How Will Lovie Smith and the Bears Rebound from Their Giant Loss?

The Bears suffered through a demoralizing loss on Sunday. A record-breaking, quarterback-beating, painful loss that left the team in disarray.

How can Lovie Smith help the team forget the ugliness from Sunday night and move onto Carolina?

Luckily, he has experience in this area. In his seven seasons with the Bears, Smith has faced abysmal losses before. Here's a look at previous bad losses, and what the team has done in the next game.

The Loss
: In 2006, the Bears were undefeated when they faced the Miami Dolphins. The 2-5 Dolphins, trying to keep safe the record of the 1972 Dolphins, played brilliantly, forcing the Bears to turn the ball over six times on the way to a 31-13 loss.

The Rebound: The Bears jumped right back on the winning track with a 38-20 win over the Giants at the Meadowlands. Rex Grossman threw three touchdowns and Alex Brown sacked Eli Manning twice. The Bears went on to a 13-3 season and went to the Super Bowl.

***

The Loss: There's no worse loss than a loss to the Packers, and the Bears were on the wrong side of a 37-3 beatdown in 2008. Green Bay held the Bears to a field goal while piling up 427 yards, and 37 points. Ouch.

The Rebound: Luckily, the Bears faced the hapless Rams the next week, and took out their frustration on them. Matt Forte had two touchdowns, the defense made five sacks and forced four turnovers, leading the Bears to a 27-3 win in St. Louis.

***

The Loss:
The Bears traveled to Cincinnati with high hopes for the 2009 season. At 3-2 before the game, they still had reason to be optimistic. The Bengals stomped all over those hopes, scoring four touchdowns and field goal by halftime. Final score? Bengals 45, Bears 10.

The Rebound: The Bears didn't play much better the next week when the Cleveland Browns. Sure, they beat Cleveland 30-6, but the Browns had were 1-6 at that point in the season. Gould scored three field goals and Forte ran for two touchdowns, but Jay Cutler was sacked four times and threw an interception.

What should worry Bears fans is not  whether Smith can bring the team back to form. He can. What 's worrisome is that recently, despite a winning record, the Bears "form" is that of a bad team.

Copyright FREEL - NBC Local Media
Contact Us