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Rozner: Is this the worst Bears season in memory?

Walking out of Soldier Field on Sunday night was a relief.

Seriously, knowing there would be no more games in Chicago until September was liberating, after the Bears went 2-6 at home in 2014.

The Bears haven't been this bad at Soldier Field since 2004, Lovie Smith's first season as a head coach, when they also went 2-6 in Chicago and finished 5-11 for the season.

No one would be shocked to see the Bears (5-10) end up there after the final game Sunday in Minnesota.

As Bears seasons go, however, you would be hard pressed to come up with a more miserable one in the last 40 years.

When you consider the expectations this season, the buildup for it, and the buy-in locally and nationally, it's difficult to remember a more disappointing season.

Throw in the huge contract for Jay Cutler, the belief that he finally had the right coaching staff, offensive line and weapons, and the amount of money spent upgrading the defense, and there was seemingly decent logic for thinking the Bears could win nine or 10 games in 2014.

Of course, it doesn't look anything like most of us expected, and in hindsight it seems idiotic to think Cutler was ever going to be more than he was the first eight years of his career.

Sure enough, in the opener at home against Buffalo, there was Cutler throwing a pick to a fat guy, giving away the first game of the season.

With their record at 2-1, in Game 4 against Green Bay, it was another pair of Cutler interceptions that doomed the Bears at home.

The next week at Carolina, with a chance to get back over .500, up 24-21 with only 6:08 left in the game and after the defense held three straight times, Cutler needed a time-killing drive when he threw over the middle and missed Santonio Holmes. Panthers safety Thomas DeCoud picked it and ran it back to the Bears' 32. The Bears would go on to lose in Carolina.

After getting back to 3-3 against Atlanta, and needing a win over Miami at home with games up next in New England and Green Bay, the Bears turned the ball over three times and lost again.

Game. Set. Match.

The season was over and only the Bears didn't know it.

If the losing wasn't enough, there were the constant embarrassments on and off the field.

There was Lance Briggs' trip to his restaurant, and later admitting he wasn't paying attention in meetings while injured.

There was the Brandon Marshall explosion after the Miami game.

The rambling Marshall news conference.

The New England humiliation. The Green Bay humiliation. The Detroit humiliation. The Dallas humiliation.

The Lamarr Houston sack dance and injured knee while celebrating in a blowout.

The Aaron Kromer debacle.

The infighting, resentment and potshots.

The Cutler benching.

The Cutler reinstatement.

The odd Marc Trestman explanations.

The lack of discipline, accountability, teaching, coaching, chemistry, character, leadership, effort and interest.

Losing streaks of two, three and four games.

And the seemingly endless, tortured march toward the end of the very short Trestman era in Chicago.

Considering the expectations, the results and the circus atmosphere, it has become the worst Bears season in memory.

As far back as I can remember watching Bears football, which is pretty much the mid-70s, even the Abe Gibron years weren't this bad, with the Bears playing ferocious defense and making opponents pay for weeks after they faced the Bears.

Then came the Walter Payton years, which made every game worth watching. The '80s peaked with a Super Bowl victory, and the Bears were a threat to win it all for several years.

They were 6-4 in 1989 before they dropped the final six, as Mike Ditka lost an aging team that could no longer play and would no longer listen.

But at least they were entertaining.

Ditka bounced back to make the playoffs twice before getting fired after a 5-11 1992 season, but nothing ever felt this hopeless.

Even the Dave Wannstedt and Dick Jauron years weren't this bad, were they? Lovie Smith only won three playoff games in nine seasons, but never were the expectations so considerable, and never did a team so fail to compete during a season in which it was supposed to succeed.

Add it all up this year and you have the perfect storm of football disaster, a joyless season so lacking entertainment as to be frequently unwatchable.

Huge anticipation, poor performance, terrible effort, off-field nonsense and the feeling that you were duped, just dumb enough to have bought in.

The good news is it's almost over - and not a moment too soon.

brozner@dailyherald.com

• Hear Barry Rozner on WSCR 670-AM and follow him @BarryRozner on Twitter.

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