Armour: Train wreck that is the Bears won't end well
GREEN BAY, Wis. — The Chicago Bears at least have one thing right.
Everyone in the locker room, from coach Marc Trestman to quarterback Jay Cutler and right on down the roster, are finally admitting what their fans — heck, anyone who's ever watched more than a quarter of football — have been saying for weeks now.
"We're just not very good right now," receiver Brandon Marshall said after a 55-14 thumping by the Green Bay Packers on Sunday night that wasn't even as close as the score indicated.
No, they're not, and it's hard to imagine someone won't lose his job because of it. It won't happen this week, and it might not even before the season has finally dragged to an end because Trestman is either too clueless or too loyal to admit this team is circling the drain.
"The most important thing I can do is lead the way with a demeanor that shows the confidence that we can get this done. And I think we can," Trestman said Monday. "This has been a very, very disturbing couple of weeks, no doubt about it. But I've seen coaches and teams work their way out of it."
In Any Given Sunday, maybe. In the real world, this kind of ineptitude gets people fired and someone, be it Trestman, defensive coordinator Mel Tucker or Cutler, will be made the scapegoat for a team that had Super Bowl aspirations less than three months ago.
And rightfully so.
It's not just the record, though at 3-6 that's pretty awful. No, it's the way the talent-laden Bears are playing that makes them the front-runner for the NFL's biggest train wreck.
Chicago gave up 50-plus points for a second consecutive game, only the second NFL team to do so. And that was with Mike McCarthy pulling Aaron Rodgers midway through the third quarter. (As if that stat isn't embarrassing enough on its own, the other member of the 50-point gag club is the Rochester Jeffersons, which sounds more like a role in a second-grade play on the Constitution than a football team.)
After allowing 50 or more points five times in their first 93-plus years, the Bears have now done it three times in the last 11 games.
Rodgers had matched his single-game high of six touchdown passes before halftime, and Jordy Nelson and Randall Cobb couldn't have been more open if they were playing Madden. Green Bay's 42 points was the most the Bears had given up in a half, topping the previous mark set two weeks ago when the Patriots piled up 38 in the first half.
The offense wasn't any better. Bad Jay Cutler showed up, as he usually does against Green Bay, throwing another two picks. The Bears didn't cross midfield until the second quarter and then, after getting all the way to the Green Bay 4, turned the ball over on downs.
Matt Forte has been one of the few bright spots for the Bears and even he was nonexistent, rushing for 54 yards.
"There's a good team in there somewhere, because we've seen signs of it this year," Trestman said. "But we're not a good team right now."
If the Bears couldn't be good this week, of all weeks, that's as big an indictment as anything.
With a bye last week, Trestman and his staff had two weeks to figure out where the wheels had come off and how to put them back on. The players had two weeks to nurse their bruised egos from the 51-23 drubbing by the Patriots and get angry enough to ensure it never happened again.
On top of that, they were playing the Packers, their oldest and fiercest rivals. If they couldn't get up for this game, why are they even bothering?
Yet there they were, looking inept and uninspired on both sides of the ball. And while everyone insisted differently, it sure looked as if they've quit: On each other, on Trestman, on the season.
When Eddie Lacy scored on a 56-yard slant from Rodgers, the Bears barely gave chase. They didn't bother trying to get a hand on Jarrett Boykin when he forced a fumble on Patrick O'Donnell's botched punt early in the third.
" There are a lot of frustrated guys in the locker room right now, a lot of frustrated coaches," Cutler said. "The only thing we can do is try to stick together, keep working and try to get out of this hole. Try to figure it out together."
The Bears locker room was silent after the game, with players at a loss to explain what had happened. Or how it could be fixed. At least when screams and angry words were heard coming from the Chicago locker room after the 27-14 loss to Miami on Oct. 19, it was proof the Bears still had a pulse.
Now they're simply beaten, on and off the field.
Follow columnist Nancy Armour on Twitter @nrarmour.
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