Bears play fifth exhibition since season ended in Cincy

Lovie said the Bears had to win today, but as bad as the Bears are (they've lost four straight and five out of six, with the one victory over the Browns, who've won one game), the Bears could conceivably win the last five games of the season. (Did someone say "playoffs"?) Next week they host the lowly Rams, then they've got Green Bay at home, Baltimore is so-so, the Vikings may not need to win in the penultimate week of the season, and the season finale is at Detroit. Matt Millen may be called on to generally manage both teams in that one. 

Today Brett Favre threw three touchdown passes and had 256 yards passing. In the first half. Another first half Bears blowout, but the Bears did tease. Jay Cutler dropped a TD pass into Johnny Knox's hands that was as good as Tiger Woods feathering a bunker shot from 24 yards out. But Cutler also threw a pass (picked in the endzone) as ugly as Tiger Woods cruising toward a fire hydrant.

Troy Aikman defended Cutler by showing how on the great TD pass Cutler had a defender in his face. The implication is that Cutler has no protection. But as Dan Pompei analyzed it in the Sun-Times today, there are 13 quarterbacks, including Brett Favre, who have been sacked as much or more than Cutler.

What Cutler doesn't have is the kind of running game that Favre can rely on. On the Bears' touchdown drive they ran six plays, all passes, for 54 yards. How is Mike Martz going to top that? But if Mike Martz can draw up some plays that would take advantage of the second half opening kickoff return that set up the Bears at the Vikings' 8-yard line, well then bring him on. And make him the general manager, too.

What the Bears might need to do is get more out of receiver Devin Aromashadu, he of the height and the great hands (he had one terrific catch) and try to persuade the other Devin that even Babe Ruth was better when he concentrated on hitting instead of pitching. Yes, switch Hester back to punt and kick returns, though he'd have to compete with Danieal Manning and Knox on the kicks.

Cutler also can't rely on his defense. Every time the Bears seemed to come back, Favre was there. By the time Favre finally left the game the Bears had allowed him and the Vikings 518 yards in offense. It's time to demote Bob Babich again. Then again this just may be the Vikings' year. As great a nemesis as they've been to the Bears over the years, the Vikings have never won a Super Bowl. The last one they were in was in 1977, when they lost their fourth Super Bowl in eight years. They're the Buffalo Bills of the NFC. They're due.

Note to Aikman: why do you always say "he has to play better than what he has"? Stop giving us the "what" for.

Speaking of analyzing the analysts, Dan Dierdorf was saying that the Colts organization is the model that other NFL teams want to emulate, what with, among other things, the smooth transition from Tony Dungy to Jim Caldwell.

So, let's see if the Bears can follow the Colts recipe under the Irsay regime which took over in Baltimore. That would mean, first of all, moving the Bears in the middle of the night to, oh, Tehran. Eventually, it would mean a smooth transition from Charlie Weis to Bob Stoops. Oops, wrong dysfunctional local football outfit.