Bears' season careening out of control
Less than halfway into the season, is it already time to write off a Bears team that entered the season with high hopes for the playoffs?
It appears that way.
The Bears are 3-4 with road games in their immediate future against the Patriots and Packers, both of whom are 5-2. Optimists would argue the Bears are 3-1 on the road this season, but considering 2 of those victories came against the 1-6 Jets and the 2-5 Falcons, that doesn't mean much against a pair of perennial playoff teams.
Even for a team that has five of its final seven games at home, the Bears are on death's doorstep. If they're 3-6 when they return to Soldier Field - where they're 0-3 this season - the obituaries will have already been written.
An even bigger (though possibly premature) question is whether head coach Marc Trestman and general manager Phil Emery deserve more time to get the Bears back to the postseason, where they've been just once in the previous seven seasons.
Trestman took over a team that went 10-6 the year before he arrived but has gone 8-12 in its last 20 games since starting 3-0 in 2013, his first season.
The most damning indictment of both is an offense that has been nothing short of a tremendous disappointment this year after jacking up hopes with last season's productivity.
Emery was the one who signed off on quarterback Jay Cutler's $126.7 million contract, which is pricey even though only the first three years and the first $54 million are guaranteed. Cutler has played better this year than in any of his previous eight NFL seasons, with a 94.4 passer rating. But he's still plagued by inconsistency and turnovers, even though he has more weapons than ever before.
That includes all-purpose, two-time Pro Bowl running back Matt Forte, who got 2 carries in a first half against the Dolphins in which the Bears were held scoreless for the only time in Trestman's tenure.
After that loss, Brandon Marshall was the most vocal of Bears in postgame locker room. He used the word "unacceptable" 17 times when speaking with reporters and blamed "mistakes," without elaborating or naming names.
Even before that, and before the media were allowed into the locker room, Marshall's voice was unmistakable as the one repeatedly yelling, "It's supposed to hurt," and then allegedly dismissing kicker Robbie Gould by saying, "You just kick the ball."
Marshall needs to look at himself first after being targeted 10 times and producing just 48 yards on 6 catches against the Dolphins. No Bear on either side of the ball has underperformed more than Marshall, who has one game all season with more than 71 receiving yards. Only twice in seven games has Marshall averaged as much as 10 yards per catch.
Earlier in the season, the five-time Pro Bowler was hindered by a sprained ankle. Playing through it made Marshall seem like a team guy. After he was healed, when he was on pace for by far his worst season as a starter, Marshall seemed self-serving by saying that he should have been out for four weeks with the injury. In one of those games he had 3 touchdown catches.
Marshall's postgame tirade was typical of a player trying to portray himself as someone who takes more pride in his performance than his teammates. It's almost as if Marshall were saying, "Look at me. I care enough to yell and scream."
Maybe he should care enough to average more than the 8 yards per reception he posted against the team that practically gave him away for a pair of third-round draft choices after the 2011 season.
It's not as if Marshall has a lot of experience with winning. In his eight previous NFL seasons, he's never played in a single playoff game, and he's been part of just two teams that finished above .500, including his rookie season, when he was a bit player for the Broncos.
That drought seems likely to continue this year.
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