Five Low Points In Lowest Of Bears' Seasons -- So Far
By John Dodge
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Even when the Bears were kinda, sorta good, fans could always find something to complain about, while the media did its best to tart up the drama around the fortress of Halas Hall.
The McCaskey/Emery/Trestman cabal takes all the work out of it.
There are many moments of bizarre ineptness and dysfunction in 2014--perhaps the worst it is ever been for a team that generally has been pretty marginal for the past 50 years.
Here are five low points so far this year:
Jay Cutler : His average numbers, by league standards, obviously don't warrant his salary. The career of Mr. Cutler is perfectly encapsulated by this tweet from NFL writer Adam Hoge.
Bad decision-making, a turnover, followed by a smug quote. That does it.
106 Points
In two games, the Bears allowed New England and Green Bay to score 106 points, with about 90 percent of those points coming in the first half. In 14 games, the Detroit Lions (the Bears' next opponent) have given up a league best 230 points.
While Chicago has now allowed a league worst 409 points, at least it didn't continue on that 53 point per game average, which would be a hilarious 742 points at this point in the season! The NFL record for most points allowed? A total of 533 by Baltimore in 1981, so that, hopefully, remains out of reach.
Loose Lips Sink Ships
In a season full of dramatic tension, perhaps the worst came when Bears offensive coordinator Aaron Kromer broke down in tears while apologizing to the offense for critical remarks about Cutler that he made to a national reporter.
Kromer said he "made a mistake" becoming an anonymous source for an NFL Network report that basically said Jay stinks. So we have a man who has been in the NFL for years, holding one of the most important positions of leadership and trust on the team, tattling to a reporter?
Does he get fired by the boss? Oh, no. Coach Marc Trestman actually told WBBM Newsradio that the whole episode brought the team closer together.
1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10 ... Oh, Snap!
Desperate times called for desperate measures against New Orleans last night. A gut check that could change the momentum of the game. It was time for a fake punt.
The ball went to Danny McCray who was stopped short of the first down. On top of that, the Bears special teams unit only put 10 players on the field. While having one less guy on the field would seem like a disadvantage, it is also a penalty.
But that's not the worst part. After the game, McCray made an astonishing admission: He counted only 10 players and allowed the play to continue anyway!
"We shouldn't have snapped it," he said. "We probably should've just taken the delay."
Well, Done
Lance Briggs has had a stellar career with the Chicago Bears.
Lance Briggs also doesn't care and made that pretty darn clear just before the massacre at the hands of Aaron Rodgers.
"I don't know what to do with myself sometimes," he said. "Sometimes I sit in the meetings while coaches are talking and sometimes the words just phase out and I'm just staring at the screen. The only thing I can tell is the time. I can see the time and it's like, 'Damn, I still got 55 minutes left.'"
Sadly, and rightfully, the fans have given up, too.
There were a reported 11,000 no shows for the game last night. It was a game that at the beginning of the season appeared to have the potential to be a blockbuster--a matchup of two elite quarterbacks in a game with huge playoff implications.
Instead it was simply a bust.
A story on CBS Chicago last week said there were plenty of cheap seats available for the game.
As the weekend slipped into Sunday's twilight, some ticket holders were just giving the tickets away--if they could even find somebody.
