Rozner: Bad Bears not quite as bad as bad Bucs

Worlds collided Sunday afternoon in a monumental struggle between two powers vying for NFL supremacy.

OK, maybe not quite.

Maybe it was just two bad NFL teams trying to outlast one another, watching to see which one would commit the most turnovers, penalties and mental mistakes.

The winner on that account was Tampa, which lost the game at Soldier Field by virtue of being more consistently bad Sunday in a 21-13 loss to the Bears, who climbed to 5-6 with a two-game winning streak at home over the Vikings (4-7) and Bucs (2-9).

"We'll take two straight versus anybody, regardless of record," said Jay Cutler. "We need wins and we're going into a hostile environment and against a team playing extremely good defense."

The Bears now head to Detroit (7-4) for a Thanksgiving Day affair, believing they have a chance to even their record and get back into the playoff race.

"Well, .500 won't really make a difference," said tight end and realist Martellus Bennett. "We just need to win another game. One-game seasons now; play them one at a time and try to win that one."

There was a genuine tension on the field before the game, palpable especially for the former Bears players and coaches, who were reserved while saying hello to old friends.

"I really wasn't into family reunions or anything like that today," said Bucs coach Lovie Smith. "I've been away from here for a period of time now so I've had the chance to see a lot of people."

The reality is there was nothing at stake for Tampa or Smith, and much on the line for Marc Trestman and Phil Emery, the men responsible for firing Smith and replacing him on the sideline.

A loss to their former backup QB, Josh McCown, and their former head coach might have pushed the city over the edge and the franchise toward a tipping point from which Trestman could not have survived.

And it was the Bears who came out tight and unable to execute offensively in the first half. One theory will certainly be that they were caught up in the emotion and disturbed by the pressure.

A more reasonable explanation would be that Cutler was terrible and so was most of the offense, something Trestman told them at halftime.

"There was a little jolt from hearing about how bad we were, but I think a lot of guys knew already that we were playing like (bleep)," Bennett said. "Coach just confirmed what we were already feeling."

So by the time the second half started, the story was no longer about the collision of colleagues. It was that a wretched season was about to go apocalyptic.

Still, the Bears' offense was hardly special in the second half but good enough to beat a team that was the most penalized in the NFL when the game ended, and also among the league leaders in turnovers.

The Bears' defense took the ball away three times in the third quarter, and McCown was just awful enough to remind even the most vapid of fans that he was never going to be the answer in Chicago or anywhere else.

"It wasn't pretty," Bennett said. "It still wasn't the game we thought we should have played, but we came out with a victory.

"That's two weeks in a row where we feel like - as an offense - we could have played better and put more points on the board if we eliminated penalties and turnovers, so it's just a work in progress."

A work in progress is not where the Bears ought to be 11 games into a season that once fostered playoff expectations, and a performance like that in Detroit is going to find the Bears on the wrong side of another lopsided score.

"One step in front of the other," Bennett said. "The good thing is guys are able to play through adversity, and when it's ugly we're able to come up with a win."

That's a fitting description of a contest played in a steady drizzle throughout and was completed in a driving rain.

It was poorly played and poorly coached on both sides, and the conclusion featured an old-fashioned Lovie Smith challenge flag thrown at the worst possible time.

Down 21-13 and at the two-minute warning, Smith challenged the spot on a fourth-and-1 when it was clear the Bucs didn't get the first down, losing a timeout in the process.

If Tampa had kept that timeout, the Bucs would have taken the ball back on their own 37 with about a minute left in the game, and with a chance to tie.

Instead, they had only 13 seconds remaining with no timeouts and no opportunity to extend the game.

It would humorous, laughing at the good old days, if the win had come under better circumstances, but the Bears did not play well and they're about to face one of the best and most ferocious defenses in the NFL.

Even with a two-game winning streak against two dreadful teams, the Bears should know that there's not much to smile about yet.

brozner@dailyherald.com

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