Bears can't complete comeback against Broncos
Sunday's 17-15 loss to the Broncos was the kind of game that good teams find a way to win.
The Chicago Bears found a way to lose.
Actually, they found a lot of ways to lose and, in the process, made a convincing argument that maybe they aren't very good yet.
Coach John Fox's team appeared on the cusp of goodness coming off back-to-back road victories that lifted them to within a game of .500. But Sunday's loss at sunny and brisk Soldier Field dropped them to 4-6 with no realistic chance of earning a playoff berth.
Without a doubt, the 8-2 Denver Broncos are a good team with a great defense.
We know they're a good team because Bears coach John Fox, in a rare expansive answer, told us they are.
"They have good players," Fox said. "They have good team speed. They have good rushers off the edge, and they've got good guys on the outside that cover. I think those are pretty good ingredients for a good defense in the National Football League."
Good enough.
The Bears certainly were not good enough defensively, even though they allowed just 17 points, their third straight game holding an opponent to fewer than 20.
However, they weren't good enough to prevent quarterback Brock Osweiler, who was making his first NFL start, from looking like a seasoned pro. The Bears sacked Osweiler five times, their best effort of the season and 1 more sack than they had in the previous three games combined.
But they allowed Osweiler to post an exceptional passer rating of 127.1. He completed 20 of 27 passes for 250 yards, including touchdowns of 48 and 10 yards without being intercepted.
For the third straight game, the Bears' defense allowed a game-opening touchdown. In the first two they didn't allow another TD all day and came away with victories.
Not this time.
"We have to start faster than that," insider linebacker Shea McClellin said. "We haven't done a very good job the last three or four weeks. I don't know what it is. We just have to correct it. It's that simple."
On offense the Bears were good enough to move the ball but not good enough to get it into the end zone until just 24 ticks remained on the clock. Even then they weren't good enough to add the 2-point conversion that would have forced overtime, as rookie Jeremy Langford didn't get close to the end zone.
"On the 2-point conversion, I have to do a better job of getting 2 yards," said Langford, whose 2-yard run had gotten the Bears into the end zone for the first time all day. "We have to come back and do better next time."
Neither the Bears' run game nor their run defense were good enough Sunday to defeat a worthy opponent.
The only Bear who contributed a run longer than 9 yards was quarterback Jay Cutler, whose 29 yards on three scrambles nearly made him the team's leading rusher. Langford struggled for just 25 yards on 13 carries (1.9-yard average), making the expected return of Matt Forte against the Packers at Green Bay on Thanksgiving night even more anticipated.
Ka'Deem Carey added 32 yards on nine tries (3.6-yard average) before leaving the game with a concussion. Non-Cutler rushes averaged 2.6 yards; not good enough, even against a stout run defense.
"We have to run the ball better as an offense, and that falls on us," right tackle Kyle Long said. "Not scoring a touchdown until the last minute, that falls on us as an offensive line. We know that our offense and our team goes as far as the running game will take us.
"That falls on our shoulders."
The Broncos, who came in as the 29th-best rushing offense in the NFL, trampled the Bears for 170 yards on the ground, averaging 4.7 yards per attempt. It was the most rushing yards the Bears have allowed in a game this season.
Definitely not good enough.
Cutler, whose 70.4 passer rating was just his second this season under 88.4, was without both starting wide receivers, Alshon Jeffery and Eddie Royal, in addition to Forte. But he knows this was a game the Bears could have won.
"They're a good team, but we let it get away from us," Cutler said. "There have been a few games where we lost the fourth quarter and felt like we've been right there."
The Bears' last 3 losses have been by a total of 8 points. Before their 37-13 blowout of the St. Louis Rams, their previous 3 victories were by a total of 6 points.
"We have to play pretty good football for four quarters," Cutler said, "and we have to play really good football in the fourth quarter."
That's what good teams do.
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