FanHouse Chicago Bears

Though most had the Minnesota Vikings as the favorites to win the NFC North heading into the season, nearly everyone agreed that either the Chicago Bears or Green Bay Packers -- or both -- would at least pose a challenge to the Vikes' second straight division crown. Instead, we're taking this division race off life support and putting it to rest after Week 9. The 2009 NFC North champions will be the Vikings. They can now focus on securing home-field advantage in the playoffs.

The reason for the above sentiment is that both the Bears and Packers were abysmal, in different circumstances, Sunday afternoon. The Pack went into Tampa Bay and lost to the formerly winless Buccaneers, while the Bears were absolutely manhandled for the majority of the afternoon by a fickle Arizona squad.

---

---

Bears defensive tackle Tommie Harris was ejected from Sunday's Chicago-Arizona game after throwing a punch to the face of Cardinals guard Deuce Lutui.

The incident occurred just four plays into the contest -- Lutui, who was blocking Harris on a running play, was lying face down on the Soldier Field turf when Harris grabbed him, lifted him slightly and landed an uppercut to Lutui's facemask.

---

---

Lovie Smith has a 49-38 record as the head coach of the Chicago Bears. In his first five seasons, he guided the Bears to two division titles and one Super Bowl. The Bears are currently in the 2009 playoff race at 4-3. Yet, among fans and Chicago-area media, Lovie is just as maligned as the pathetic offensive line.

The complaints range from Lovie's penchant to avoid showing any emotion on the sideline to his not properly preparing players for games to his almost scripted non-answer answers in press conferences. Regardless of the reason, Lovie is not particularly loved, at present, in Chicago ... except by his Bears.

It would be easy to look at the 30-6 final score in the Bears' victory over the hapless Cleveland Browns and think everything went well for the home team. It would be easy to see Matt Forte's 90 yards and two touchdowns rushing and think the running game is back. Let's not do things the easy way and fool ourselves into thinking there wasn't something problematic on display Sunday in the Windy City, because the offensive line is flat-out horrible.

The pass protection was porous. Jay Cutler was sacked four times. He was hurried all day and had to scramble five additional times. The Browns entered the game with just 12 sacks in seven games.

Jim Finks knew the Atlanta Falcons would use the first pick of the 1975 draft on Steve Bartkowski, the California quarterback -- then, as now, "franchise'' quarterbacks were a premium item.

What the general manager of the Chicago Bears didn't know as he waited on at New York's Hilton Hotel on Jan. 28 of that year was whether or not Dallas would use the second pick on the player he desperately coveted: Walter Payton, a running back from Jackson State who had finished fourth in the Heisman Trophy voting, despite playing for a historically black school that never competed on national television.

"We didn't know who we were going to take either,'' says Gil Brandt, then the personnel director of the Dallas Cowboys. "I guess the draft started at noon and we didn't make our decision until maybe an hour before. It was Walter or Randy White and we went with longevity -- defensive linemen are supposed to last a lot longer than running backs.''

---

---

Some things make no sense.

Just take the way Walter Payton played, for instance. Season after season, game after game, down after down, he destroyed folks. He did so as a running back for the Chicago Bears, and he spent 13 years as one of the most explosive hitters ever at any position, despite wrapping just 200 pounds around his frame of 5-foot-10. After he would belt a heftier defender toward the parking lot with his famously potent stiff arm, he would return to his preferred status of mellow.

One picture of a football player hangs in Jeff Fisher's office. It is of his former teammate, Walter Payton.

Ten years after Payton's death, he still serves as an inspiration to Fisher. That was true last season at this juncture when Fisher's Tennessee Titans were 6-0. It remains true this season with Fisher's team 0-6.

"It is the only picture in here, other than of the stadium and some family pictures," Fisher said in a recent interview from his office at the Titans' facility in Nashville. "I had so much respect for him as everyone did. Players come in and it's good for them to see his picture in my office. Especially young players. When they first come in here to talk, it's one of the first things they see."

Bengals 45, Bears 10. It was 45-3 before the Bears finally got into the end zone, but the game had long been over at that point. It was one of those games that makes you wonder -- were the Bengals that good or the Bears that bad? As is usually the case when you ask that question, it was a combination of both. You have to give the Bengals credit, especially Carson Palmer for his precision passing. Well, really, the entire team deserves loads of credit.

Still, this game was more about how pathetic the Bears played. For a team with Super Bowl aspirations, that was a simply despicable attempt at playing football on nearly every front. More games like that, and the playoffs won't even be a possibility come late November.

---

---

Cedric Benson's time in Chicago was a tumultuous one. He was drafted by the Bears in the first round -- the fourth overall pick -- of the 2005 draft and proceeded to hold out for 36 days. After arriving, he constantly complained about being mistreated by teammates. That may have been true, as the incumbent starting running back, Thomas Jones, was well-liked by teammates. Maybe it was because Jones worked hard, cared about the team and didn't have a sense of entitlement -- all opposite traits displayed by Benson in Chicago.

Now, Benson is becoming the player many thought he could coming out of college, due to -- in my opinion -- having received a wake-up call when the Bears cut him. Although, if you hear it from him, that isn't the case at all. In fact, he claims the Bears attempted to blackball him from the NFL.

After paying a hefty price, in terms of draft picks and Kyle Orton, to acquire quarterback Jay Cutler this past offseason, the Chicago Bears have now likely ponied up a hefty monetary price as well. Exact terms of the deal have not been disclosed just yet, but the Bears have announced, via press release, they have come to terms on a two-year contract extension with their quarterback. He's now locked up in Chicago through the 2013 season.