CHICAGO – Devin Hester’s electrifying 89-yard punt return touchdown late in Sunday’s game at Soldier Field gave the Bears an edge over the Seahawks in a battle of two of the NFL’s top special teams units.
Unfortunately for Chicago, it came too late to erase or overcome lackluster performances by an out-of-sync offense and a sluggish defense in a humbling 23-20 loss to Seattle.
“You have to be ready each week to play your best ball, and we didn’t play our best ball today,” said coach Lovie Smith. “None of us looked good today. We got our butts beat.”
While Sunday’s loss dropped the Bears to 4-2, they maintained a one-game lead atop the NFC North over the Packers (3-3), who lost in overtime to the Dolphins at Lambeau Field by the same 23-20 score.
With Jay Cutler back in action after missing last weekend’s game in Carolina with a concussion, the Bears offense yielded six sacks, went 0-of-12 on third down and scored only one touchdown against a Seahawks pass defense that entered the game ranked 31st in the NFL.
With Cutler under center, the Bears have now failed to convert their last 22 third-down opportunities, a streak that dates back to the second quarter of a Week 3 win over Green Bay. They entered the game ranked last in the NFL in third downs, and have converted just 3 of 40 in their last three contests.
“Offensively, we didn’t get anything done,” Smith said. “Third downs on the offensive side of the football, we can’t reach the place we’re trying to go until we can take care of third downs.”
Taking care of their quarterback is also an issue. After getting sacked nine times in the first half against the Giants in his last game action two weeks ago, Cutler was under intense pressure on Sunday.
Seahawks blitzers repeatedly had clean shots at the Bears quarterback coming off the edge, with defensive backs Jordan Babineaux (1½), Lawyer Milloy (1) and Roy Lewis (1) combining for 3½ sacks.
“It’s protection and we’ve got hot routes, so it’s on everybody,” Cutler said. “It’s on 11 guys. As I’ve said earlier, it takes 11 guys to make a play happen and a few times today we had some breakdowns.”
Cutler completed 17 of 39 passes for 290 yards and a 69.4 passer rating, while Johnny Knox had five receptions for a career-high 120 yards. But the running game produced just 61 yards on 14 carries after generating 218 yards on 42 attempts a week earlier in a win over the Panthers.
“Protection-wise, it’s still a problem,” Smith said. “It’s something we have to fix. We never really got the running game established. We didn’t get a whole lot done.”
Defensively, the Bears yielded TD drives of 80 and 92 yards, failed to record a sack or a takeaway, and permitted the Seahawks to convert 7 of their first 14 third-down opportunities.
“We were kind of on our heels today, off-balanced,” said safety Chris Harris. “They were attacking us instead of us attacking them.”
Matt Hasselbeck completed 25 of 40 passes for 242 yards with one touchdown and an 87.7 passer rating. Justin Forsett (10 carries for 67 yards) and Marshawn Lynch (17-44) combined to rush for 111 yards on 27 attempts. And Detroit Lions reject Mike Williams had 10 receptions for 123 yards.
“You have to take the ball away,” Smith said. “It’s as simple as that. Their quarterback had control of the game most of the time. Mike Williams had a career day it seemed like against us.
“If you can’t convert on the offensive side and on the defensive side you let them convert and you’re not getting any takeaways, it’s going to be a tough day.”
Both teams opened the game with 80-yard touchdown drives.
Matt Forte’s six-yard scoring run gave the Bears a 7-0 lead after Hester had drawn a 58-yard pass interference penalty against Lewis at the Seattle 23. But the Seahawks made it 7-7 as Hasselbeck completed 4 of 4 passes for 76 yards including a 22-yard TD strike to Deon Butler.
After Seattle took a 14-7 lead on Forsett’s nine-yard TD run on the second play of the second quarter, the Bears threatened to score touchdowns but twice had to settle for Robbie Gould field goals of 34 and 24 yards, cutting the deficit to 14-13 at halftime.
Cutler was sacked by linebacker Aaron Curry on third-and-10 from the 11 and later was pressured into throwing an incomplete pass over the middle on third-and-four from the six.
The Seahawks increased their lead to 16-13 when Cutler recovered his own fumble in the end zone on another sack early in the third quarter after Babineaux stormed off the edge unblocked.
Lynch capped an 11-play, 92-yard drive with a one-yard touchdown run early in the fourth quarter, widening the margin to 23-13. Danieal Manning returned the ensuing kickoff 89 yards for an apparent TD, but the play was nullified by a holding penalty against Rod Wilson.
Hester closed the gap to 23-20 with a spectacular 89-yard punt return with 1:54 to play, knifing through a hole and dashing down the left sideline. But the Bears had no timeouts remaining, forcing Gould to attempt an onside kick that tight end John Carlson easily secured to ice the victory.
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