The Bears surrendered their undefeated status, and two quarterbacks, Sunday to the New York Giants in a 17-3 loss.
Both Jay Cutler and the offensive line fell completely apart in the first half and the Bears franchise quarterback was sacked nine times in the first half. The Bears ended up setting a franchise record for sacks allowed with 10.
The offensive line allowed defenders through one nearly every play and Cutler held the ball too long in numerous situations leading to the record thrashing.
Those nine sacks took a toll, as Cutler left the game at halftime with a concussion. There was no word as to which sack caused Cutler's injury, but in the final seconds of the half, he took an especially hard hit where his head bounced off the turf.
The Bears did not fare much better with Todd Collins as quarterback. The second-stringer gave up an interception at the beginning of the second half when the Bears were finally putting together an offensive drive. Collins threw into triple coverage near the Giants end zone, effectively ending one of the few Bears drives that produced any positive yardage. Collins was then hurt with less than five minutes left in the game.
The running game was equally bad. The total 59 yards gained was less than the Giants' second-best rusher, Brandon Jacobs, who had 62 yards.
The shame is that the deplorable performance by the offense overshadowed a good job by the Bears D. They kept the Bears in the game, as the Giants were only up 3-0 at the half.
Julius Peppers finally got a sack, after going two games without one. He forced an Eli Manning fumble that was quickly recovered by Brian Urlacher.
Zack Bowman did what he could to keep the Bears in the game, stopping what would have assuredly been a Giants touchdown in the fourth quarter by forcing Ahmad Bradshaw to fumble. It didn't matter, though, as the offense could not even come up with a first down after being given the ball. The Bears punted, and the Giants scored quickly on the next drive.
This game will force the Bears to ask many questions before they head to Carolina next week. Will they have a healthy quarterback, and how will they keep him healthy? How will they be able to score? How do they recapture the momentum from the first three weeks of football?
