Turner taking his share of blame

Lovie Smith's first offensive coordinator, the wacky Terry Shea, gave himself a B-plus when he was asked to assess his performance near the end of the 2004 season in which the Bears finished last in total offense and passing yards.

Not surprisingly, Shea was one and done, replaced by Ron Turner, who has, in turn, become a favorite target of critics.

With the Bears' offense ranked 29th in total yards and last in rushing, many are calling for Turner's job. The criticism is fair, according to Turner, who doesn't sound as if he'd give himself a B-plus.

But, he said, when you're 5-9 and struggling to move the ball, nobody is immune from criticism.

"When you're not winning, not scoring points, yeah (it's fair)," Turner said. "Sure. It's everybody. It's not just the players, it's not just us (coaches), it's not just the playcalling, it's everything combined. We're not getting it done."

The Bears have scored fewer than 20 points in six of their last eight games. Turner has been ripped in general for his playcalling and specifically for not getting the ball to the team's two biggest playmakers, wide receiver Devin Hester and rookie tight end Greg Olsen, down the field where they provide quick-strike potential.

"I haven't read a paper all year or any of that," Turner said. "But, even if you hear things, we believe in what we're doing (and) the way we're doing it. We're just going to keep doing it that way. Just keep coming in every day and working hard and doing the things we believe in and not pay attention to it."

In the past six games, Hester has caught 13 of his 18 passes, but they've accounted for just 90 yards, an average of 6.9 yards per catch.

It looked as if Olsen would become a focal point of the offense in the second quarter of the season, when he caught 19 passes for 217 yards (11.4-yard average) and 2 touchdowns in four games. But in the six games since, Olsen has 15 receptions for 109 yards (7.3-yard average) and no touchdowns.

But, considering the Bears have the worst running attack in the NFL, one that is more a detriment to the passing game than a complement, how much should Turner be blamed?

Throw in the fact that the offensive line has been as effective as a screen door in a submarine and you wonder if the late Bill Walsh could have made the 2007 Bears offense work.

"Listen, it's tough to call a game when you've got so many penalties and you're not executing the plays that are called," quarterback Kyle Orton said. "We've got to do a good job of just giving ourselves a chance on each play, and that's (by avoiding) pre-snap penalties, that's making the throws when they're there, that's running the right route, that's a lot of things.

"And until you do that, you don't give yourself much of a chance in the NFL. That's football. Whatever play is called, you go out and execute it."

That hasn't been Bears football for much of the season. Dropped passes reached an epidemic stage earlier in the year, and the running game has gone from bad with Cedric Benson as the main man to worse without him.

Penalties have come in waves, especially the frustrating false-start calls that have hindered an attack barely stumbling along to begin with. The Bears were flagged 11 times for 95 yards at Minnesota, and 7 were on the offense for minus-50 yards. Four of the penalties were false starts.

The NFL average for penalties through 14 games is 83, but the Bears have been busted an even 100 times.

It all adds up to a lack of execution that results in an absence of offensive continuity.

"It's been the same theme all year long," Turner said. "When you're getting first downs and you're making plays, then you get in a flow, you get in a rhythm. You can set things up.

"I can't tell you the number of times up in the press box we've said, 'All right, we get this first down, we're going to go to this, we're going to do that.' But we don't get the first down.

"We've all got to do a better job."