

CHICAGO -- The first-half numbers seemed troublesome. Marc Trestman's regular-season debut as Bears head coach hadn't produce the kind of early excitement some were anticipating Sunday.

Passes were dropped. Runs were stuffed.

And after seven possessions took the Bears to halftime with 97 total yards and only two drives that netted more than 10 yards, a sense of displeasure emerged.

Quarterback Jay Cutler later said the early operation felt "off-kilter." Tight end Martellus Bennett used a less newspaper-friendly adjective.

"Everybody felt like we needed to make more plays," Bennett added.

But Trestman never felt the anxiety that pulsed through the Soldier Field stands, through living rooms across the city and even, to some extent, around his locker room.

"I wasn't concerned," Trestman said. "I was excited actually -- that we felt we could move forward in the second half and open it up."

What exactly was there to be encouraged about after a half in which his offense produced an average of 3.2 yards per play?

For starters, Trestman felt the Bears had done a commendable job of controlling defensive tackle Geno Atkins and the rest of the Bengals' fierce defensive line.

Jordan Mills and Kyle Long, the two rookies starting on the right side of the offensive line, had not been overwhelmed. And Cutler hadn't been sacked.

In Trestman's eyes, that was a big deal -- even with the Bears facing a 21-10 deficit when they took the ball for the first time in the third quarter.


"We were able to keep Jay clean, and that was the goal," Trestman said. "If we could keep him clean early and give him a sense that he could be confident throwing the football, eventually we'd be able to open it up."

If the Bears' first-half offense sputtered badly, the efficiency thereafter was undeniable.

Trestman made no radical changes during the intermission. He simply recalibrated his offense, assured the players they'd gained a valuable measure of what they were capable of and that was that.

The Bears settled in, operated up-tempo and called plays with purpose, many right at the line.

They put together touchdown marches of 80 and 81 yards.

And when the X's and O's didn't work, Cutler made something out of nothing, most notably on a hectic dump-off completion to Bennett for 30 yards in the third quarter and later on a scramble for 18.

Both big gains sparked those touchdown drives.

"It wasn't the play call," Trestman said. "It was the player."

Equally impressive was the Bears' closing ability. Their effort in the four-minute offense milked the final 6:38 off the clock to seal the victory, rendering the first-half struggles an afterthought.