Bears' optimism also at a loss

Optimism was in short supply in the Bears' locker room late Sunday afternoon.

As much as they tried, most of it came in the form of clichés that losers use as crutches to help their wobbly bodies and souls make it home.

The Bears' 41-21 loss to the Cardinals was too strikingly similar to their 45-10 loss at Cincinnati two weeks earlier to cultivate much confidence.

Several players did note that if the Arizona game was any indication, the Bears didn't seem to learn from that debacle against the Bengals.

Ever the external optimist, even head coach Lovie Smith sounded more wishful than anything.

"Sure we can fix it," he said. "First off you need an opportunity to fix it. When you play a game like this you want to play immediately and that's the good thing about this week."

The Bears get right back at it with a short week leading to Thursday night's game at San Francisco. Of course, it might be the 49ers that are thrilled to have this opponent coming to town.

The best that Bears quarterback Jay Cutler could come up with was math: "We're eight games in and 4-4. So we're even with eight to play. It could be worse."

It was difficult to tell whether he was trying to convince himself, the postgame media gathering or the fans who began booing the Bears in the second quarter.

Actually the crowd was cheering more loudly at the start than usual. But it didn't take long for boos to prevail.

"They pay their money," defensive end Adewale Ogunleye said, "and they can do what they want."

Ironically, Bears fans were displeased earlier in last week's 24-point victory over the hapless Browns than in the 20-point loss to the Cardinals.

Either way running back Matt Forte said of the Bears' play, "That isn't us. We don't play like this, especially at home. We can't get beat anytime by that much. I guess we have to work a little harder at practice."

The question to be answered the next few weeks is whether the Bears have enough manpower for even practice to make a difference.

"We've got to pull together," Cutler said. "We have some tough games coming up and have some games we have to win immediately. We have to go back and look at the film and go to work."

Cutler, like his teammates, was trying to sound as optimistic as possible after so sorry a loss.

They didn't succeed any better at that than they did at playing the Cardinals.