The Bears offense did their job, but the defense couldn’t contain Rookie Russell Wilson and the Seahawks offense who carried Seattle to a 23-17 victory in overtime. The Seahawks racked up 459 yards on the Bears defense, and Russell Wilson made a lot of big plays down the stretch to come out victorious.
The Bears offense had another solid performance especially Cutler and Marshall. Cutler completed 17 out of 26 attempts for 233 yards and touchdowns with a 119.6 passing rating. As for Brandon Marshall, he was nothing short of outstanding as he hauled in 165 receiving yards (over 70 percent of the Bears passing yardage) on 10 receptions and the big reception to set up a 45-yard Robbie Gould field goal to send it to overtime.
All in all this game was on the defense not on the offense.
Head coach Lovie Smith on the decision to not take the field goal early in the game:
“We were up seven. It felt like we had momentum. If you’re going to win we had to get in the playoffs and play good football at this time in the season, you’ve got to be able to pick it (up) and pick up a fourth and short like that.”
On the offensive line’s performance:
“I felt they did an okay job. We didn’t give up a lot of sacks and things like that. We did what we needed to do to stay in the game. We just needed to get some help in other places.”
On if practice time with different players makes a difference:
‘’No. I felt the guys were able to get good rest last week. I don’t think that played into it.”
Jay Cutler had another solid game but was disappointed in how they lose the game:
“Yeah, we don’t lose many games like that here as long as I’ve been here and having a lead that late in the fourth quarter. Offensively, we need to do a better job. We shouldn’t have been in that position. We had a fourth down early in the game, Earl Bennett dropped one, and in the 4-minute drive, I fumbled the ball. Things like that in a game like this with two really good defenses going at it, one play can swing the game. Offensively, we should have done a better job and not put ourselves in that position.”
The defense couldn’t get off the field and contain Russell Wilson and company, but they are still a confident group. The players realize they must put a better performance on the field.
Kelvin Hayden on the loss:
“It’s not the end of the year. We just need to find a way to bounce back and get ready for next week.”
Major Wright, on the play of the defense:
“We definitely got to come out and play better football. We know that. This is a tough loss to swallow.”
It was a tough loss for the Bears, but they had opportunities and simply couldn’t make the necessary plays to win the game. But the offense has played well the last two games.
As for the defense, they must do a better job containing, tackling, and getting off the field. The Bears now fall to 8-4 and will hit the road to take on the Vikings next week, as the Vikings fell to 6-6 following the loss to Packers.
By Jamal Bivins
