Bears' offense comes to life too late

The final statistics say the Bears scored 31 points and amassed 458 total yards of offense in Sunday's 3-point loss to the Minnesota Vikings at Soldier Field.

Those numbers ring a bit hollow, though, because the Bears scored 14 of those points and piled up 128 of those yards in the final 2:56 after they had fallen behind by 14 points and were forced to use their two-minute offense.

When the game still was theirs to dictate, the Bears sputtered in fits and starts offensively, an effort hindered by 4 turnovers and characterized by inconsistent play.

Of the Bears' first 12 possessions, six ended in punts. Fumbles sabotaged two more drives, and interceptions flat-lined two others. The only scoring by the offense came courtesy of a Robbie Gould field goal and a 39-yard touchdown pass from Brian Griese to Bernard Berrian on which defender Antoine Winfield fell down.

"For whatever reason, the chemistry just hasn't quite clicked, and I can't really put a finger on it right now," said Muhsin Muhammad, who made 2 receptions for 44 yards, including a 33-yard touchdown catch-and-run with 2:36 to play.

"We just couldn't put it all together in this game. We had some really good drives. If they happened earlier in the game, maybe we would have put them away a little earlier."

The Bears' first drive was an indicator of things to come. The offense looked sharp initially, picking up first downs on a 10-yard pass from Griese to Berrian and Cedric Benson's 11-yard burst.

Then came malaise.

Benson was tackled for a 1-yard loss by E.J. Henderson, Griese threw a pass Benson couldn't handle, Fred Miller was called for a false start, and another Griese incomplete pass led to a Brad Maynard punt.

"We would get to midfield and either have a play for a loss or a penalty or something to put us behind the chains and kill the drive," said tight end Desmond Clark, who had 3 catches for 48 yards.

"That was almost the theme of the day. We would move it from the 20 to the 50 or 40, then we'd have some kind of breakdown and they would stop us."

Benson showed early promise with 3 runs of 10 yards or better in the first two quarters, but the running back finished with only 18 carries for 67 yards against the NFL's leading defense against the run.

"At one point, we were down 10 points and later by 2 touchdowns, so it's kind of hard to stay patient with the running game," said tight end Greg Olsen, who made 5 catches for 63 yards.

Benson agreed that the offense was its own worst enemy at times.

"We have good drives and then something beats us," he said. "Somehow, something bites us in the butt and the next thing you know it's fourth down. It's just some small thing we're missing somewhere, one piece that we're not putting together. We'll find it."

There were some positives despite the loss, including the performance of Griese, who threw for 381 yards -- the fifth-highest passing total in Bears history. But he conceded the offense still is a work in progress.

"I think we can try to do more, and I know from my standpoint that I will try to do more," Griese said. "It's hard in this league as an offense to go 10, 12, 15 plays and score a touchdown.

"You need explosive plays. You need to work the ball down the field to have a chance to score quickly."