Knox, who had sped past the defender and into the open field only to see the pass from Cutler sail over his head.  Cutler’s confidence appears to have disappeared.  Hopefully it can return in the near future, especially after some staff changes such as an offensive coordinator change.  With Turner gone next season, Jay would be under his third coordinator in 3 years and it’s a possibility that his development may suffer.

Matt Forte continued to struggle while Kahlil Bell, the recently promoted practice squad player, ran for 81 yards on 4 carries.  Bells first career carry came early in the second quarter and he broke through the line and raced for 72 yards before being tackled deep in Eagle territory.  He continued to run hard in limited action after that and raised questions as to whether Matt Forte is a featured back like previously thought.

The defense gave up 24 points while creating three turnovers.  They allowed the Eagles to take a lead late in the game but redeemed themselves when they got the ball back for one more offensive drive.  Briggs continued his pro bowl level season as he recorded 11 tackles and a sack.  Also, Zack Bowman is developing into quite the ballhawk, recording an interception in his third straight game.  Unfortunately, he is still a below average cornerback and gets beat too much.

Lovie Smith continued to spew his typical optimism after the game and reiterated to the media that there is still plenty of football to play.  Someone needs to tell Lovie that there are only 6 games left and the Bears essentially finished in what turned out to be a pathetic season.  On the bright side, Lovie only has two years left on his contract and Ron Turner is almost certain to be gone after this season.  The Bears need to bring in a competent staff quickly and get this team playing at a high level.  Right now, the current regime is not getting the job done.

Bengals – 45

Bears – 10

Only a week after a disappointing loss to the Falcons, the Bears returned to action only to show how pathetic of a team they really are.  In a game where nothing went right for the Bears, the Bengals easily jumped out to a 31-0 lead before the Bears even knew what hit them.  With the Bears secondary often out of place and confused, Carson Palmer completed 20 of 24 passes for 233 yards and 5 touchdowns.  Cincinnati scored touchdowns on their first 4 drives and were not even held to a punt until late in the game.  When the Bears finally made a stop and forced a punt, a running into the kicker penalty gave the Bengals a first down.

Cedric Benson ran wild as he looked nothing like he did when playing for the Bears. He racked up 189 yards and a touchdown while Bears defenders could do little to slow him down.  He tore through the Bears’ front 7 like it was nothing.

Again, Cutler failed to protect the ball well.  He threw 3 interceptions and fumbled the ball twice on shotgun snaps.  When your quarterback is playing like that, it’s going to be hard to win a lot of games.  In his defense, it’s tough to make good throws when the line can’t block for you, but Cutler still needs to stop forcing so many throws.

Defensively, this was easily the worst performance of recent memory.  For the second straight game the Bears failed to record a sack.  The lack of pressure up front allowed Palmer to relax in the pocket and pick the secondary apart like they were a high school team.  Zack Bowman and Charles Tillman are really proving they are worthless as starting cornerbacks.  Meanwhile the front seven did little to slow down Benson on his way to an excellent game on the ground.

There really is not one positive aspect that came out of this loss.  Lovie Smith simply failed to have his team ready to play.  The players don’t seem to respond to Lovie anymore.  He is unable to motivate them and the result is a game like we witnessed today.  Aside from the poor offensive line and offensive play calling, Lovie Smith is a huge problem for this team.  Lovie is a good coach, but he isn’t good enough to get the job done in Chicago.  He is consistently getting out-coached while not motivating his players enough to play hard and win.  If this continues for the remainder of the season the Bears need to think about dumping Lovie and bringing in a real head coach with a real defensive scheme as well.  Lovie’s cover 2 can’t get the job done for the Bears.  Too many teams know how to rip it apart while Lovie fails to make the proper adjustments to stop the bleeding.