Bears believe their offense is about to soar

The Bears' offense believes it is much better than its mediocre showing so far this season, and Sunday in Atlanta provides a tailor-made opportunity to prove it.

That's because the Falcons are bad at defense. Only three teams are worse than they are in total yards and points allowed. Only two teams are worse in yards per play. Only one team has allowed a higher sack percentage.

Like the Bears, the Falcons are coming off back-to-back losses, and they gave up 71 points in those two games to the Minnesota Vikings and New York Giants. The Bears gave up 69 in their defeats.

But according to statistics, the Bears' offense, which is sprinkled with Pro Bowl players and big salaries, isn't very good either. The Bears are 17th in total yards and tied for 16th in points. Last year they were No. 8 and No. 2, respectively.

So much for the expected big improvement in Year 2 of the offense of head coach Marc Trestman and coordinator Aaron Kromer.

“Obviously we're extremely disappointed,” Trestman said. “We haven't even come close to playing the game that we want to play. We've certainly seen a resemblance of the team and the offense we want to become, but we haven't performed at that level, and we're honest with ourselves about it.”

Quarterback Jay Cutler doesn't take umbrage when asked if the offense feels like it has underachieved.

“Sure,” Cutler said. “I think that's fair.”

Cutler doesn't accept the status quo, though, and he believes the situation can and will be improved, especially the second-half slumps that have plagued the offense the past two weeks.

“It's hard to look past the turnovers,” Cutler said. “We have to concentrate on that. If we clean that up, we think that that's going to solve a majority of our problems.”

The Bears have turned the ball over six times in the back-to-back losses, including 5 by Cutler, 4 interceptions and a fumble.

Kromer says the feeling among the players after last week's 31-24 loss to the Panthers is that the inconsistency and inefficiency have gone on long enough.

“You could see the angst in the team after the game (as if) to say, ‘I don't know why that happened, but we're going to get it fixed,' ” Kromer said. “And that's the approach that our offense had this week. (They were) really focused in and said, ‘We can't have this. We are better than this. We need to score more touchdowns.' ”

A prime example of the offense's lack of efficiency is running back Matt Forte. He's third in the NFL with 618 yards from scrimmage but has just 1 touchdown on 118 touches.

“We talked about it, me and Jay, and Jay talked to the offense about it,” Forte said. “We know we're better than this. Statistically, we're just not showing it. The yards in some of the games are there and then the points aren't there. We definitely need to score more points.”

In addition to the Falcons' permissive defense, the Bears' offense should benefit from better health. Left tackle Jermon Bushrod (knee/ankle) has not returned to practice yet. But center Roberto Garza (ankle) was a full participant in practice for the second straight day for the first time since early September. He's expected to start Sunday for the first time since the season opener.

Left guard Matt Slauson (ankle) returned last week after missing three games and expects to play better after knocking off some rust last week in his first game since opening day.

Maybe most important is Brandon Marshall's ability to practice at full speed this week for the first time in a month. Playing through a sprained ankle the past four weeks, Marshall did not resemble a five-time Pro Bowl player. There has been an unusual disconnect between Cutler and Marshall in some games, which could be partially the result of reduced practice time together.

“We're working hard at it,” Trestman. “We're seeing an improvement in the speed of our practices because of the recent health of our guys.”

Sunday they'll have their best opportunity of the season to turn better health and faster practices into the production that has been expected from this offense.

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