Bears not much better after beating Browns
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| The Bears’ Garrett Wolfe (bottom) upends the Browns’ Josh Cribbs Sunday during a third-quarter kickoff return at Soldier Field. (AP) |
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By halftime, Walter Payton was being remembered, but the Bears’ loss to the Bengals was being forgotten. Perfect.
“What happened last Sunday?” Bears coach Lovie Smith said with a straight face. The Bears needed their friends from Cleveland to help them forget, and the Browns obliged in a 30-6 Bears victory.
But the destination was more enjoyable than the climb for the Bears on a perfect day for football at Soldier Field. The lopsided score was due more to the ineptitude of the visitors than it was to the efficiency of the hosts.
“I was running of the field saying that was a good slump-buster,” middle linebacker Hunter Hillenmeyer said. “I don’t feel we played awesome football, but we did what we needed to do, we won a game we were supposed to win.”
And they won the way they were supposed to win – at least defensively. The Bears came up with five takeaways, the most they have had in a game since Oct. 19, 2008, against the Vikings. They had only eight takeaways in their previous six games this year.
Of course, the Browns tend to give away the football the way charities give turkeys away at Thanksgiving time. They came into the game with the second-most turnovers in the league.
But that didn’t matter to the Bears.
“We had a [takeaway] famine going on for a while,” safety Danieal Manning said. “Somebody had to step up.”
That somebody was Manning, who went horizontal to intercept a Derek Anderson pass in the first quarter, and then stripped and recovered the ball from tight end Steve Heiden in the third quarter.
That somebody also was cornerback Charles Tillman, who had a fumble recovery after a Nick Roach strip, and an interception he brought back for a fourth-quarter 21-yard touchdown.
And that somebody also was defensive end Adewale Ogunelye, who recovered his third fumble of the season.
“We had a great week of study and preparation, and we knew how the receivers were lining up, how the quarterback was going to throw the ball and what routes they were going to give us against our defense, so we just played and trusted the scheme,” Manning said.
In addition to the six points from Tillman, the Bears scored 13 points off takeaways. They also held Anderson to a 10.5 passer rating and prevented the Browns from converting on 10 of 11 third downs.
Offensively, the Bears were more uneven. The run game was extremely functional, but not very dynamic. Matt Forte rushed for 90 yards on 26 carries and had a couple of touchdown runs. Garrett Wolfe chipped in with 53 yards on five carries. They helped give the Bears an advantage of more than 15 minutes in time of possession.
“The running game, we’re committed to it as much as anything, even when you’re not getting yards,” Smith said. “You have to stay committed to it, which we will be.”
The running game was the best way to keep Jay Cutler from being hospitalized. He was sacked four times and hit seven other times.
“He showed a lot of toughness,” said receiver Devin Hester, who had 81 receiving yards. “He took a lot of shots today and never came out of the game.”
Cutler, not surprisingly, was not very effective throwing the ball. He was 17 of 30 for 225 yards. He had one interception and a passer rating of 66.7.
The Bears really didn’t need him to do a lot because they made plays in other phases of the game.
