CHICAGO -- In the week of prep at Halas Hall leading into the Chicago Bears' 41-28 loss Thursday night to the Dallas Cowboys, the staff and players spoke endlessly about the need to establish the rushing attack. Once it was time to put all the talk into action, they abandoned the plan.
"We tried to run the football," Bears coach Marc Trestman said. "They certainly were making every attempt to try to stop the run. There were some run blitzes and some edge blitzes just to try to knock us off. We missed a couple of blocks along the way, but it was evident."
The Bears followed up a loss on Thanksgiving to the Detroit Lions in which they ran the ball a franchise-low eight times by running 15 times against a Cowboys squad that rang up 194 yards on the ground, 179 by DeMarco Murray.
Circumstance certainly played a role as the Bears ran just 20 plays (including seven runs for 4 yards) in the first half due to the Cowboys dominating time of possession, 18:56 to 11:04.
"Lack of execution," running back Matt Forte said of the team's rushing woes. "A missed block here or blocking the wrong person there. It's many things."
Chicago hit the locker room down just 14-7 at intermission and would receive the second-half kickoff, giving it another opportunity to try to establish the rushing attack.
Forte ran for a 2-yard gain on first down of the team's opening possession of the second half. Then the next two downs, the Bears called passes. Forte's 21-yard reception and fumble on third down opened the floodgates for the Cowboys. Anthony Spencer stripped Forte, and Sterling Moore recovered to give Dallas possession at the Chicago 31.
Three plays later, the Cowboys scored on Cole Beasley's 24-yard touchdown reception to make it 21-7 and forced the Bears into passing mode.
"I don't know," Bears quarterback Jay Cutler said when asked how Dallas defended his team's ground attack. "I'll have to look at the film. It happens so fast in the run game, it's hard for me to pinpoint exactly. The score dictated a lot in the second half, but we've just got to do better on offense. To be honest, I'm not a run expert. It's hard for me to give you an answer on that."
Forte's turnover was reminiscent of Chicago's 31-24 loss at Carolina on Oct. 5, in which the running back fumbled with the teams tied at 24 with less than five minutes remaining.
The Bears have committed 25 turnovers on the season, with opponents scoring a total of 92 points off those giveaways.
"We came out in the second half [and] we were going to mix the run, even with the score," Trestman said, "but we were going to throw the ball vertically up the field. And we did. We had some opportunities, and we took advantage of it."
The Bears dialed up 46 passes on the night and completed three for gains of 23 yards or more. The Cowboys, meanwhile, had more runs (35) than passes (26). Over the past two games, the Bears have run the ball a total of 23 times. In the team's most recent win (Nov. 23 against Tampa Bay), Forte carried the ball 23 times.
Forte said he wasn't envious of Murray's big day, "because I know we can do that. It just makes you a little more frustrated that we're not doing it."
Cutler still believes in the scheme, though.
"I've been on teams where you went [out] on Sunday, and you just knew the plan wasn't going to be good enough," Cutler said. "I've never lined up with this crew and felt this plan isn't going to get it done, or we don't have enough, or we're outmatched, or we're out-schemed. That's never been a thought of mine."
