Phil Arvia: Officially now, the Bears are in disarray

In one respect, Lovie Smith was right Sunday when he said, "We haven't played defense that way in a long time."

Never, one could argue, is indeed a very long time. And never would be how many times one back has rushed for more yards in one game against the Bears than the 224 yards Adrian Peterson dropped on them at a moist and, by the end, half-empty Soldier Field.

On the other hand, the Bears were pretty horrible for a half last week in Green Bay, so perhaps Smith might have recognized the emerging trend.

Unfortunately, recognizing trends was apparently not Smith's strong suit during this 34-31 Minnesota win. Otherwise, why would he have allowed his special-teams unit to kick the ball to Peterson in a tie game with less than two minutes to play?

Peterson's 53-yard return set the Vikings up for a game-winning field goal for which they positioned themselves without the benefit of a first down. Asked if he thought about avoiding Peterson, Smith said, "Well, you know, not really."

Then he offered an explanation that sounded very much like a reason to do the opposite of what the Bears did.

"Of course he's a big threat and they only needed a field goal," Smith said. "(But) we haven't gone into many games where we don't kick the ball to a player. We thought we would go down and get good field position and go from there."

Asked again, Smith reiterated his long on machismo, short on common sense answer.

"Peterson had scored today, about everywhere ... " he said. "You have to play football and you need to get him down in those situations."

No. What you need to do is realize the Bears hadn't been getting Peterson down very well all day and kick away from him.

Not that we're going to bury Smith over one decision. That would be ignoring some other questionable calls by the coach since he led the Bears to the last Super Bowl, such as whacking Ron Rivera in favor of Bob Babich or bringing in old favorite Adam Archuleta - conspicuous by his absence from the field in the second half - to play safety.

Officially now, the Bears are in disarray. One feel-good half against the Packers was obliterated not merely by a rookie runner making a defense built on speed look slow, but by the decidedly less special Chester Taylor making it look confused and bereft of fundamental technique.

It's one thing for Archuleta, acquired from Washington's doghouse for a sixth-round draft pick, to have found the bench. It's another for Tommie Harris to be rendered invisible, for Brian Urlacher to be neutralized, for the only pressure on the Vikings' quarterback to come midweek, while his coach was mulling another starter.

Considering Brian Griese threw for 381 yards and three touchdowns, Bears fans can't pin this loss on their traditional favorite target. Cedric Benson managed enough bright spots on his 67-yard day to spare the running game, as well.

This one goes on a defense that at the moment appears overrated, under-coached or both.

Or maybe it's just confused. After all, Smith last week was calling Peanut Tillman "the best I've ever seen" at stripping the ball for his first-contact fleecing of the Packers James Jones, and on Sunday he was ripping Danieal Manning for attempting the same on Peterson's 35-yard, fourth-quarter touchdown run.

"We strip the football when you're the second guy coming in, not the first guy," Smith said. "That situation we should have tackled him."

Sounds like a man who has very specific ideas about what his defense is supposed to be. But then, why did Archuleta, who goes back a long way with his coach, sound so much less certain.

"We've got to find our identity and establish that," Archuleta said.

Alex Brown was busy searching for something else, saying, "If there's a panic button anywhere around, we ought to be racing to it."

The Bears 'D' is certainly equipped for that much. Just so they don't have to tackle it when they get there.

"That's it," Brown said. "We're not bringing the guy down. We're not putting the guy down on the ground. He's breaking tackles. He's breaking arm tackles.

"We've got to fix that. Now. God dang. If we don't, we'll be going home early."

Babich must figure the blame will be greeting him at his doorstep.

"We didn't give the team a chance to win, and ultimately that's my responsibility," he said.

Wrong. It's Smith's defense, so it's his fault.

Phil Arvia can be reached at parvia@dailysouthtown.com or (708) 633-5949. Read his blog at http://blogs.dailysouthtown.com/arvia