Haugh: Bears abandon run game in loss

[UOK]

When Lovie Smith vowed at the beginning of the season that he was going to forget the recent past this year, he wasn't kidding.

In the Bears' regrettable 23-20 loss to the Seahawks at Soldier Field, Smith coached like a guy with absolutely no recollection of what happened the previous Sunday.

That was the one in which the Bears ran the ball for 218 yards against the Panthers, the team's best rushing output in 20 years. Yet playing at home with a quarterback coming off a brain injury, the Bears called just 12 handoffs in a game they asked a makeshift offensive line to protect Jay Cutler 47 times.

The Bears went from a 65-35 run-pass ratio to 80-20 pass-to-run. A football team cannot expect a carryover effect if it drops the ball mentally.

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Talk about an identity crisis. It was the short-term recall of the Bears' quarterback we were worried about, not the coaching staff, right?

"There was an emphasis to run the ball," Smith said with a straight face afterward. "We tried to run the ball a little bit, couldn't do that. It's not as simple as you look at what happened the week before and just say, 'Let's do that every time.' "

Even trying to do it every other time would have kept the Seahawks' blitzing defense honest more than the Bears bothered. Nothing slows down an aggressive pass rush like having to respect the run. Making a better effort to establish a ground game also may have helped the Bears' defense stay off the field on another day it was overworked.

Smith's stubborn insistence that the Bears indeed had "an emphasis," on running the ball only indicated what he thinks of the intelligence of everybody outside Halas Hall. The Bears ran seven times in the first quarter and only five more after that. Following Lovie's lead, Bears players used the fact the Bears trailed as an excuse for going pass-happy.

Sorry, guys, it didn't become a two-possession game until early in the fourth quarter.

It comes as no consolation that the Falcons, the NFC's other 4-1 team entering Sunday, also lost. Or that the Bears stayed atop the NFC North thanks to the Packers' overtime loss to the Dolphins. After this, the Bears preserved the benefit of the doubt as they did their quarterback.

It wasn't as if the Bears' passing game was clicking at such a high rate to ignore the run. They were 0-for-12 on third downs and haven't made a third-down conversion with Cutler at quarterback since Sept. 27 against the Packers. That's 0-for-October.

Cutler completed just 17 of 39 passes for 290 yards and was sacked six times. If you're counting, that makes 15 sacks in the last six quarters for the previously concussed Cutler. It's getting so bad the Bears should consider listing their offensive linemen on the depth chart as accomplices.

This game plan didn't carry the approval of the American Medical Association. At one point in the second quarter, offensive coordinator Mike Martz called 11 straight pass plays for Cutler, several requiring deep drops. Everybody before the game worried about Cutler's concussion, but it was Martz who lost his head.

As the Bears' offense was playing into the Seahawks' hands, Seattle's kept the Bears' defense on its heels with a smart, balanced attack. On the scoreboard of offensive scheming between coordinators, this one will be remembered as Jeremy Bates 1, Mike Martz 0.

The return of Cutler appeared to lull Martz back into bad habits of thinking the Bears could wing their way out of trouble. Until the offense figures out who blocks who on a blitz, Cutler's ability won't matter.

The Seahawks exploited the weakest spot in the Bears' pass protection — the edge — after film study of the Giants game convinced them they could. Seattle's secondary accounted for 3.5 of the six sacks.

"We were obviously licking our chops," safety Lawyer Milloy said.

The offensive line will bear the brunt of the responsibility — running back Chester Taylor cited "young guys on the right side," for problems with protection, referring to starting guard Edwin Williams and tackle J'Marcus Webb. But it takes a village to sabotage an offense, and tight ends and running backs, and even Cutler, committed mental mistakes that created physical pain.

"It's communication," Taylor said. "We've got to make the right calls and Jay's got to read the hots. It's a tough one."

The play that best summed up that frustration came on third-and-6 at the Seattle 30 with 5 minutes, 9 seconds left in the third quarter and the Bears trailing 16-13. Rather than play it safe with a running play or quick pass to at least secure a chance at a field goal, Martz called a pass that resulted in an 11-yard sack.

Instead of tying the game, the Bears punted. Think they could have used that field goal?

Has Martz lost his mojo?

Yes, the pass rush could have harassed crafty Matt Hasselbeck more and the secondary could have done more to make it look like Mike Williams wasn't playing Arizona State again. But defeat No. 2 falls at the hands of an offense that got outmanned on the field and outcoached on the sidelines.

I bet Cutler wishes his memory of this one was foggy.