Bears Snatch Defeat From The Jaws of Victory

With a 10 point lead and 3 minutes to go, you would figure that even the worst of teams should be able to hold onto for at least a 3 point win. But these Bears are bad.

And that's not the worst of it. In overtime, scored tied 24 all, Brad Maynard punts the ball and pins the Bucs inside their own 10. And on 3 and about 9 or so inside their own 10, the Bucs try and short pass that is stopped by the Bears defense. But these Bears aren't only bad, but they are dumb as Charles Tillman decides to get into a scrum that is happening after the play, no doubt started by the Bucs to entice the Bears into a penalty and sure enough, Peanut(brain-size?) Tillman happily obliges them and shoves a player, in front of a ref no less and draws a 15-yard penalty, giving the Bucs a 1st down and allowing them to march downfield and kick a game winning field goal.

But the game wasn't all bad. Kyle Orton played much better in the 2nd half, throwing for 2 touchdowns, one to running back Matt Forte and the other to wideout Brandon Lloyd. The Bears have been looking for a #1 wide receiver all season and may have finally found him. Loyd finished with 6 catches, 124 yards and a 2-pt conversion to go along with his TD. And Matt Forte had another solid game, gaining 89 yards on 27 carries and also catching 7 passes out of the backfield for 66 yards with the touchdown. But Orton did have a poor 1st half including throwing a TD pass to the Bucs defensive lineman while he was wide open.

Defensively, the Bears played the type of defense you would expect from a playoff contender for 55 minutes. But those last 5 minutes of regulation and all of overtime showed once again why this defense isn't getting better, just older.

But it wasn't entirely their fault. When your defense causes 4 turnovers and the offense only manages 24 points during the entire game, there is something wrong. Sure, the Bears scored 18 points off those turnovers, but that means the Bears offense only scored 6 points when the ball was handed to them. And if the Bears plan on running first and passing after that, they need to do a better job of scoring when they do get the ball.

By the way, if anyone has seen Tommie Harris, can you please give him directions to Soldiers Field? He seems to have not been able to show up so far this season.