Bears feel need to improve despite routing Browns

LAKE FOREST, Ill. (AP)—Jay Cutler(notes) was on the run and bleeding for much of the game, yet he insisted afterward he was fine. No reason to worry.

Even so, the Chicago Bears did little to calm their anxious fans in a 30-6 win over the Cleveland Browns on Sunday. Lopsided score aside, it was far from a perfect performance by a team that had dropped two straight and was coming off a 45-10 beating at Cincinnati that ranked among its worst in years.

But the Bears weren’t about to be picky. Not after what happened the previous week.

Linebacker Hunter Hillenmeyer(notes) was quick to acknowledge Monday that the Bears’ confidence was “definitely” shaken after that blowout by the Bengals.

“Even though Cleveland’s struggling on offense, it felt good to go out there and execute defensively,” Hillenmeyer said. “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 we’ve got coming up in the next month, we need something to build on. This is definitely a good start.”

Defensive end Alex Brown(notes) insisted the team’s confidence never wavered.

“We don’t lose confidence whether it’s one play or one game,” he said. “If we had a stretch of playing like we did earlier in my career where we’d lose eight or nine games in a row, then I guess your confidence can be shaken, but not from one game. So it’s just like your confidence isn’t built overnight, either. So you don’t just regain your confidence after one game, either.”

What they did get was a much-needed win, no matter how ugly it was, and a big lift from a defense that got run over by Cedric Benson(notes) and the Bengals.

They picked off Derek Anderson(notes) twice and recovered three fumbles while allowing a season-low 191 yards against the Browns after giving up 448 the previous week. Whether that was the result of a juggled lineup or Cleveland’s ineptitude is open for debate.

Either way, the Bears (4-3) will take it.

Beside having Tommie Harris(notes) back from his one-week benching, the Bears went with Marcus Harrison(notes) over Anthony Adams(notes) at nose tackle and moved Hillenmeyer from strongside linebacker back to the middle in a flip-flop with Nick Roach(notes).

“I don’t want to make too much of that,” Hillenmeyer said. “We were both still on the field. I haven’t seen the film yet, but it seemed like Nick had a great game. I think it’s always the coaches’ idea to keep the players out there that they think can help them win. Nick is definitely one of those guys.”

Three of the next four games are against division leaders, starting with Arizona this week and finishing with Minnesota at the end of the month. That means the Bears’ margin for error figures to be slim, and if the Cleveland game showed anything, it’s that there’s plenty of work to do.

Cutler again was running for his life behind a struggling line and got sacked a season-high four times while absorbing several big hits, including one in the second quarter that left him with a bloody mouth. He said afterward he felt fine and added: “I’ll be ready to go.”

On Monday, coach Lovie Smith said, “Each game, you have 22 guys that get roughed up.”

Yet only one of them is carrying the franchise’s long-term hopes on his cannon-like arm.

“Jay’s a tough player,” Smith said. “Some games, it’ll be that way. That’s why you need big, strong, tough guys playing quarterback for you to be able to handle those things. Again, that’s not ideal an ideal world for us to be in.”

Nor is this: An offense scoring touchdowns on just 2 of 7 trips inside the 20, bringing its red-zone conversion rate to 44.4 percent this season. Although Smith acknowledged a need to improve, that grim number didn’t stop the coach from painting a brighter picture.

“I’m pleased with us continuing to get down in the red zone,” he said. “Whether it be us protecting the football or just making a play from time to time, it’ll come as long as we just continue to maintain what we’re doing and continue to get down there.”