Thomas Jones contemplated the wreckage of Sunday’s 21-9 loss to Pittsburgh, which convincingly ended the Bears’ eight-game winning streak and featured more losses than just the final score.
“Losing a game like this sometimes motivates you,” Jones said. “Nobody in this locker room feels good. That feeling makes you hungry. I can’t wait to play Atlanta next [Sunday] because I don’t like the feeling of losing.”
Playing without safety Mike Brown, whose calf injury could sideline him the rest of the regular season, the Bears lost some of their defensive swagger. They lost their ability to tackle, yielding a season-high 190 rushing yards.
And, perhaps most importantly, they lost a full game off their NFC North lead over the hard-charging Vikings, who have won six straight.
Aweek that started with all the focus on the quarterback position ended with the spotlight on a decision by coach Lovie Smith that surprised even Pittsburgh’s Bill Cowher and on statistics completely out of character for the league’s top ranked defense.
The Bears gave up a season-high 363 yards and allowed Pittsburgh to convert seven of 14 third downs. The Bears allowed more visits to the end zone than they had in their previous four games combined. The Steelers controlled the ball a season-high 37 minutes 19 seconds “We didn’t play smart, we didn’t tackle well, and we didn’t make plays to get off the field,” defensive coordinator Ron Rivera said. “I’ll put this on our shoulders because we lost in every facet of the game.”
Pittsburgh marched 66 yards on five plays in its opening possession, breaking a 45-yard screen pass to Willie Parker and scoring on a 14-yard pass from Ben Roethlisberger to Hines Ward.
The Bears closed to 7-3 on the next possession. Orton had three completions of 11 yards or more on the 14-play, 63-yard drive, including the Bears’ first third down conversion in 14 tries dating to two games ago. But the offense wanted more than Robbie Gould’s 29-yard field goal after facing a first-and-goal from the Pittsburgh 2.
Jerome Bettis’ first of two touchdowns made it 14-3 with 7:25 left before halftime.
On that drive, the Bears stopped the Steelers short of a first down on third down but surprisingly accepted an offensive pass-interference call to make it third-and-13. Given new life, Pittsburgh ripped off a 16-yard play featuring more broken tackles.
Steelers coach Bill Cowher said he would have punted on fourth-and-1.
This is the first time the Bears have lost since Brown, the defense’s emotional leader, ripped his team’s mind-set after the devastating loss in Cleveland. Losing him for extended action would be a blow.
With not much else to point to, the Bears were left to find solace in odd details, like the fact that the 1985 Super Bowl team also lost that season’s 13th game. Of course, that was that team’s only loss.
