No Offense— But The Chicago Bears Are Defensively Challeneged

The Story of the Chicago Bears 2008 season started with a stunning 29 to 13 victory over the Indianapolis Colts. What a sweet victory for Bears fans who saw their team's offense score points and their defense tackle, create turnovers, and most of all, hold on to a double-digit lead.

The past two weeks, however, have been a different story.

Week 2 in Carolina showed a Bears team that roared to a 17 to 3 lead only to end up losing the game by surrendering 17 unanswered points. Week 3 was not much different; the Bears allowed a 10 point lead in the fourth quarter to slip away from them as they lost in overtime to the Bucs.

A major conflict has shown itself in the story of this season—and it's still pretty early on.

Which unit is the easiest to blame in this two game losing streak? The offense, right? I mean, Greg Olson's two fumbles at Carolina hurt the Bears with one giving away a scoring opportunity and the other setting up a Jonathan Stewart touchdown to keep the Panthers in the game. And surely Kyle Orton's two interceptions—one of which was returned for a touchdown—did not help the Bears cause to beat the Bucanneers this past Sunday.

Yet, the Bears might have bigger problems than offensive turnovers.

The defense has certainly improved from the preseason as they rank 18th in total yards (last in the preseason) and fifth in rushing yards (31st in the preseason).

Yet the past two games, the defense has been unable to protect double-digit leads. The result: two losses. Perhaps this 28th ranked pass defense in the league (27th in the preseason) is liable for this problem.

Sound familiar? Just take a look at 2007.

The Bears had possession of a 3-0 lead over the San Diego Chargers, in San Diego, for three quarters before giving way to two unanswered touchdowns en route a 14 to 3 loss.

How about when the Bears let a 13 to 3 lead in three quarters over the Detroit Lions slip away to a devastating 37 to 27 loss in the fourth quarter at Ford Field. Or consider the 16 to 7 lead over the New York Giants—your current defending Super Bowl Champions—being washed away with two fourth quarter touchdowns to end with a 21 to 16 loss.

This was clearly one of the major issues of the Bears defense in 2007; these past two games in 2008 are no different, though the defense significantly improved from 2007 (28th in total yards, 27th in passing yard and 24th in rushing yards).

Does the offense still have problems that need to be addressed? Absolutely. But if the Bears want a happy ending to this season, the defense needs to learn how to finish games protecting a lead, especially when they get something like a double-digit lead.

If they don't, we could be staring at a disappointing end to the story of the 2008 Chicago Bears.