Mon Feb 13 2012
By Andrew Seligman
Associated Press
CHICAGO — Contrary to popular opinion around Chicago, that cringe-inducing beating last week didn’t crush the Bears. A loss to the other Ohio team just might do the trick, though.
The Bears (3-3) are at an important point heading into their game against Cleveland (1-6) on Sunday after dropping two in a row and taking one of their worst thrashings in years last week at Cincinnati.
A 45-10 slapdown by the Bengals wasn’t quite a knockout blow. It just dropped the Bears to a knee and left them in need of a pick-me-up.
Good thing for them, they’re facing the Browns.
The Browns’ defense ranks dead last, their offense is the league’s second-worst, and quarterback Derek Anderson is in one of the worst ruts on record. It’s been a sickening season all around for a team that also was hit hard by the flu recently.
Some of Cleveland’s struggles can be pinned on Anderson, who has been horrible since replacing Brady Quinn as the starter in Week 3.
A Pro Bowl pick in 2007, he has a league-low 40.6 rating that ranks as the third worst through seven weeks in this decade, and a completion percentage over the past three games that’s the lowest in more than 20 years.
According to STATS LLC, only Ryan Leaf (34.5 in 2000) and Kerry Collins (37.5 in 2006) had lower ratings through the first seven weeks in this decade. Anderson completed just 32.9 percent of his passes (23 of 70) the past three games against Buffalo, Pittsburgh and Green Bay — the lowest percentage by a quarterback with at least 70 attempts since the Los Angeles Raiders’ Steve Beuerlein (31.9) in 1988.
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