Giants KO Jay Cutler, Expose Bears' Offensive Line

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- It seemed odd that the first Chicago Bears player who came out to talk to reporters about Sunday's hideous 17-3 loss to the Giants was linebacker Brian Urlacher, because the Bears' defense actually played all right and most of the questions were going to be for and about the offense. Specifically, the offensive line should have been fielding questions like, "Did you guys only work against 10 defensive players in practice all week?" or "Did the Giants' defensive linemen coat their jerseys in butter?" or "Did Jay Cutler do something to make you guys hate him?"

But as it turns out, Urlacher was exactly the right guy. Because in the middle of his postgame remarks, he stopped, looked up and simply said, "We didn't see this one coming."

And that really summed it up. All night, the Bears didn't see the Giants coming. They didn't see them coming on any of a whopping 10 sacks, including the nine Cutler took in the first half -- a drubbing that resulted in a concussion for the Bears' starting quarterback, who sat out the second half and let Todd Collins and, finally, Caleb Hanie dance around the Giants' inspired pass rush. The Bears rolled in here at 3-0 and never imagined that a 1-2 Giants team that hadn't played defense like this in nearly a full calendar year would take it to them.

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But that's what happened, and as a result the Kansas City Chiefs (who were off this week) are the only remaining undefeated team in the NFL. The Bears, who just six nights earlier were reveling in a Monday night victory over division-rival Green Bay, dropped to 3-1 and will spend this week doing some thinking.

"The NFL is a humbling business," Bears center Olin Kreutz said. "Sometimes, you get your ass kicked. And that's what happened tonight."

"We need to get the ball out quicker. We need to block better. All of the above. None of us did a good enough job tonight."
-- Bears head coach Lovie Smith To the extreme. A week after embarrassing themselves in a turnover- and penalty-filled loss to Tennessee, the Giants came out Sunday night as if their pink cleats were on fire. Giants defensive players, who said after the game that they were inspired by pep talks during the week from Ring of Honor inductees Michael Strahan and Jessie Armstead, looked nothing like the lackluster group that slogged its way through the first three games of this season. Osi Umenyiora himself had three of the nine first-half sacks, and Justin Tuck had two more.

The result was that a Bears offensive line that stands as its teams most glaring weakness was exposed. Cutler threw for 42 yards in the first half but lost 55 yards on sacks, and Chicago's net offensive output for the first 30 minutes of the game was a mere 22 yards. There were plenty of times when it appeared Cutler held the ball too long, but Bears coach Lovie Smith and the players put the blame on the line for not resisting the Giants' pressure.

"Jay's going to play the way he's going to play," Kreutz said. "We've got to block better."

Because of the concussion, it remains to be seen whether Cutler's going to play next week at Carolina, where the Bears can expect to put their surprisingly strong start back on track. But no matter who plays quarterback for Chicago next week or the rest of the year, it's going to be hard to him to have success if the Bears can't keep defenders off of him.

"When you get pressured like we were tonight, it's tough to do anything," Smith said. "We need to get the ball out quicker. We need to block better. All of the above. None of us did a good enough job tonight."

The most incredible thing about the game -- even including the 10 sacks -- was that the score was only 3-0 in favor of the Giants at halftime and 10-0 entering the fourth quarter. Giants running back Ahmad Bradshaw had a big game with 129 rushing yards, but the passing game didn't click, New York lost three fumbles and the Bears' defense did a good enough job making plays to keep the game within striking distance against a Giants team that still clearly has a lot of question marks. Had they been able to generate anything at all on offense, the Bears might have been able to steal this game they way they stole the game from the Packers last Monday night.

But they couldn't.

"When our defense plays as well as it did tonight, we can't keep putting them in that position and expecting them to just hold them every time," Bears tight end Greg Olsen said. "This is on the offense as a whole. We need to get better."

The good thing is, after the egg the Bears' offense laid here in the swamps of Jersey on Sunday night, it doesn't appear as if they can get much worse.