Bears' loss to Panthers a total team failure
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Blame whomever you want for the Bears' second straight second-half collapse because it was a total team failure in the second half Sunday that allowed the Panthers to score 24 of the game's final 27 points and prevail 31-24.
A week earlier the Bears allowed Green Bay to score the game's final 24 points in a 38-17 loss.
This time it was worse. At least the Packers are supposed to be a playoff team.
Carolina had lost its previous two games by a combined score of 75-29. The Panthers also played Sunday without their three best running backs, all out with injuries, and they gave the Bears the ball three times on 2 fumbles and an interception.
But the Panthers still had enough to drop the Bears to 2-3 and improve their own record to 3-2, as they took the ball away from the losers four times, twice on fumble recoveries and twice on interceptions.
Maybe the most depressing aspect of the loss from the Bears' perspective was how poorly the highly touted and highly paid offense performed. The 4 turnovers were the most noticeable offensive problems.
Special teams contributed to the defeat, too, permitting a freak 79-yard punt-return touchdown to open the scoring.
But the Bears' offense is the engine that is supposed to power the playoff drive this year, and it failed miserably Sunday in the biggest of moments.
After the defense gave away a 21-7 lead by allowing a 75-yard TD drive at the end of the first half and then an 86-yard touchdown march early in the third quarter, the Bears' offense scored its only points of the second half on a 45-yard Robbie Gould field goal to take a 24-21 lead.
But, given a chance to pad that lead, the inconsistent offense sputtered for 12 yards on its next two possessions — and then it got really bad.
Blessed with excellent field position at his own 47-yard line, quarterback Jay Cutler, on the second play, threw his second interception, far over the head of intended receiver Santonio Holmes.
Graham Gano tied it for the Panthers with a 44-yard field goal with 4:29 left.
“It just got away from me,” Cutler said of the pick. “It just got high. High and over the middle is never good. And it happened twice.”
The first interception came on a ball that Brandon Marshall was able to get his hands on despite tight coverage, but he lost his grip when he was hit and Carolina safety Roman Harper came away with the ball.
Still, the Bears' offense had plenty of time to recapture the lead. But on its next play, Matt Forte lost a fumble at the Bears' 23, and the Panthers quickly drove to the go-ahead score.
“I was fighting for extra yards,” Forte said, “You've just got to put two hands on it when you make contact. When I started fighting for extra yards, I needed to put two hands on it.”
Again the offense had a chance to redeem itself with 2:13 remaining and down 7 points. But after 1 first down the Bears' final four plays went incompletion, sack, incompletion, sack (and fumble).
Game over.
Of the Bears' 347 total yards, only 112 came after halftime. And their first 2 TD “drives,” covered just 28 and 13 yards, thanks to turnovers forced by the defense.
“There were many opportunities for us to close it out,” said Cutler, who completed 25 of his first 29 passes and 28 of 36 for 289 yards on the day with 2 touchdowns and a 95.5 passer rating.
“We put our defense in a really bad spot. I thought they played well given the circumstances and some of the field position we put them in.
“Offensively, a lot of that was on me. We just have to play better.”
The offensive failures actually began late in the first half. After a Lance Briggs interception, Forte galloped 56-yards with a screen pass, but the Bears stalled at the Panthers' 17. A field goal would have put the Bears ahead 24-7, but Gould inexplicably missed a 35-yard chip shot just after the two-minute warning.
“Going into halftime, we would have liked those points,” said Forte, who was removed for the remainder of that possession after his long reception in favor of rookie Ka'Deem Carey. “I would've liked to have been in there to at least keep the drive going.”
The Panthers quickly drove 75 yards to pull within 21-14 at halftime.
Coming away empty after Forte's long catch and run and then allowing a quick Panthers TD swung the momentum going into intermission.
“Carolina came back,” Trestman said. “They went down the field and made some good plays and got a touchdown. It's the National Football League. These are four-quarter games.”
That may be a point Trestman should stress to his team this week, especially his offense.
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