Complete collapse leaves Bears gasping for air
GREEN BAY, Wis. — Stick a fork in the Bears.
They're done.
In the latest in a long line of Bears teams that could not defeat the Packers and quarterback Aaron Rodgers at Lambeau Field, Sunday night's nationally televised humiliation was the most embarrassing loss of all.
The 55-14 final score doesn't begin to describe the depths to which the Bears plummeted.
It was 28-0 Packers less than 18 minutes in.
Several thousand Bears fans were among the Lambeau Field-record 78,292 in attendance. Years from now, none of them will admit they paid money to see this fiasco.
While losing 11 of the previous 14 meeting with the Packers, the Bears had been pummeled by double digits five times.
But this one was worse than any of them. Way worse.
“The level of play is not anywhere near where it needs to be, and it starts with me,” coach Marc Trestman said. “The bottom line is we weren't good enough in all three phases. We broke down in all three phases.”
It was 42-0 at halftime and, if the game was played with Illinois high school schools, it would have been a running clock after halftime. That could only have helped an outclassed and overmatched Bears team that plummeted to 3-6 with its fifth loss in six games.
Never, ever should “Bears” and “playoffs” be mentioned in the same sentence for the remainder of the season.
At this point, the focus is on getting a win.
“We have to start this thing completely over,” left tackle Jermon Bushrod said. “We have to have our mindset it's 0-0 and we have to go 7-0 for the rest of the year. We have to find a way to win this week.”
Defeating the 4-5 Vikings at home this Sunday and the 1-8 Bucs the following week, also at home is possible. But anything beyond that seems far-fetched for a Bears team that has gone 8-14 since winning its first three games last season under Trestman, whose job status has never been so tenuous.
Going back to the 38-17 Week 4 home loss to Green Bay, the Bears' defense went more than six quarters without forcing a punt. So defensive coordinator Mel Tucker also might have a lot of explaining to do after the Bears play out the string. His group surrendered 358 yards in the first half Sunday night.
Trestman was in no mood to talk about job security.
“The only thing I'm concerned with is getting the heck out of here and getting ready for Minnesota,” he said.
Trestman was confounded by the full-team failure after what he characterized as a focused, productive week of practice.
“This is really a good group of men,” Trestman. “So what's transpired is extremely disturbing.”
It seemed no one on defense was good enough to stop Rodgers, who tied the all-time NFL record with 6 touchdown passes in the first half. And he threw for 315 yards … in the first half.
Rodgers has won nine straight against the Bears in games he starts and does not leave with an injury, and he's 12-3 against them lifetime.
He only had to play five minutes into the third quarter before getting the rest of this night off.
Bears quarterback Jay Cutler was sacked three times, threw an interception and lost a fumble … also, just in the first half. He added another pick in the fourth quarter, which was returned 82 yards for a touchdown by Casey Hayward.
Cutler entered the game having statistically the best season of his career in terms of passer rating. But he now has committed 15 of the Bears' 18 turnovers. Fourteen of those Cutler turnovers have occurred in the Bears' 6 losses. Over the 3 victories, Cutler has given it away just once.
“We're all searching for answers right now,” Cutler said, “and we don't really have any.”
In 11 games against the Packers, Cutler has been intercepted 21 times and thrown 14 TD passes. As a Bear, Cutler is 2-9 against the Packers.
But the quarterback was far from the only one who deserved blame.
Anyone who thought the Bears were unprepared to play at the start of their last game, when they trailed the Patriots 38-7 at halftime, witnessed Sunday night what a really unprepared team looks like.
In the first halves of their last two games, the Bears have been outscored 80-7.
“That's one of the things that's been confounding,” Trestman said. “We're not playing well enough on offense, and that starts with me.”
Special teams got into the tragic-comedy as well.
Early in the second half, Danny McCray whiffed while attempting to block the Packers' Jarrett Boykin, and he was able to force a fumble by Bears punter Pat O'Donnell. Mason Crosby's 20-yard field goal put the Packers ahead 45-0 with 10:48 left in the third quarter.
Chris Williams provided a special-teams boost with a 102-yard kickoff-return touchdown in the fourth quarter.
But by then the Packers were playing their “B” team.
By the looks of it, the Bears did the same, starting with the opening kickoff.