LeGere: Trestman's future depends on Bears players

Bears players and coaches seemed subdued the day after their 21-13 victory over the Vikings ended a three-game tailspin, and that's probably a good thing.

They would be wise not to spend much time gloating over their first victory at home this season, the first in more than 11 months at Soldier Field.

It was quarterback Jay Cutler's first win at home in 371 days.

Not to belittle the Bears' effort, but all they did was play the way they're supposed to play every week, something they've done only occasionally this season.

The Bears still enter Sunday's showdown against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers with 2 wins in as many months. And a loss at home to their former head coach Lovie Smith's 2-8 squad would put them right back in the same landfill they were in after back-to-back blowout losses to the Patriots and Packers.

A note about that. As bad as the Bears' defense looked while getting strafed for 51 points at New England and 55 points at Green Bay in back-to-back games, there is an addendum.

On Sunday, while the Bears were limiting Minnesota to 1 touchdown, the Patriots and Packers proved that it's not just Mel Tucker's defense that struggles to slow down those high-octane aerial games.

The Packers hung 53 on the Philadelphia Eagles, who came in with a 7-2 record and remain tied for first place in the NFC East, despite their 33-point loss to Green Bay.

The Patriots rolled up 42 points in a 22-point road rout of the Indianapolis Colts who, nevertheless, still lead the AFC South at 6-4.

Tucker's job still is presumed to be in a precarious state. The guess is it will take several more performances like the last one to prevent a wholesale shake-up of Marc Trestman's staff, a potential purge that could include the head coach as well.

To save coaching jobs, players must perform every week as well or better than they did against a Vikings team that started rookie Teddy Bridgewater at quarterback and was without Hall of Fame running back Adrian Peterson.

“At the end of the day, we know we have to play for the men in this room,” cornerback Tim Jennings said. “We have to continue to keep fighting out there and playing our style of football, and then we'll be able to compete.”

Playing to their potential shouldn't be something the Bears do once in awhile.

Sunday, wide receivers Alshon Jeffery (11 catches, 135 yards, 1 touchdown) and Brandon Marshall (7 catches, 90 yards, 2 touchdowns) used their size to dominate the Vikings' undersized cornerback, 5-foot-10 Josh Robinson.

But that's what the 6-4 Marshall and 6-3 Jeffery, who was targeted 17 times, are supposed to do every week when they have a lopsided size advantage.

Where was that in the 27-14 home loss to Miami in Week 7? Playing against 5-10 cornerbacks Brent Grimes and Cortland Finnegan, Marshall and Jeffery combined for just 57 receiving yards on 8 catches.

Also Sunday, defensive end Jared Allen finally looked like his old self. Playing against his old team, Allen had a sack and 3 quarterback pressures.

But in the Bears' 6 losses, Allen had a total of half a sack. The Bears need Allen to get to the quarterback every week, not just when he's fired up to play against his former team.

Seven-time Pro Bowl linebacker Lance Briggs' attention seems as if it has been elsewhere since Smith was fired as Bears coach following the 2012 season.

Briggs finally flashed a little of what's left of his Pro Bowl talent early in the Vikings game. Maybe he will be motivated this week against his old coach to play the way he did for nine years when Smith was his boss.

With four of the next five games at home, the Bears have a chance to stack wins and at least get back to respectability, even if they never get back into playoff contention.

But they haven't won three games in a row since the start of last season, the first three games of Trestman's tenure.

Is it possible that will go down as the apex of the Trestman era?

• In general manager Phil Emery's never-ending quest to upgrade the Bears' mediocre kick-return game, wide receiver Marc Mariani was signed Tuesday and safety Ahmad Dixon was waived.

Mariani appeared in 32 games over two seasons with the Tennessee Titans (2010-11). He went to the Pro Bowl after his rookie season, when he averaged 12.2 yards on 27 punt returns with 1 touchdown and 25.5 yards on a league-high 60 kickoff returns with 1 touchdown.

The 6-foot-1, 190-pound 27-year-old missed the 2012 season with a fractured fibula and tibia in his lower left leg and sat out last season with a shoulder injury. He was waived by the Titans in August.

The Bears are 26th in the NFL in punt returns. They have averaged 6.2 yards, utilizing Santonio Holmes, who was waived last week, and Chris Williams. They are 14th in kickoff-return average. But Williams habitually has made ill-advised decisions to bring kickoffs out of the end zone and then failed to reach the 20-yard line.

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