Another rough day for the offensive line

It's hard to tell which Bear will carry the more indelible memory of Shaun Rogers, Cleveland's 350-pound defensive tackle.

Will it be quarterback Jay Cutler, who twice was flattened by the Pro Bowl behemoth during the Bears' 30-6 victory on Sunday?

Or will it be left guard Josh Beekman, who allowed Rogers to turn Cutler into detritus on the Soldier Field grass?

Think of it this way: When a child gets the flu, no one feels worse than the protective parent.

"I got Jay hit," Beekman said. "I can't let that happen. But (center) Olin (Kreutz) just said there are going to be plays like that and keep at it."

So much for Beekman being the missing piece to a successful offensive line.

Making his first start of the year in place of the struggling Frank Omiyale, Beekman was part of a group that surrendered a season-worst 4 sacks and at least four other serious quarterback hits.

"I wanted to go out there and run around the field," Beekman said. "These guys have been battling for so long, I needed to go out there and run around as much as I could within the scheme the coaches wanted.

"I've been on the sidelines, I should have fresh legs. I should just hustle."

"We've got to do a better job of protecting him," said right guard Roberto Garza. "We went out there and competed and that's all you can ask. Obviously we've still got a lot of things we need to continue to work on."

Apparently offensive coordinator Ron Turner noticed these things from his perch high atop Soldier Field.

Turner, looking more irked than any other postgame this year, used the phrase "mental errors" to describe his platoon. In addition, he couldn't say whether Beekman served as an improvement on Omiyale.

"I don't know," Turner said tersely. "We'll have to look at the film. As I said last week going into the week, it wasn't one position on the offensive line. We just need to execute better and quit hurting ourselves."

On the plus side, the Bears netted a season-high 170 yards in the running game. But if you take away Garrett Wolfe's 51 yards during the final three minutes after the game was decided, then the Bears running backs posted 92 yards on 27 carries.

"We're going to watch the tape and evaluate," Beekman said. "Hopefully I get to sit down with Olin and watch the tape and improve on things that are needed."