Bears stumble into bye week with another loss

It started out great, winning three of their first four games, but now the Chicago Bears have lost two of their last three. The Bears (4-3) recently fell victim to the Washington Redskins by the score of 17-14. This loss comes right before Chicago’s bye week—a time where they can rest and reflect on what has gone wrong in the past few weeks.

Sacks and turnovers once again were what led to the Bears’ defeat. Jay Cutler was sacked four more times, bringing the season total to a league-leading 27. In addition to the four sacks, Cutler threw a career-high four interceptions—all to Redskins cornerback DeAngelo Hall. One of Hall’s interceptions was returned 92 yards for a touchdown that put the ‘Skins up for good.

There were two fumbles that the Chicago offense loss, bring their turnover total to six—all in the second half. One of those was by third-year running back Matt Forte, and the other was by Cutler on the one-yard line. This turnover by Cutler was on the heels of a 48-yard catch-and-run by Earl Bennett that went to the one-yard line.

It appeared that Bennett crossed the goal line and head coach Lovie Smith challenged the play, but ended up losing the challenge and a time out. This is why Smith chose not to challenge Cutler’s quarterback sneak. The replay showed that if he would have challenged it, he would have been awarded the touchdown.

Chicago’s offense also showed it’s usual unbalanced attack; running 44 pass plays versus only 16 rushing plays. According to the numbers, the running game was working. The average yards per carry by Forte and Chester Taylor were 4.1 and 6.7 respectively.

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Once again, the defense did everything possible to keep the score close, but still couldn’t get the help on the other side of the ball. Only one touchdown was given up by the defense, but the 125 yards on the ground by Redskins running back Ryan Torain seemed to be too much.

The game was busted open midway in the first quarter when Israel Idonije deflected a Donovan McNabb pass and D.J. Moore picked it off for a 54-yard touchdown. Another Moore interception for a touchdown in the third quarter was called back due to a delay of game penalty on Washington. Danieal Manning also had a pick, and Idonije chipped in with a fumble recovery, bringing Chicago’s takeaway total to three.

There could have been more, but the Bears failed to recover the other four forced fumbles that they caused.

Lance Briggs left the game early re-aggravating his ankle injury that he sustained in Week 5 versus the Carolina Panthers.

With the bye week coming up, the Chicago Bears can try to fix what’s broken so that they can get ready for a much more difficult second half of the season. In this not-so-strong NFC North division, and with four of their final nine games against division foes, the Bears still have a fighting chance to pull away with and clench a spot in the postseason.

By Clyde Speller
ProFootball-fans.com Chicago Bears Correspondent