Mike Nadel: Bears seek wins -- and identity
Tommie Harris, the Bears' best defensive lineman, is questioning Lovie Smith's coaching strategy. Bob Babich, Smith's hand-picked defensive coordinator, is doubting himself. And outspoken end Alex Brown is wondering whether the team is any good at all.
The Bears aren't just losing. They're lost.
A smash-mouth team that runs the football and keeps opponents from doing the same? Please. Last season is SO over.
The Lovie Era's window of opportunity is closing far earlier (and far more forcefully) than anyone could have imagined, and the Bears face more than just the crisis that goes with being a last-place team in a bad division. They face an identity crisis, too.
Jeesh. That sounds so heavy, doesn't it?
On the bright side, all those Bears fans who had wanted to see more of Adrian Peterson should be happy now.
Oops. Wrong Adrian Peterson.
While the Bears' backup tailback is still as mediocre as ever, the Minnesota Vikings' rookie stud by the same name spent Sunday humiliating a Chicago defense that has been living on its reputation for far too long.
Peterson -- the good one -- rushed 20 times for 224 yards, the most by an opponent in 88 years of Bears football. He scored on runs of 67, 73 and 35 yards and added a 53-yard kickoff return that set up Ryan Longwell's winning field goal in Minnesota's wild 34-31 victory.
"He's a good player ... but God-dang, he shouldn't get that many yards," Brown said. "I know we're going to say we're better than that, but maybe we're not. We stunk. We were horrible."
Now 2-4 and three games behind the Packers in the NFC North, the Bears showed that the previous week's victory at Green Bay was a fluke handed to them by a mistake-prone opponent. They also made a return trip to the Super Bowl a long shot.
"The season's not waiting on us," Brown said. "We need to start winning, and we need to start winning now. If we don't ... we won't even get back to the playoffs."
Playoffs? (Feel free to do your best Jim Mora impersonation.)
There was much talk in the locker room about missed tackles and blown assignments and the inability to shed blocks.
All of it was true, of course. In addition to Peterson's output, Chester Taylor ran for 83 yards as the Vikings finished with a staggering ground total of 311.
The big problem seems to be the team's inability to play Lovie's precious Cover-2 defense.
Smith couldn't wait to sack successful defensive coordinator Ron Rivera so he could promote his buddy to the job, but Sunday's result merely was the ugliest in a string of poor performances by Babich's crew.
"It all starts with me," Babich said. "We're not getting it done, and it's ultimately my responsibility."
His defense has been unable to overcome injuries to star defensive backs Mike Brown and Nate Vasher (as well as to several supporting players), leading Harris to say: "Sometimes you've got to know you can't run the same defense with different players."
Hear that, Lovie? Apparently, the system is only as good as the players in it. What a revolutionary concept.
Alex Brown scoffed at the notion that injuries are causing the defense's woes: "Are we asking too much to not give up 222 yards? No."
Actually, it was 224, but who's counting? At least it was one yard less than Peterson gained in what he called his previous biggest game -- against Texas when he was an Oklahoma freshman. Hook 'em, Bears!
Peterson's long runs were but three of the eight 30-yard-plus touchdown plays in the entertaining game. Devin Hester had an 89-yard punt return and, finally allowed to play offense, an 81-yard reception. With Smith and offensive coordinator Ron Turner all but abandoning the run, Brian Griese threw 45 passes; 134 of his 381 yards came on the last two drives, when the Vikings' prevent defense almost prevented them from winning.
After Griese's bomb to an inexplicably wide-open Hester tied it with 1:38 to go, Smith opted to kick off to Peterson.
The kid didn't go the distance but took it back far enough to position Longwell for a 55-yard kick that just cleared the crossbar.
Just like that, the defending NFC champs were in last place.
"If there's a panic button anywhere around," Brown said, "we ought to be racing to it."
Sure, but would they be able to catch it?
Mike Nadel (mikenadel@sbcglobal.net) is the Chicago sports columnist for GateHouse News Service. Read his blog, The Baldest Truth, at www.thebaldesttruth.com <http://www.thebaldesttruth.com> .