Rozner: Bad Bears open door to more criticism

The Bears are losing because of their offense.

And their offense is starting to lose it, unraveling before our very eyes.

Take your pick of who was most distraught after the 27-14 loss to Miami at Soldier Field on Sunday afternoon, but if you selected Brandon Marshall it wouldn't be a bad bet at all.

While the media waited for the opportunity to query players postgame, Marshall could be heard inside the locker room yelling his objection to a 3-4 start to the season, which includes precisely zero victories at home in three tries.

"When you play with heart it's supposed to hurt!" Marshall hollered, and when Robbie Gould tried to calm the situation, according to an observer, Marshall not-so-politely suggested he tend to his kicking duties.

A much quieter Marshall was still emotional once the doors were opened.

"Unacceptable, unacceptable, unacceptable," Marshall said, shaking his head. "Should not have lost today. Offense has to play better. It's as simple as that."

Marshall is absolutely correct about that. They've scored 28 points once through seven games after reaching that number seven times last season.

"Same mistakes, same mistakes, same mistakes," Marshall said, obviously referring to quarterback Jay Cutler. "We have to protect the football. We have to protect the football and make adjustments when things don't go the way we thought.

"We have so many great weapons here. This should be a great offense. This is just unacceptable. It's unacceptable."

Yeah, you get the point. So much about this is unacceptable, and to a man the Bears were feeling it.

"It was emotional," Cutler said of the postgame hysterics in the locker room. "It was a tough loss. Guys wanted to win this one."

If this Bears season has taught us anything it's that a good performance one week means nothing the following week. The opposite, naturally, is also true.

"After a good win in Atlanta, we wanted to come back home and get a big win here, get some momentum going into New England," Cutler said. "Guys are really down (after) this one, myself included, but the good thing is we've got another one next week.

"We've just got to rally and get ready for New England before the bye."

If you've been selling into the rallies and buying the dips, there's another investment opportunity this week. The Pats played Thursday, have the extra three days off, surely watched the wretched Bears and are on a three-game win streak to improve to 5-2.

The streets will be red this week and it will take some guts to believe in a market uptick, but New England has hardly been dominant this season and has played precisely one outstanding football game.

"Hopefully, the road trend will continue in Foxboro," said guard Kyle Long. "Playing at home has been an issue for us. It's very disappointing."

Long also expressed his dismay with getting booed at home, which happened a few times Sunday.

"I don't know if 'upset' is a word I would use," Long said. "But as someone who is a blood-sweat-and-tears guy, like so many other guys in here, getting booed at home down two scores is unacceptable - especially when there's not a lot of noise being made on third down (defensively)."

Long was not incorrect is his assessment of crowd noise, but he'll probably regret criticizing the faithful, who have spent big dollars and had great expectations for this season, not unlike the players and coaches.

"You look around and wonder, 'How the (heck) did that happen?' We work so hard each week," Long said. "Mistakes are under the microscope, things are magnified when you lose. I get that. It's really tough. So many missed opportunities.

"We let the defense down today."

Yes, the defense has done enough to win a few times this season if the offense were holding up its end of the bargain.

"We were known last year as an offensive team and we have the right guys in place to have a good offense and defense right now, but we can't seem to click on same day," Long said. "I feel like we have the personnel to be the best offense in the league, week in and week out, but we put ourselves in tough spots. Minus-3 in turnovers? Not gonna win a game like that."

Back at a game under .500 with a chance to even their record heading into the bye week, it would not be shocking to see the Bears win again on the road next week after another awful offensive performance at home.

"This means so much to so many players in here," Marshall said. "You don't get a tomorrow in this league. We're halfway through the season. It's time. It's time."

Many would argue that the time for this team has already passed.

brozner@dailyherald.com

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