It's about time Bears' defense lived up to its paychecks

It still boggles the mind that the Bears' filthy-rich defense failed to sack Tampa Bay's physically limited Brian Griese even once while he was throwing 67 passes Sunday.

Even more distressing, the Bears were able to "hurry" Griese only six times, according to statistics released by the team after the coaches' review of the game film.

You have to wonder what the Bears' extremely well-paid (some might say overpaid), but underachieving defense was doing on those other 61 plays.

Players on losing teams are fond of pointing out that the other guys - the ones who have just defeated them - get paid, too. Fortunately none of the Bears' defenders used that irritating cop-out after the loss.

Maybe that's because they know they're getting paid so well but playing so poorly.

Tackle Tommie Harris got a $40 million, four-year extension this year. Right end Alex Brown got a two-year extension for $15.5 million in new money. Left end Adewale Ogunleye is playing out a six-year, $33.4 million deal that runs through 2009.

Middle linebacker Brian Urlacher got a one-year extension for $18 million in new money tacked on to his original nine-year $56.65 million deal. Weak-side linebacker Lance Briggs got a new six-year, $36 million contract.

Cornerbacks Charles Tillman (seven-year, $41.5 million extension that runs through 2013) and Nate Vasher (five-year extension for $28 million that runs through 2012) also are financially set for life with their most recent contracts.

Now it's time for the defense to produce an effort commensurate with the players' respective pay checks - for a full 60 minutes.

Free safety Mike Brown had 17 tackles against the Bucs and Tillman was second with 11, but it's never good when players in the secondary are the leading tacklers. Usually that means the guys upfront aren't doing their jobs or the secondary is allowing a lot of passes to be caught, and in this case there were 38 of them.

What is the solution?

One may be to give Harris a rest, since he rarely practices during the week and probably could use it. He's clearly not the same player he was before a knee injury slowed him last season and required postseason surgery.

In three games, Harris has a total of 2 tackles, including 1 solo, plus 1 tackle for loss. Sure, he gets double-teamed, but 2 tackles weren't even a good one-game total for him in 2006 and most of 2007, and he was getting double-teamed then, too.

Meanwhile, a healthy Anthony Adams, who was third among Bears linemen in tackles last season, has been inactive each of the first three weeks.

Adams won't help much in the pass-rush department, but he had at least 4 tackles in seven of his nine starts last season and 7 tackles in a game he didn't start.

Bears coach Lovie Smith is a firm believer in rotating his defensive linemen to keep all of them fresh, and he may need to add Adams to the rotation, either as a short-term replacement so Harris can get healthier or to give him and the other tackles more rest.

The Bears also need better play from their ends. Alex Brown leads the team with 2 sacks, but his 1 tackle for loss Sunday was the only hit he was in on. He has 4 tackles for the year, and Mark Anderson, the third end, has just 3.

"Everything starts upfront with us," Smith said.

But it's finishing that has been the problem for the Bears' front and for the entire defense. They've failed to hold second-half leads of 14 and 10 points the last two games.

It's time to start performing up to their contracts, since most of them got new deals because they had supposedly outperformed their old deals.