Slow starts sinking Bears

One year and one day ago the Bears' offense scored 24 points in the first quarter against the San Francisco 49ers, including 3 touchdowns.

In the 17 games since, the Bears' offense has scored exactly 1 touchdown in the first quarter, and that was last Dec. 17 against Tampa Bay.

They have almost two weeks to figure out a way to get started quicker.

"That's why it's good to have those bye weeks, where you look at all those things and try to find some different solutions to that problem," coach Lovie Smith said. "But I just wouldn't (talk about) the way we've started offensively.

"When you're 3-5, you haven't done a lot of things well, and that's where we are. It's just not offense. It's defense, special teams … everything."

Quarterback Brian Griese would settle for being able to utilize the run game for a full four quarters to maintain the offensive balance that he says is necessary for success.

The Bears have been outscored 20-10 in the first quarter this season.

"From my perspective, the one thing that's really killed us is we haven't scored many points in the first halves of games, the first quarters of games," Griese said. "Offensively, we just haven't started very fast, and we've been coming from behind.

"Because we haven't scored any points it doesn't give us a chance to use the balance that we need to get on offense. Cedric (Benson) is really taken out of the game in the second half because we have to throw the ball, come from behind, and that's just not a recipe for success in this league."

Distant goals: Last season, Lovie Smith encouraged Super Bowl talk from his team that started off 7-0.

This year's 3-5 team has to defeat the Raiders in Oakland after the bye to keep faint playoff hopes alive.

Only 10 teams in NFL history have started 3-5 and made the playoffs, but that's still one of the Bears' goals.

"Our focus is always on the next game at hand," Smith said. "But I still think everyone that's playing football should have one goal in mind at the end of the season. That's still our goal.

"We still want to beat Green Bay (twice), and we'll have an opportunity to play them again. Our goal is still to win the division, and of course it's still to end up in Glendale (Ariz.), playing for the Super Bowl championship there.

"But in order to do that, it's about our next game, Oakland."

Unfriendly confines: The Bears already have lost three games at home this season, as many as they lost in the previous two seasons combined.

"Losing at home, of course, is troubling," coach Lovie Smith said. "You have to win at home, especially division games. So, the second half, that's something that we'll have to do."

The Bears have lost at home to NFC North rivals Minnesota and Detroit with only Green Bay remaining Dec. 23.

"In the past in the first half of our season there was tomorrow," Smith said. "We're getting to the point now where there is no tomorrow unless we get that streak going. And that's what we plan on doing."