Hester posts first 100-yard game
CINCINNATI - Devin Hester scored the Bears' only touchdown and caught 8 passes for 101 yards, his first 100-yard game in the NFL, but he wasn't in much of a mood to celebrate.
"You can't even be happy with statistics coming off a loss like this," Hester said. There's nothing to be excited about."
Hester also leads the Bears with 28 receptions and 373 yards and is tied for the team lead with 3 touchdowns after scoring on a 5-yard pass from Jay Cutler.
He's on pace for 75 catches, 995 yards and 8 touchdowns, but the Bears are on pace for a .500 season.
"I'm hoping that this can be a real humbling experience for us, to really sit down and evaluate ourselves as individuals," Hester said. "Everyone needs to take it upon themselves and really evaluate and see, 'What could I do to be better than I was this week?'
"We just feel like we came out playing flat. We didn't start off fast, and we definitely didn't finish the game strong."
No comparison: The good news is Matt Forte averaged 4.0 yards per carry, just the second game this season that he has been over 3.1.
The bad news is he got just 6 carries (for 24 yards), since the Bears had to abandon the run game early because of their huge deficit.
Forte didn't care to analyze a comparison between himself and the Bengals' Cedric Benson, who rushed for a career-high 189 yards.
"I don't compare about that stuff," Forte said. "I come here to play football, not to see who is on the other side of the field or who we're playing. I play against the defense."
Forte had some advice for exorcising Sunday's nightmare, though.
"How you get over it is you forget about it," he said. "We've got a game to play next week (at home against the Browns), and we've got to come out and forget about this one."
No excuses: The defense has been without middle linebacker Brian Urlacher (wrist) since halftime of the season opener.
Strong-side linebacker Pisa Tinoisamoa (knee) is not expected back this season and defensive tackle Tommie Harris sat out Sunday's game with a sore knee and said he didn't know if he'd be back Sunday.
But Hunter Hillenmeyer, who filled in at Tinoisamoa's spot said injuries aren't an excuse.
"Obviously people will say that this week," Hillenmeyer said. "We've played without Brian all year, and Pisa has played less than a half of total football. So to blame it on the fact that we've been missing guys is letting ourselves off the hook."
The final word: Lance Briggs, who had an unofficial game-high 13 tackles didn't have much to say afterward, but he was right on. "We (stink); we (stunk)," said. "They completely dominated us."