Bears Scalped by Redskins 17-14

The Bears are full of surprises this season; some good, some bad.  Lately, they’ve been mostly bad.  The unexpected wins in Dallas and against Green Bay have been negated by miserable back-t0-back home losses to Seattle and Washington.  The Bears head into their BYE week with a 4-3 record and heading the wrong direction.  Check out NFL.com’s breakdown here.  I use the words highlights loosely.

I will preface my instant analysis with the fact that I could only half watch the 2nd half because I was watching my 20-month old while Mrs. Beargoggleson was at a wedding shower.  I think next time I’ll go to the shower.  On with some bullets, Greg Blache style:

• The turnovers by the offense were inexcusable, especially in the Red Zone.  They made 3 trips to the red zone, scoring 1 TD but committed 2 turnovers.  When you lose by 3 points, that’s a tough pill to swallow.
• Lovie Smith’s use of challenges is laughable.  Of course he challenges the Earl Bennett n0n-TD because he knows full well that 1st and goal from the 1-yard line for this offense and they might as well be 100 yards away.  Then he gets gun shy to challenge the Jay Cutler quarterback sneak-turned-fumble.
• Greg Olsen – caught a couple of balls, but overall, still useless.
• Jay Cutler was sacked 4 more times and threw 4 interceptions.  You all wanted balance?  There’s your balance.
• Jerry Angelo needs to go get DeAngelo Hall to play wide receiver.  He was Jay Cutler’s favorite target, tallying an NFL record tying 4 picks, even taking one 92 yards for a pick-6.  Check out all of them here.
• Someone please put out an Amber Alert for Devin Aromashodu.  Haven’t really seen him since Week 1.
• Someone give Chris Williams the license plate of that truck that ran him over.  It was #92, Albert Haynesworth, who last time I checked, was still trying to pass his conditioning test.
• Seeing #30 DJ Moore with a tipped ball, pick-6 sure reminded me of Mike Brown.  I miss Brownie.
• Speaking of that tipped pass, Izzy Idonije is ballin’ right now.  Dude is showing something at the other DE position opposite Peppers.
• Just to let you know how the defense played, Izzy Idonije led the team with 2 passes defensed.
• Speaking of Amber Alerts, could someone please put one out for Julius Peppers?  He has pulled a disappearing act from the stat sheet the last couple of weeks.
• The Bears finally broke their 0-fer streak of 3rd down conversions.  They finished the day 2 out of 10.  Do we call that progress from last week’s 0-13?
• What’s worse – the Bears trying to convert 3rd downs or the Bears trying to score from the 1-yard line?
• That sound you heard at the end of the game was the Bears season getting flushed down the toilet.  After the BYE, there are not many gimmes left on the schedule.  The Bills?  They gave the Ravens everything they could handle at home today.

I’ll go back and watch the film of the second half and post some more thoughts later on.  Also be on the lookout for Bear Dawn and Observations of a Mad Scientist along with Driving Deez Nuts and maybe even a BYE week LOWER THE BOOM.  Plenty more coverage here throughout the week here at Bear Goggles On.