© Suburban Journals of Chicago Game Photos By Scott Krause

Winning Ugly…Bears Beat The Browns 30-6…

The defense found their Mojo, while the offense continued to stumble.

If it wasn’t for a dominating performance by the Bears defense in Sunday’s 30-6 rout of the woeful Cleveland Browns at Soldier Field we may have been talking about a three-game losing streak.

Instead, as they have done so many times in the past, the offense relied on a stellar defensive effort to carry them to victory

The win also enabled the defense to regain some confidence that was non existent following an embarrassing 45-10 drubbing in Cincinnati a week earlier.

“In Cincinnati, kind of everything that could have gone wrong did,” Hillenmeyer said. “So even though Cleveland’s struggling on offense, it felt good to go out there and execute defensively.

“I’m sure when we watch the tape we’ll realize that we didn’t play perfect football. But especially with some of the teams that we’ve got coming up here in the next month, we need something to build on, and that’s definitely a good start.” Said Hunter Hillenmeyer.

Matt Forte Scores one of two touchdowns
© Suburban Journals of Chicago Game Photos By Scott Krause

Run, Jay Run.

Offensively, the Bears struggled early. They went three-and-out on their first two possessions, and then settled for Robbie Gould field goals of 37, 29 and 32 yards after reaching the Cleveland 9, 11 and 3.

Jay Cutler not only ran for some big yardage, but he was running for his life. The Browns had his number. He was sacked four times and took some hard hits and punishment in the game. On several occasions, he was slow to get up and seemed dazed and confused… almost like “where am I?” You are in Chicago Jay, not Denver.

Most other quarterbacks would have been benched, but not Cutler.. He proved how tough he is, bouncing back and going right back to work.

The Bears finally got into the end zone on Matt Forte’s 1-yard dive with 1:56 left in the first half, increasing their lead to 16-0. Their first touchdown capped a 10-play, 71-yard drive that was sustained by a 15-yard penalty for roughing-the-passer on a third-down incompletion.

Cutler completed 17 of 30 passes for 225 yards with one interception and a 66.7 passer rating. He failed to throw a touchdown pass for the first time in seven games with the Bears.

“We’ve got a lot of work to do,” Cutler said. “It’s good to get a win at home, but offensively we’ve got to get to work. We’ve got to take a look at this and find out what we can do better and where we can make improvements.”

© Suburban Journals of Chicago Game Photos By Scott Krause

They are the team we thought they were

As bad as our offense was, the Browns were much worse.. no masks on these Browns..

Cleveland’s offense had mustered only four touchdowns in seven games so far this season, and was again highly ineffective Sunday at. Quarterback Derek Anderson completed just 6 of 17 passes for 76 yards with two interceptions and a porous 10.5 passer rating. In the first quarter is rating was 0.0… “Mr Blutarsky”

“I guess when it rains it pours sometimes, and I think they struggled,” Hillenmeyer said. “They definitely helped us win that game defensively, giving us the ball a few times.

“But then you’ve got to give [Bears] players credit too. Danieal [Manning] and [Charles Tillman] both had awesome [interceptions], and those weren’t gimmes. Those were plays where they went and got the football. There were some good things on our side of the ball too.”

Turnovers into points… the big key today

Manning had two takeaways, which the Bears converted into 10 points. The fourth-year pro made a diving interception, scrambled to his feet and raced 35 yards to the Cleveland 13. He later stripped the ball from tight end Steve Heiden and returned the fumble five yards to the Browns’ 49.

“Danieal played well,” coach Lovie Smith said during his Monday press conference. “It was the best game he’s had probably since he’s been here as a defensive player.”

“Defensively, that’s what we’ve been looking for,” Smith said. “That’s a part of our philosophy, our approach to winning football games. I think you have to get takeaways on defense and you have to be good on third-down conversions, which we were.”

More tests to come… beginning next week with the Cardinals.

The Bears defense will look to build on its performance of today… when Kurt Warner and the high-powered Arizona Cardinals offense soar into Soldier Field this Sunday.

Warner passed for five TDs and two interceptions in leading the Cardinals to three straight wins over the Texans, Seahawks and Giants before stumbling with five picks Sunday in a surprising 34-21 loss to the Panthers.

“You certainly can’t count on that every week,” Hillenmeyer said. “I never know whether you want a team to win or lose the week before they play you. Sometimes a loss is sort of a wakeup call and we want them coming in as susceptible as they can be because they’re a team with a lot of weapons.

“Obviously they’ve done some really good things the last couple years. They’re good and they’re capable of being great on both sides of the football, so that’ll be a challenge.”

The Long, Tough road ahead…

After facing the Cardinals (4-3), the Bears will visit the 49ers (3-4) in a Thursday night game before closing out November against two division leaders when they host the Eagles (5-2) and visit the Vikings (7-1).

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