For as popular as it might be to make fun of Brandon Marshall's "unacceptable" outburst, it's not as if he was wrong. With the bye week on the horizon, the Bears had a chance to revive their season by upsetting Tom Brady and the Patriots in New England on Sunday.
Then the first half happened.
38-7.
Those 38 points were the most the Bears had ever allowed in a first half, a meltdown punctuated by three New England touchdowns in 57 seconds just before halftime.
We'll ignore the second half because, well, that will just make the 51-23 disaster look worse.
THE NUMBERS
0
Jay Cutler threw in Brandon Marshall's direction three times and Martellus Bennett's way once. They had zero catches, and one of those passes to Marshall ended in an interception on a hail mary at the end of the half.
100 percent
New England scored on all five of its first-half drives. Four touchdowns and a field goal. They also returned a Cutler fumble for a TD.
15
When you're getting pummeled as badly as the Bears were, you get frustrated. Which leads to Kyle Long pulling Patriots linebacker Akeem Ayers-WWE-style-off Cutler by one leg after a pileup and drawing a 15-yard penalty for unnecessary roughness. You salute a guy for sticking up for his QB, but the refs aren't paid to be sympathetic.
1
Embarrassing stiff-arms on Chris Conte are becoming commonplace. It happened again Sunday, though if you were too busy burying your head in your hands at that point, you would have missed it.
22-9
That would be New England's first-half first down total compared with the Bears'.
298-119
New England outgained the Bears by this sizable margin in the first 30 minutes, too.
53, 23, 99
That would be the jersey numbers for Darryl Sharpton, Kyle Fuller and Lamarr Houston. Sharpton and Fuller left the game in the first half with injuries, and Houston hurt himself celebrating a meaningless sack in the fourth quarter. Starting linebackers Lance Briggs and Jonathan Bostic were out from the start, too. How much more punishment can this defense take?
ANYTHING TO SAY FOR YOURSELVES?
"Come on, put y'all's ears closer to the door."
-Brandon Marshall, to reporters waiting for the Bears locker room to open after Sunday's loss
"We got outplayed and outcoached in all three phases. We couldn't keep up the pace. I told [the players] that we're going to define ourselves by the way we play the second half, because the first half was inexcusable."
-Bears coach Marc Trestman
"He's got a knee [injury], and I'm very disappointed for him."
-Trestman, on Lamarr Houston
"Agonizing. We got behind pretty quickly and didn't make it much of a ballgame."
-Jay Cutler, on how he felt about the final two minutes of the first half
"As a whole, we have decide how we're going to end this year. Are we going to pack it in and hover around .500 or try to make a run at this?"
-Cutler
"I think everyone's surprised. You don't expect to go out and get beat like that."
-Cutler
.
"You've just gotta own the mistakes."
-Bears defensive end Jared Allen
Tribune contributed.