First-team Still Not Together; Bears Lose 14-9 to Cards

The Chicago Bears didn’t look quite ready in the game that mattered most in the preseason. The Arizona Cardinals handed the Bears their third loss of the preseason by defeating the Monsters of the Midway 14-9, knocking their record down to 0-3. Once again, sacks were given up on offense, and the defense allowed big plays in crucial situations.

Jay Cutler looked like the quarterback of last season, throwing two interceptions along with his 129 yards in the air on 10 of 20 passing. Along with Cutler’s passer rating of 31.0, the offensive line allowed four sacks (nine total including the last game). The turnovers and sacks all resulted in a first half were Chicago failed to put up points on the scoreboard.

Defensively, the Bears were without linebackers Brian Urlacher and Lance Briggs, but still managed to play fairly well. The only time where the Bears’ starting defense looked vulnerable was on the two drives where the Cardinals scored touchdowns. Chicago’s main issue was on third downs, where the Cardinals converted on four out of four third-down conversions—twice on third-and-eight, and once each on third-and-seven and third-and-13.

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TThings didn’t look that great for the special teams as well, despite having veteran Patrick Mannelly returning to his long-snapping duties. In the first half, kicker Robbie Gould had a field goal attempt blocked, and missed an attempt hitting the left upright.

With the biggest test of the preseason out of the way, the Chicago Bears look to be headed into the regular season with a lot of questions unanswered. Will the offensive line begin to gel? Will the defense start to get off of the field after third down? Will the special teams return to their form of the past few seasons when they were one of the best in the league? None of these questions will be answered until the first game of the regular season, due to the fact that the starters won’t play more than one series in their preseason finale against the Cleveland Browns.

By Clyde Speller
ProFootball-fans.com Chicago Bears Correspondent