Halftime adjustments? What halftime adjustments?
The only halftime adjustments Thursday were made by the Lions as viewers turned away from another sickening Bears performance.
This Bears team is more than just half bad, as its 2-11 record will attest. But the year is replete with numerous second-half collapses.
Thursday’s 55-20 bum rush included a 38-0 second-half run by Detroit, as the Bears allowed the most points in franchise history.
“I like making history with the Bears, but not that type of history,” linebacker Barry Minter said.
“We’re supposed to make adjustments, but for some reason in the second half–for some reason–the same plays are being called,” running back Raymont Harris said. “It’s kind of unfortunate sometimes. It gets frustrating, because I don’t have any control over that. I’m just somebody who is out there playing. Not too much I can do or say about it.”
The Bears had a 14-0 lead in the first quarter and held on for a 20-17 advantage at halftime.
“Our guys came out battling, and they felt good about the plan and there was some energy,” said coach Dave Wannstedt, whose team has not beaten an NFC Central opponent since Nov. 24, 1996. “Then as the game went down, it got evened up and we started losing the momentum.
“And we didn’t make any plays on offense or defense or the kicking game. Pretty soon our backs were against the wall. And the crowd gets into it, and there you go.
“I was disappointed because we weren’t up by six (at halftime). I told our team that in order to beat this team, you have to take advantage of every opportunity that presents itself. We had an opportunity to get three more points at the half, and we turned the ball over on a sack. We lose the field-position thing the whole game.”
The Lions adjusted to the Bears’ running game, limiting Harris to 49 yards on 19 carries. Harris had 34 of those yards in the first half.
“I think it dates back to our first game with the Lions,” Harris said. “We had some success against them in the first half (54 yards rushing), and then in the second half they made some adjustments (and held the Bears to 19 yards rushing).
“They brought the linebacker up in there (on the heels of the defensive tackle), and (safety) Mark Carrier moved up to give them an eight-man front,” Harris said. “That made it a little difficult to run. Very difficult, actually.”
Minter expressed similar sentiments regarding the Bears’ failure to adjust.
“We weren’t really sound in our defense,” he said. “We kind of left Barry Sanders a gap open with one man to make the tackle. That is kind of tough. You can’t expect one man to make a tackle on Barry Sanders.”
Wide receiver Curtis Conway cited a failure to put away the Lions when the Bears had them down early.
“We went in at the start of the game and everything was going our way,” he said. “I don’t know if we sat back or what. Everything started to shut down a little bit. When we were up 14 points, they couldn’t stop us, and I felt that was the point when we should have been really unloading. Not kicking back.
