Phil Arvia: Bears' season on life support

Perhaps Lovie Smith hadn't had time to consult the media guide before conducting his postmortem Sunday of the Bears' 37-27 loss to the Lions.

<p class="MsoNormal">Otherwise, he might have chosen opening words other than, "It's kind of a broken record."

<p class="MsoNormal">No "kind of" about it. The broken record -- the one that ultimately mattered, anyway -- was for points allowed in a quarter, the 34 that came in Sunday's fourth quarter, eclipsing the 31 allowed by the 1985 Bears just before Mike Ditka and Buddy Ryan started swinging at each other in the locker room on a Monday night in Miami.

<p class="MsoNormal">Of course, those Bears rebounded to win a Super Bowl. These Bears would have to rebound to ward off the mortician.

<p class="MsoNormal">What was supposed to be a get-well game left the Bears' season on life support, with Brett Favre poised to pull the plug next Sunday at Lambeau Field, where the undefeated Packers will look to put the Bears four games behind them five games into the season.

<p class="MsoNormal">Feel free to panic. Or to hope Major League Baseball decides to put Sunday's Cubs playoff game in prime time so you won't have to watch the carnage.

<p class="MsoNormal">"We've been 1-3 before and finished 11-5," Tommie Harris said. "There's still hope for the Bears."

<p class="MsoNormal">Sure, but history says that, while the 2005 team did go from 1-3 to 11-5, none of the other seven Bears teams to start 1-3 since the schedule expanded to 16 games in 1978 posted a winning record or made the playoffs.

<p class="MsoNormal">"I'm not into history right now," Adewale Ogunleye said. "I'm into taking it one game at a time. We know what type of team we are. I don't think we're playing to our capabilities."

<p class="MsoNormal">But what if they are?

<p class="MsoNormal">What if, aside from Devin Hester -- who set a team mark for return yards in a game and matched Gale Sayers' team career record for return touchdowns -- there is no longer anything special about them?

<p class="MsoNormal">What if Cedric Benson is exactly what he's shown so far -- a decidedly non-special running back?

<p class="MsoNormal">What if the offensive line has finally gotten old, all at once? What if what's left of the defense is incapable of being what they were at full strength? What if the luck they had avoiding injuries last year continues its absence this year?

<p class="MsoNormal">And especially, what if Brian Griese was what he was Sunday, which is to say Rex Redux, minus the arm strength and the escapability?

<p class="MsoNormal">Rust would have been forgiven. Heck, Bears nation was already prepared to forgive Griese so much.

<p class="MsoNormal">He doesn't have a big arm. He seems to be loved by his teammates the way you loved that uncle you saw twice a year, the one who smelled vaguely of ammonia. His brand of charismatic leadership owes a debt to, oh, Richard Nixon or early Al Gore.

<p class="MsoNormal">But he was supposed to at least make the quarterback position one less thing for the Bears to worry about. Instead, he threw three interceptions, including one spectacularly brain-dead toss that Keith Smith returned 64 yards for a touchdown to spark the wild and wooly portion of the record-setting fourth quarter, not to mention a postgame that sounded like a bunch of eager Philosophy 101 students pondering their existence over pumpkin spice lattes.

<p class="MsoNormal">At least, that's what Brian Urlacher sounded like when asked how he could believe this team would turn things around.

<p class="MsoNormal">"It's still early in the season," he said. "We've got to get ready for Green Bay next week. But if we started thinking ..."

<p class="MsoNormal">His voice trailed off.

<p class="MsoNormal">"We're a bad team right now," he said. "We're definitely not playing to our potential right now. ... That's not a bold statement, obviously. But we've got to get it fixed. If we don't think we're better than we are, why be playing?"

<p class="MsoNormal">Good question.

<p class="MsoNormal">Unfortunately, Griese had the most realistic answer.

<p class="MsoNormal">"We are 1-3. You are what your record says you are," he said. "2006 doesn't matter right now. It's about 2007 and about how we're going to respond."

<p class="MsoNormal">Maybe in the Bears locker room it is. In the rest of Chicago's sports world, it's rapidly becoming about the Cubs, and Illinois football and maybe even Bulls training camp.

<p class="MsoNormal">Phil Arvia can be reached at parvia@dailysouthtown.com or (708) 633-5949. Read his blog at http://blogs.dailysouthtown.com/arvia

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