



A couple things struck me. First, coach Marc Trestman made repeated references to what a good week of practice the team had at Halas Hall. That's coach-speak for saying the team was prepared for the game, but clearly it couldn't have been what the team needed in hindsight. It's one thing to put in a week of work, get in a knock-down-drag-out kind of ballgame and come up a little short. That didn't happen here. The Dolphins dominated this football game so talking about the positives that were part of the week that was, well, I'm not sure who's buying into that.

The other thing that jumped out was running back Matt Forte receiving only two carries in the first half. That couldn't have been part of the game plan in the "good week of practice," right? The offense runs through Forte and there the Bears were on third-and-1 from their own 47-yard line on their first possession. Shotgun formation? Check. Press coverage from the Dolphins? Check. So throw it deep to Alshon Jeffery with Brent Grimes in coverage? Uh, check.

Trestman called it the right move when Miami opted to press the wide receivers. But it was a low-percentage shot and reinforced one thing: The Bears do not always seem comfortable running the ball in short-yardage situations.

The offense has converted 7 of 13 third-and-1 situations through seven games and the Bears are 4-for-5 when handing off to Forte. Why not use him there to get a fresh set of downs? On the next series, rookie running back Ka'Deem Carey is inserted and they try a lateral to him -- in essence a long handoff -- but Cutler throws high and the Bears were fortunate to lose 10 yards and not the ball. That is a cute, finesse attempt to run the football instead of handing off to Forte.

"Forte is the workhorse," Dolphins cornerback Cortland Finnegan said. "You've got to get him involved. Even if the run is not working, you've got to keep giving it to him because he's special. He doesn't get enough credit around the league."

It was interesting to hear Finnegan, who spent a week preparing for the Bears, say Forte doesn't receive his proper due. Why not?

"I don't know," Finnegan replied. "Maybe because when they talk about Chicago it is (Jay) Cutler and it is (Brandon) Marshall and it is (Alshon) Jeffery and every time you turn on SportsCenter you see these bombs but you don't see the hidden 150 yards that Forte has. It's tough to hide 150 yards but it is hidden through all of that. He's such a dynamic player."

Trestman said the Dolphins schemed to take the Bears away from the run but it is hard to picture this offense being productive or consistent without Forte playing a major role.

"When you see that happen it's usually because they've taken the run away and we're going to go ahead and throw it outside to get single coverage," Trestman said.

Nothing worked effectively in the first half and because of that it's all fair game for scrutiny.

2. Jared Allen seemed a little in the dark as to why he was on the field for only two snaps on the Dolphins' 13-play drive in the third quarter. The defense came out of the locker room after halftime and was able to watch the offense drive the length of the field to score on Jay Cutler's 10-yard pass to Matt Forte to bring the Bears within one touchdown.

Then, Miami took over on its own 17-yard line and the Bears went with Willie Young and Lamarr Houston at defensive end. Allen was on the field for the third-and-2 play from the 50-yard line when Ryan Tannehill hit Lamar Miller for a short pass to move the chains. Then, he came back out for Miller's 2-yard touchdown run.

"I don't know," Allen said when asked about the substitution pattern. "You'll have to talk to coach about it."

There were 22 snaps on Miami's next three possessions and Allen was on the field for 12 plays. It will be interesting to see moving forward if this is the beginning of a trend or if it was an aberration in one half. It's difficult to imagine Allen being too happy about a steep reduction in playing time. Allen missed only eight snaps in the first two games of the season and entered this game having played 285 of 319 plays (89.3 percent) in his five games as he missed the Packers game with pneumonia.


3. It's a slippery slope for athletes when they're asked about upset -- and sometimes inebriated -- paying fans. The boo birds have visited Soldier Field at various points this season during three home losses and they were probably loudest at the end of the first half with the Dolphins leading 14-0 while the teams headed to the locker rooms.

Right guard Kyle Long was asked if hearing the boos upset him and he gave a honest answer.

"I don't know if upset is the word I would use," he said. "But as somebody who is blood, sweat and tears like the other guys in this locker room and the coaches, the trainers, the staff, the equipment guys, to be getting booed at home when you're walking off the field down two possessions is unacceptable. Especially when there is not a lot of noise being made on third down. Period."

Predictably, there already has been some fan backlash at Long, who goes out of his way to be accessible and interact with fans pretty much as a way of life. It's a tough topic to bring up for players and there are more wrong ways to answer it than right ways. The cliché and the answer that would probably endear them to fans is something along the lines of "I'd be upset if I were a fan also." Long didn't give that answer. He spoke his heart and at least he didn't channel his inner Cade McNown.

"I think everybody knows we're not a team motivated by fans who come to games and yell and boo at us," McNown said in 2000. "If they're really hurt by us not playing well they should not come to games and save all the boos for their TVs."

Maybe the paying fan will have something else to consider at the next home game. But that doesn't come until Nov. 16 against the Vikings.

4. Monster game from defensive tackle Jeremiah Ratliff, who was credited with 3½ sacks -- his total from 27 games over the last three seasons. He was explosive on the interior and fast and looked like he was in his mid-20s. It's no wonder a lot of attention was paid to Ratliff this past week. He really played strong at Atlanta in returning from a concussion that had kept him out of three games. He's been a skilled interior pass rusher in the past, collecting a career-high 7½ sacks for the Cowboys in 2008.

"It's amazing, man," defensive end Jared Allen said of Ratliff's effort. "Jay is a heck of a player. He's a beast. He's a force."

The Bears noted the club record for sacks by a defensive tackle is four by Jim Osborne on Sept. 4, 1983, against the Falcons, the second year the sack was an official statistic. The Bears have had some pretty good interior pass rushers over the years, too, including Steve McMichael, Jim Flanigan, Tommie Harris and Henry Melton. The key is going to be keeping Ratliff, 33, on the field.


5. A week after breaking out the deep ball with great success against the Falcons, the Bears could not push the ball downfield. There were only two completions of more than 16 yards. Matt Forte had a 24-yard gain in the fourth quarter when he snuck out of the backfield on a third-and-5 play and linebacker Koa Misi slipped and fell. In garbage time -- the Dolphins led by two touchdowns with about 90 seconds to play -- Martellus Bennett made a 21-yard gain over the middle.

The offense just doesn't seem to click without hitting some chunk plays and certainly they would have been a difference-maker in the first half when things were so bogged down.

"It was a good formula for us," wide receivers coach Mike Groh said last week when asked about the vertical success in Atlanta. "We wanted to open things up and it worked out that way. It just so happens we played well. We protected and Jay (Cutler) threw the ball terrifically. Guys won their matchups and competed for the ball. We think we can be that kind of offense on a weekly basis."

We'll see if they can throw the ball downfield against the Patriots. It will be needed.

6. It will be interesting to see if there is any kind of fallout for Brandon Marshall after what was, at the minimum, a tense postgame situation in the locker room with the wide receiver raising his voice. The excuse that is sometimes used and never is really worthy is that players want to win badly.

Former Bears receiver David Terrell was a likeable guy with a playful personality. But Terrell had an act from time to time like winning was more important to him than anyone else in the locker room. I'm not comparing Terrell to Marshall at all. Terrell was a bust. Marshall is a big-time offensive producer. But the idea that one guy takes winning and losing more personally than 52 others doesn't pass the smell test. The locker room is full of professionals and it requires a professional approach. No other player wants to hear another guy in the locker room say it hurts more for him.

Marshall vented about the 3-4 record being unacceptable and I don't think you can find a person in the locker room that finds the current place in the standings OK. No one should be happy with it. That doesn't mean yelling is the right approach, and Marshall, who is on pace to have 71 receptions for 797 yards, was clearly the one doing the loudest yelling before the locker room doors were closed.

"When you lose a game like that, some people have emotions like that," left tackle Jermon Bushrod said. "When you are an emotional person and you come out here and we don't do what we're supposed to do, some people just handle things differently. It's nothing out of the ordinary."

Said right guard Kyle Long: "I don't know if someone blowing up would be the best thing. It's obviously a really tough spot we're in right now. We can't seem to get the formula right at home, which is a spot where you should be more comfortable playing football."

Marshall repeated a couple times how "tight" the locker room is compared to previous teams he's been on. That's all well and good but he's yet to play on a playoff team so I'm not sure what kind of barometer he actually has to measure these things. Hopefully he doesn't fall back on the losing-eats-at-him-so-much-that-he-gets-emotional line because that's just not a good route to go.

7. Not sure what to make of the interception thrown by Jay Cutler in the second quarter. Safety Reshad Jones picked him off on a third-and-2 from the Dolphins' 37-yard line and returned it 50 yards. There wasn't a very good effort to bring Jones down but the throw here is what is troubling because it looks like the ball never should have gone in the direction of Bennett.

Dolphins linebacker Jelani Jenkins jammed Bennett off the line of scrimmage and then cornerback Cortland Finnegan, lined up outside, squeezed inside to completely cover Bennett. There wasn't a window to get the ball into him and the ball sailed way high for any of the three players to make a play on it. The alert Jones made the catch further downfield.

On the outside, wide receiver Santonio Holmes was running a clear-out route and was open.

"I honestly can't say what happened," Holmes said. "I just did my job. Whatever happened, it just happened."

Said Cutler: "That's where it had to go. They were hugging up on Matt (Forte). He was locked in, too high. Marty's the go-to guy."

Bennett was the covered guy, however, and I'm not sure how that explains it.

8. Wide receiver Marquess Wilson was eligible to return to practice beginning last Wednesday but the Bears obviously did not deem him quite ready. He suffered a fractured clavicle in training camp that required surgery and the wait for Wilson means the team clearly doesn't believe he's quite ready.

Here is how the rules for the designation to return from the injured reserve works: Wilson is not eligible to play in a game until Week 9 at the earliest. So, even if he returns to practice this coming week, he's still out until the Nov. 9 Packers game at the absolute earliest.

When Wilson does return to practice, it begins a 21-day practice window during which time he could be activated at any point (in Week 9 and after). At the end of the 21 days, the Bears could also decide he's not ready to play this season. So, as long as there is a question about whether or not Wilson will be ready at the end of a 21-day window, they are going to hold him out.

"We all have confidence in the kid and his ability," Groh, the wide receivers coach, said. "Physically, he is going to have to answer that question as much as anybody else. When they say he is healed, he is going to have to take that first hit. To me, that is the biggest key to the whole thing. You see us out here. There isn't a lot of contact. It's not going to happen out here. It is going to be in the game. He has got to get himself back in shape because he has just been so limited physically about what he can do to try and give this thing the best chance to heal.

"He is anxious to do it but they are being cautious with him and rightfully so, no one wants it to happen again."

The training staff ratcheted up the running Wilson did this past week to work his way back in shape, and he began doing upper-body lifting the week before.


"I feel like I can help out once I get on the field," Wilson said. "It's football. I am not going to think about the injury. I am just going to play the game. I have no control over getting hit or not getting hit."

9. If you didn't see the highlight of Stedman Bailey's 90-yard punt return for a touchdown in the Rams' 28-26 victory over the Seahawks, check it out. Rams special teams coordinator John Fassel borrowed a page from the playbook of former Bears special teams guru Dave Toub. It was execution of the same play the Bears called against the Packers on Sept. 25, 2011, at Soldier Field when Johnny Knox made an over-the-shoulder catch as he peeled back and Devin Hester pretended to field the ball on the opposite side of the field. Knox scored but the play was wiped out by a ticky-tack penalty on Corey Graham.

In this instance, Tavon Austin pretended he was fielding the ball on the opposite side of the field and Bailey made another tricky over-the-shoulder catch of Jon Ryan's punt. He scored easily as the Seahawks were faked out.

Toub nicknamed the play "Pooch" because it was used on a pooch attempt. He devised the play at his desk during the season when he noticed the Packers would land pooch kicks to the left nearly all of the time. He figured he could get Knox back to catch the punt and just needed a believable blocking effort for a player on the other side of the field -- Hester. It worked then and it worked again Sunday.

10. It will be family affair for wide receivers coach Mike Groh this coming week at Foxboro. His father, Al Groh, coached with Patriots coach Bill Belichick with the Giants, Browns, Jets and Patriots. Matt Groh, eight years younger than Mike, is a West Coast college scout for the Patriots. Mike was a quarterback at Virginia and Matt played football at Princeton before getting a law degree from Virginia. After a short law career, he decided to get into the family business. Al Groh and his wife now live in Hingham, Mass., and a good contingent of family members are expected to be at the game.

"I've never been in this situation before," Mike Groh said. "My dad will probably root for us because I am a coach. I'm a little more involved in it."

10 a. Dolphins cornerback Cortland Finnegan got into a brief shoving affair with Brandon Marshall on the Bears' last offensive play.

"He had 40 (48) yards receiving," Finnegan said. "For a receiver of his magnitude when you only have 40 yards and you don't win, it's kind of tough on him. It's one of those things."

10 b. I keep getting tweets and emails about Rex Ryan and the possibility he joins the Bears after this season. He's on the hot seat with the Jets right now, for sure, but my bet is he's a candidate for a head-coaching position somewhere in 2015 and most inquiries seem to be about him as a defensive coordinator.

10 c. Pass rush was pretty good for the Bears but not good enough to stop Ryan Tannehill from completing his first 14 pass attempts.

10 d. Didn't even get into some poor defense against the zone read. At least Tom Brady will not be running that this coming week.

10 e. Pretty solid game for rookie punter Pat O'Donnell with three kicks averaging 53 yards. His net for the season is 36.1 and that is not good enough. That ranks 30th (minimum 19 punts).

10 f. The Fox crew of Sam Rosen, John Lynch and Pam Oliver will handle the Bears-Patriots game Sunday at Gillette Stadium.

Twitter @BradBiggs