One game, even a terrible one, doesn't make a season

As opening-game disasters go, Hurricane Jay will go down in the books as the storm of the millennium.

So you can understand today the calls for complete demolition, a flushing of Halas Hall and the need for FEMA trailers.

Not to diminish the brutality of Sunday's loss in Green Bay, because they simply don't get any worse for a Game 1, but it's only one game.

The look on fans' faces as the convoys headed south in the middle of the night from the land of cows and Kohlers suggested more shock than anger.

But Monday, it was more anger, and what follows is almost always an overreaction.

There has been plenty of criticism here in the past of Lovie Smith, but it's hard to put Sunday's game on him.

The problem is the fans have been sold John Elway and Sunday they got a heavy dose of Rex Grossman.

But, again, it still counts as only one game.

Jay Cutler does need to find a page at least somewhat similar to that of his receiving corps, because as bad a group as it is, you can't put the entire fault with them for bad routes when every one of them seemed confused by what Cutler was thinking Sunday.

"It's a learning process and we're still getting to know each other,'' Cutler said of hitting the pick four. "It's still no excuse for what happened.''

Good for him for taking the blame, but the truth is it was their first real game together.

Furthermore, the offensive playcalling was inconsistent, vanilla and downright bizarre at times.

The Packers mixed their looks on defense, and the Bears to a man didn't look prepared for the changes.

That would also figure to improve when Ron Turner gets a better handle on Cutler, who has a tendency to force it if he gets off to a bad start.

The fake punt cost them dearly, but good coaches put the game in the hands of good players, and Patrick Mannelly and Brad Maynard have been among the very best and smartest Bears players for almost a decade.

"We shouldn't have done it,'' Smith said. "It all goes through me and it shouldn't happen. We should have kicked the ball.''

OK, so they made a mistake. Nice of Smith to accept responsibility, but his job was the defense, and the defense played very well Sunday night.

He also put the defensive line in Rod Marinelli's hands, and the line was surprisingly good, able for long stretches to get pressure on the QB and keep a terrible secondary out of trouble.

Adewale Ogunleye, obviously playing for a contract, showed up for the first time in recent memory and put just enough heat on Aaron Rodgers to force some early throws, and that's good because he had receivers open all over the field all night.

It also was a refreshing change to finally see pressure coming off the blitz.

There will be much crying over the loss of Brian Urlacher for the year, but Urlacher isn't even the Bears' best linebacker. He hasn't been a factor since 2006 and hasn't been the Urlacher of old since before that.

A bigger concern is the offensive line, which looked sluggish most of the night, unable to find room for Matt Forte to run and unable to give Cutler time to stop and find a target.

If they can do something about that, it would go a long way toward helping Cutler, who needs to stop reading press clippings about how he can save the world in 16 easy steps.

He needs to check his ego and check down once in awhile, and watching a humbled Cutler and Smith the last two days was quite a change - and without a doubt a healthy change.

So in a few weeks you'll probably be thinking that Cutler is the least of the Bears' concerns. And if they beat Pittsburgh on Sunday, the calls for rebuilding Lake Forest will disappear and FEMA will retreat to its compound.

This is the NFL, where every game is magnified and nothing is ever as bad or good as it appears.

Besides, no matter what happens this week or next, it sure has taken your mind off Chicago baseball, hasn't it?

brozner@dailyherald.com