No reason Bears can't at least be respectable

The Bears are broken and need to be fixed.

The playoffs are out of the question. Since NFL teams began playing 16 games in 1978, no Bears team has ever started 3-6 and finished above .500. But respectability is still within reach with the right moves.

Since it's impossible to schedule 53 heart transplants before Sunday's game against the Minnesota Vikings at Soldier Field, other solutions should be considered.

In the name of Walter Payton, run the football

Bears running backs had just 19 attempts Sunday night at Green Bay. That's not enough, and the fact that the Bears trailed by a wide margin early in the game is not an excuse.

Without the threat of a running game, the Bears can't throw the ball effectively, since none of their big receivers has shown a consistent ability to get separation against teams that can commit extra players to coverage.

The Bears pride themselves on playing physical football, but there has been zero evidence this year that they can stand toe to toe with anyone and win.

That has to change.

The best way to do it is to give a floundering offensive line the opportunity to get after a defense by going right at it, rather than putting it in the passive pass protection mode it's usually forced into way too early and way too often.

The offensive line already has allowed 24 sacks, just 6 fewer than it permitted all of last year. That group is itching to play the kind of physical game that comes with a commitment to the run, and running back Matt Forte has been the most consistently productive player on the offense.

"We had the mindset that we were going to come in and we were going to be balanced," left tackle Jermon Bushrod said Sunday night. "We were going to open up our playbook, run it, (use) play action, but we didn't execute."

Forget about the blitz because it isn't working

In the past two games, the Bears didn't touch New England quarterback Tom Brady or Green Bay's Aaron Rodgers.

Contrary to popular belief, it's not that the Bears aren't blitzing. The problem is that, even when they do send an extra pass rusher, no one gets to the quarterback.

So they may as well use extra players in coverage. Maybe one of them can figure out that it makes sense to cover go-to receivers such as Jordy Nelson.

That might also give the defense a chance to play a more physical game.

The last time any Bears defender sent a message to the opponent was Oct. 12 at Atlanta when linebacker Darryl Sharpton and safety Chris Conte punished Falcons receivers after short passes.

When the Bears sent more than four pass rushers after Rodgers, he completed 8 of 10 passes for 3 touchdowns.

According to the Elias Sports Bureau, the Bears have allowed an NFL-worst 12 touchdown passes when they blitz. And they have allowed the highest QBR (ESPN's total quarterback rating) when sending extra rushers.

Moving Shea McClellin to linebacker and using him as an extra pass rusher was supposed to help, but he has missed four games with a broken hand and has 1 sack in the five games he has played.

Even though defensive end Jared Allen has just 1½ sacks, he leads the team with 18 quarterback pressures, according to the Bears, so there's still a glimmer of hope that he can produce the way he did in the previous 10 seasons.

Don't bench Jay Cutler

The Bears' $126 million quarterback was awful against the Packers, but he still gives them the best chance to win - the Bears, that is, not the Packers. On an offense that seemed completely out of sync Sunday night, a QB change probably would lead to even more dysfunction.

Backup Jimmy Clausen hasn't taken more than a handful of snaps with the first team in any week since training camp, so expecting him to run the offense more efficiently is unrealistic.

That said, the next time Cutler gets strip-sacked because he's holding the ball carelessly in one hand at his waist as the pocket collapses he should be rewarded with a long rest on the bench.

• In a sign that second-year wide receiver Marquess Wilson is close to returning from a fractured collarbone, the Bears waived nine-year veteran Santonio Holmes on Tuesday.

Holmes concludes his brief Bears career with 8 catches for 67 yards, including 1 reception for 11 yards Sunday at Green Bay. Holmes, the Super Bowl XLIII MVP, also had 9 punt returns for 50 yards this season, but Chris Williams is expected to take over that job.

Wilson, the Bears' seventh-round draft pick in 2013, was injured during training camp when he dove to make a reception. He returned to practice last week and could be active for Sunday's game.

The Bears also signed former Northwestern wide receiver Rashad Lawrence to the practice squad and terminated the practice squad contract of linebacker Terrell Manning, who played special teams in three games earlier in the season.

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