The fact Angelo just cut the lifeline to a player who embodied the toughness of a blood-and-guts type franchise for 13 seasons only made him seem like the executioner eulogizing his victim.

"They didn't hire me to be loved," Angelo explained. "They hired me to make decisions based on what's in the best interest of the team.

"So that's what it's about people, come on. This isn't a wake. We're sad. Nobody died. We wish him the best. He had a great career. Hey, long after I'm forgotten, he's going to be long remembered and well he should be."

Kreutz became an ex-Bear when Angelo wouldn't pay out the extra $500,000 needed to get him into camp. The Bears were willing to go $4 million for one season. Kreutz wanted $4.5 million.

In most cases, such situations result in further negotiating and a deal. On a Sunday, when even the Republicans and President Obama could find a way to agree upon something, Angelo said it was impossible to get that extra half million to Kreutz, or wait a while longer to negotiate more. It had been the Bears' final offer and Kreutz wanted more.

It all seemed so wrong in every way possible.

They tore out the heart of an offensive line which had very little going for it last season beyond Kreutz's leadership. They did it over the price of what a team pays for a waiver-wire signing.

Somewhere George Halas, the original man who threw nickels around like they were manhole covers, had to be smiling.

“It goes beyond that," Angelo said. "There’s more to it than just the dollar signs. It’s a big puzzle and you just can’t focus on one piece. It doesn’t work that way.

"It has to come together and we have a lot of things happening at a very fast pace. We didn’t have two months to draw things out, to be patient. We have to move now."

Strangely, they had three months last year before they finally put together the right offensive line and a different plan of attack to make a run to the NFC Championship Game. But the late CBA settlement did put every team's decision makers under the gun.

Angelo explained that the best available option to Kreutz was former Seattle center Chris Spencer, an often-injured player who was ranked by a couple of independent scouting services near the bottom of the league's starting centers.

"We brought in an experienced center that is still in the prime of his career," Angelo said. "It’s the best we could do. That’s all we could do."

Spencer might not have been there if the Bears merely waited longer for Kreutz to make up his mind, Angelo said. Two teams had gotten interested in Spencer and the price started getting higher.

Again the dollar, always the dollar. Even with 12-year veterans who've left their hearts out on the field on some really tough Sundays, the money matters. But $500,000?

And this was a player who volunteered in 2002 to take quite a bit less than the Miami Dolphins offered in order to stay with the Bears. His reward? The door.

The amount seemed so small that it's quite evident management—and possibly the coaching staff—no longer had a high opinion of Kreutz's value. One published report cited a possible schism between management and coaches, but Angelo quickly labeled the story "dirty pool."

Yet coach Lovie Smith couldn't actually answer the question after practice whether Chris Spencer made the Bears a better team than Olin Kreutz.

"We think we're a good football team with the current team that we have right now," Smith said.

Wouldn't they be better for half a million more?

One of the same scouting services that placed Spencer near the bottom of the league had Kreutz rated 33rd. That's not good when there are 32 teams.

With Kreutz, though, it went beyond fading talent. Running back Matt Forte pointed out that in passing situations Kreutz used to point out the blitz coming before either recognized it.

"It's hard to put into words," emotional guard Roberto Garza said after practice. "He stands for what a Chicago Bear is: tough, a hard-nosed football player. He made his teammates better."

Garza added, "His leadership on this team is something that's hard to replace. Like I said, he stands for what a Chicago Bear should be and will always be."

In an era of big bonuses and gazillion-dollar deals, loyalty, leadership and guts can be difficult to come by or measure.

On Sunday, the Bears put a for sale sign on it which read $500,000.

Gene Chamberlain is a Correspondent for Bleacher Report. All quotes were obtained first-hand.

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Mine is one arm which won't be lifted...at least not for the loss of Olsen.

In four Bears seasons, Olsen showed he can catch a pass and sometimes gain yardage after the toss, provided no one touches him.

Last year, he had one catch longer than 25 yards until the playoff game-starting TD bomb he caught against Seattle.

For every big game Olsen had in Chicago, there was a game like the 2008 loss at Carolina when he lost two fumbles (caused by current Bears safety Chris Harris).

Olsen never really fit the true tight end mold as defined by Chicago tradition or even the NFL in general. Tight ends are supposed to gain tough yards after contact, like Mike Ditka.

Olsen usually went down with the first tackle attempt, as average catches between 10.6 and 9.9 yards in each of his four seasons indicate.

Each of the last three seasons at training camp I wrote about how Olsen thought he had improved as a blocker, his teammates (particularly tight end Desmond Clark) thought he had improved as a blocker, and how coaches thought he was now a better blocker. And each season his lack of blocking ability became an issue.

A scout very familiar with the Bears at one game last year laughed at my suggestion Olsen had become a better blocker. "Better than what? A wide receiver?" was his retort.

This was not a Chicago-tough tight end. In fact, the offense under Ron Turner actually seemed to flow better when Desmond Clark was the starting tight end.

The argument can be made that Olsen never got the chance to show what he really could do in Chicago because of the Bears' offensive scheme. Certainly Mike Martz doesn't know what to do with a tight end any more than he knows how to develop a running game.

However, the West Coast attack former coordinator Ron Turner used was made for a tight end like Olsen. And although he caught 153 passes in three seasons in this attack, Olsen never really rocked opposing defenses the way top tight ends like Jason Witten, Todd Heap, Antonio Gates or Jermichael Finley have.

Olsen had a reputation for being a good red zone receiver. Yet only two teams had worse scoring percentages in the red zone than the Bears last year with Olsen. So what can they lose by dealing him?

It's hard to believe that the offense can be worse scoring points in the red zone with Matt Spaeth blocking near the goal line.

A year ago the Bears couldn't get a second-round pick from the Patriots when Olsen was available, so they kept him.

So they got an extra season out of him, got a third-rounder for him, and avoided paying out a lot of money (cash which can now be spent for Matt Forte's new deal) on a player they showed they can't use and who hasn't really impressed anyone as being special.

Oh, Olsen will probably go on and make a ton of catches for a 4-12 or 3-13 Carolina team this season because they'll be trailing and throwing every down. Maybe he'll even come back to haunt the Bears in Soldier Field when the Panthers come to Chicago Oct. 2.

More likely, he'll get many catches on plays that end after he's hit once.

No great loss.

Save all those stones for when Angelo fails to fortify the offensive line.

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He was a vital part of his team's bid to try to make it to Dallas for Super Bowl XLV.

He suffered a sprain and left the game, although he didn't really want to; team medical officials wouldn't let him back out on the field after he tested the injury.

There was plenty of twittering Sunday. Players around the NFL tweeted about a lack of guts, the lack of courage, about how they had played with an injury and how they know of players who played with an injury that was similar.

They couldn't feel his pain or even know how severe the injury was. It wasn't their body. Besides, he didn't even know the full extent of the injury.

It's a tough thing to have to leave the field while your teammates were counting on you in a championship game.

His name was Erik Walden and he started at linebacker for the Green Bay Packers. He left with an ankle sprain and did not return.

Let's go to Twitter now and try to find all the rip jobs NFL players did on Walden for not returning with an injury that is actually no less severe than a sprained medial collateral knee ligament. You'll have to look long and hard and you won't find those comments.

If you have a sprained medial collateral ligament, even a quack doctor can tell you that the next step is tearing the anterior cruciate if enough pressure is placed on it at a bad angle.

Ankle sprains can be taped extensively, but expecting Walden to play would have been ridiculous.

So Jay Cutler should have played?

Certainly some players have stuck it out through severe injuries, like Philip Rivers with an anterior cruciate ligament tear in the AFC championship a few years ago.

Then again, for every player who did something like this, for every Jack Youngblood who looked at a broken bone and told doctors, "tape it up and give me two aspirin," there are hundreds, no, thousands of players who could not and wisely did not try to go with severe injuries.

It's much easier to rip the guy who has bad body language all the time and may not be the most personable guy in the world. He certainly doesn't endear himself to media members or the public, that's for sure.

But does that qualify Cutler for less consideration when it comes to an injury?

It's a popular thing to do these days, jumping to conclusions without facts, throwing out accusations.

Ask the media members and those on the left who did it to Sarah Palin and right wing talk show hosts after the shootings in Arizona, something done by a whacked-out lunatic with left leanings, if he actually really had any sane thoughts at all.

Think about this next time you are making a horse's rear out of yourself on Twitter or on an Internet bulletin board.

If you jump to conclusions with regularity and post completely ridiculous statements with no real thought behind it or basis of truth, you probably won't do this, but do try giving facts a chance for once.

You might even look intelligent.

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Somehow, the Bears wound up facing the team with the worst record in the history of the playoffs in the divisional playoffs—this after a season full of fortunate breaks to go with good play by his team and Smith has gone from coach on the hot seat to coach in the catbird’s seat.

Who wouldn’t want to be at home for the playoffs to face an 8-9 Seattle team that had a 2-6 road record and didn’t just lose those six games, but got completely dominated. The Seahawks lost 38-15 at Tampa, 40-21 at San Francisco, 34-19 at New Orleans, 33-3 at Oakland, 31-14 at Denver and 20-3 at St. Louis.

Sure, the Bears provided one of those two Seattle road victories, 23-20 in a game that wasn’t as close as the final score.

However, that loss occurred Oct. 17, before the Bears retooled their offensive line and before offensive coordinator Mike Martz saw the proverbial light, or offensive line coach Mike Tice’s foot heading toward his rear end—whichever you prefer to believe.

The Bears had no running game prior to Week 9, but it wasn't because running back Matt Forte struggled. Instead, 

Martz chose to mold the offense into a new version of his “Greatest Show on Turf” offense, only without a few minor ingredients like the offensive line and receiving talent.

There wasn’t a pass play in the offense Martz was afraid to call and defenses didn’t respect the Bears’ willingness to run until the turnaround during their bye week, the period when coaches held an intervention of sorts and reminded Martz about how the Bears always “get off the bus running,” under Smith, and that he had Forte and Chester Taylor to carry the ball and that people like Walter Payton and Gale Sayers once played here.

Quarterback Jay Cutler made his first start since a Week 4 concussion in the game with Seattle, and looked both rusty and scared.

The Bears did not have perennial Pro Bowl linebacker Lance Briggs in the game, either.

The list goes on and on.

This isn’t the same Bears team Seattle faced Oct. 17, but it would take a lot more than Saturday‘s stunning playoff win over the defending world champion Saints to prove the Seahawks are not who we thought they were.

They have a body of...ahem...work to overcome. Their 27th ranking on defense and 28th ranking on offense, and the 2-6 road record look more like the handiwork of teams fighting for a top draft pick than the NFC championship.

Which brings the discussion back to Smith.

Who could have predicted both a Seattle win and Packer win at Philadelphia, putting the worst playoff team in history in Chicago against the second seed?

It all just goes back to a season when the stars aligned properly for a good team, making them even better.

High school chess clubs encounter more injuries than the Bears have had this year.

The surprising Viking road win at Philadelphia virtually handed the Bears a bye.

The Bears faced three third-string quarterbacks in road wins.

They didn’t face Vikings running back Adrian Peterson in the ice at Minnesota the second time, and the game had to be played outdoors in a climate more to their liking than the Vikings’ because the Metrodome roof collapsed.

They beat the Eagles without their top two cornerbacks.

And then there was that Detroit win in Week 1 when they completely dominated the Lions in yardage by almost a 4-1 count, then nearly blew it on a last-second TD pass that Calvin Johnson was deemed to have dropped according to some misguided NFL rule.

That pass on opening day should have been taken as a good omen.

Someone is living right these days at Halas Hall, and unless the Seahawks went through a complete metamorphosis in one playoff game before their own wild crowd on Saturday, that good roll is going to last until at least the NFC championship game.

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With this in mind, do not consider this a suggestion that the Bears are a fluke. They have plenty of talent, have had good coaching this season and beat both the Green Bay Packers and Philadelphia Eagles—no minor accomplishment. They have had breaks and have capitalized. But there's a difference between a few breaks and something good happening at virtually every single turn. Good fortune hasn't just smiled on the Bears—it has given them a bear hug.

Detroit wide receiver Calvin Johnson had the infamous "did not complete the process of the catch" in the end zone in the opener which allowed the Bears to escape an embarrassing defeat in a game they completely dominated. They benefited from a Green Bay record 18 penalties as the Packers self-destructed in a Monday night game. They came off the Giants loss needing to rebound in a big way and didn't have quarterback Jay Cutler due to a concussion. So who should be up next on their schedule? Impotent Carolina, without wide receiver Steve Smith.

They benefited against Buffalo when the Bills inexplicably tried for a long ball when owning a two-point fourth-quarter lead—quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick badly underthrew his receiver for the interception by Tim Jennings that turned around the game. Due to injuries they faced third string quarterbacks in Miami, against Detroit and may very well see one this week because of Brett Favre's shoulder injury and Tarvaris Jackson's turf toe. They beat an Eagles team that didn't have injured cornerback Asante Samuel, the NFL interception leader at the time.

When they lost badly to the Patriots Sunday in what they had hoped would be the final proof that they are legit, the Bears still came away big winners. Detroit upset Green Bay for a divisional defeat that drove a stake right into the heart of the Packers' playoff chances.
Against Minnesota there's a chance the Bears might not have to face injured running back Adrian Peterson, and even if they do, it will be a week following the Vikings' elimination from the playoff chase. It's a Viking team without incentive, and now the game is going to be outside, something that can't possibly favor the dome-bound Vikings, even if they are at home and celebrating their 50th anniversary as a team.

Probably the luckiest aspect for the Bears has been their ability to remain virtually injury-free. Unlike in 2009 when Brian Urlacher went down for the season at halftime of the opener, they have had no serious season-ending or even long-term injuries. Linebacker Lance Briggs missed a few games with an ankle sprain and linebacker Pisa Tinoisamoa has been out two games due to a knee injury. Early in the season they lost tackle Chris Williams to a hamstring  pull and guard Roberto Garza a few weeks due to a knee injury, but that's been the extent of their injuries.

No team with Julius Peppers, Urlacher and Briggs on defense can be called lucky to be in the playoff chase. Yet, these breaks just keep on falling the Bears' way. Now they can win the division title and avoid a final week showdown in Green Bay for a playoff spot simply by beating Minnesota, as long as Tom Brady wins in New England for the 27th straight time on Sunday. They will be playing a Packers team that likely will be using inexperienced Matt Flynn at quarterback.

Eventually the breaks will stop coming, right? Probably in the playoffs? Good always beats lucky in the playoffs, right? After what's happened so far, though, it's probably best not to make a wager on this.

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The 2006 defense did hold the Patriots to 17 points in New England in a four point loss, and this year's team gets the chance Sunday at Soldier Field to prove they are better.

"We’re two different defenses," linebacker Brian Urlacher said. "We’ve played a lot of cover-two this year, we get pressure with four, we get after the quarterback, we have different players, so I don’t know, we’re a different team.

I think we’re better than that defense is right now at this point, but we’re different."

The easy out is to point at the 2006 Bears defense that actually made a Super Bowl and call it better. That defense had speed like this one, but the players were at or approaching their prime.

Defensive tackle Tommie Harris was an inside force with the pass rush. They had the brains of the operation, Mike Brown at safety.

Then again, that defense had Harris only for 11 games due to his hamstring tear; Brown played only in six games.

This year's defense has many of the same players, but they're closer to retirement than to their rookie seasons: Urlacher is 32 years old; Lance Briggs and Israel Idonije just turned 30; Julius Peppers and Anthony Adams are 30.

Nevertheless, players who are 30 aren't decrepit—Urlacher looks better than he has since 2006.

Lions coach Jim Schwartz last week said it looks like Urlacher has gone through a "time machine."

As for the rest, 30 is hardly ancient by today's NFL standards. It is for a running back, but not for players at other positions.

Statistically, this year's defense is almost deadlocked with the defense of 2006.

They are currently third in scoring defense at 16 points a game and finished third in 2006 at 15.9 points per game.

The 2006 team allowed passers a rating of 72.3, while this year's team is giving up a passer rating of 69.5.

The run defense this year ranks second at 84 yards a carry and in 2006 was sixth at 99.4. Against the pass, they're 13th this year and were 11th in 2006.

Although Peppers has helped the pass rush this year immensely, they have 25 sacks for 15th in the league. In 2006, they had 40 sacks and finished tied for eighth.

They are better taking fumbles away this year, but were better making interceptions in 2006.

With Rod Marinelli as coordinator and with Peppers leading a four-man pass rush, they're able to blitz less this year than when Ron Rivera was coordinator in 2006.

"There's no bells and whistles to it," general manager Jerry Angelo said about the defense this year. "It's pretty vanilla, standard."

Added safety Chris Harris: "We might be the only team in the league that really runs the cover-two. Other teams run modifications of it. Some critics like it, some don't. We've proven that it works."

Peppers might make this defense better, especially when the playoffs begin. The Bears had to get through the 2006 playoffs without Harris and had to rely on rookie Mark Anderson, Adewale Ogunleye and Alex Brown to supply pass rush pressure.

Tank Johnson was also applying some pressure, but the lack of any pressure from the tackles caught up to the team in the Super Bowl that year.

The 2006 defense also had more help over the course of the season because the running game finished 15th behind Thomas Jones and Cedric Benson, while the Bears tied for second overall in scoring.

This year's running attack is just now budding and starting to take some of the load away from the defense in terms of possession time.

Still, at this point there is one big edge the 2006 defense has over this year's defense.

"I don't know if I can compare that team to this team right now; that team went to the Super Bowl," Chris Harris said. "We're playing pretty good defense, kind of similar to the 06 team."

Every team takes on a different identity but I like the direction we're going in right now.

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Throughout coach Lovie Smith's tenure, the Bears have had the cliche us-against-the-world mentality. This year in particular they've been able to take the lack of respect mantra even further than Rodney Dangerfield did.

There can be no doubt about the legitimacy of the Bears' playoff or even Super Bowl candidacy following a 31-26 win over Philadelphia and Michael Vick. The final score came nowhere near indicating the severity of the beating the Bears dished out to an Eagles team being hailed as the league's best ever since its 59-28 whipping of the moribund Washington Redskins.

Before the Bears chased Vick out of Dodge Sunday, they had usually been voted the team most likely to fall by the wayside when Howie, Terry, Jimmy, Boomer, Bill Cowher, Dan Marino, Michael Strahan and their ilk quit playing around on their miniature football fields long enough to talk about the sport.

"We’ve got tons of pride and we’ve got a lot of pride walking off that field in front of our home crowd having beaten a good team," tight end Greg Olsen said Sunday. "To us, that is more important than whatever any pregame show says about us."

So now that they have some respect, the Bears say they don't care about it.

What's the average football skeptic to do?

To be certain, there was reason to doubt the Bears. After all, of their seven wins before Sunday, only their 20-17 win over Green Bay came against a team which currently has a winning record.

In fact, beating up Carolina, Buffalo, Minnesota, Detroit, Dallas and a Miami team that had a third-string quarterback probably qualifies as a professional football version of the typical Notre Dame schedule.

But the Bears have no say in who is on their schedule; they can only play who they play. Coming into the season, their schedule actually rated among the toughest in the league based on last year's records.

Even after Sunday, there will be those who question their legitimacy based on the fact that NFL interception leader Asante Samuel couldn't play against them due to a knee injury.

"He’s a great player and sooner or later we’re probably gonna miss a player here and there," said quarterback Jay Cutler. "I’ve missed a game, Lance (Briggs) has missed a game and that’s the NFL.

"Very rarely are your guys going to be able to play 16 straight games."

Pity is a difficult commodity to find in the NFL. No one around the league felt it for the Bears last year when they lost starting linebackers Brian Urlacher and Pisa Tinoisamoa for almost the entire season. So the Bears will take the fact that they have been possibly the healthiest team in the NFL and run with it.

"We knew that this was a big game and whether we’ve gotten enough respect or not, none of that really matters either," coach Lovie Smith said. "Just with us, with our schedule, we get a chance to play the best, supposedly the best teams out there, and of course they stood up today.”

Facing the Jets and Patriots at home and Minnesota, Green Bay and Detroit on the road over the final five weeks will make certain no one calls the Bears' schedule soft the rest of the way.

When they can roll up a season-high in points scored, Cutler can match a career-high for touchdown passes (four) and set a high for single-game passer rating (146.2), and Matt Forte can gain more rushing yards (117) than any back has against the Eagles' eighth-ranked defense, there can be little doubt the Bears' offense is finally starting to pull itself up to the level where their own defense and special teams have been all year.

"By no means are we a finished product, but if we continue to take steps each week we'll be in every game," Olsen said.

A few weeks ago no one would have thought that possible, especially before the bye week when they came home 4-1 and lost to Seattle and Washington. More so than the wins over easier opponents, those two defeats probably led to most of the disrespect.

"We kind of stumbled there in the middle of the season with those two home games we lost, and have won four in a row since then," Urlacher said. "We're where we want to be, leading our division. That's where we've wanted to be all season long."

They've also put themselves at a higher level in the eyes of observers, even if they now claim it means nothing.

__________________________________________________________________________

Gene Chamberlain is a RapidReporter for CBS Sports.com and long-time beat writer covering the Chicago Bears.________________

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He rarely says a lot, but what he did say after Sunday's 27-13 Bears victory over the Minnesota Vikings at Soldier Field communicated a great deal about the possibility of a positive finish to the regular season for his team.

"I think every time we got on the field and created big plays our confidence is building, and we started that last week and we kept building on that," Garza said.

By far the greatest problem facing the Bears over the past few years has been their offensive line.

It hasn't been the offensive coordinator, even though they fired one.

It hasn't been the running backs, although Matt Forte took a bunch of unwarranted criticism last year when he tried playing almost the entire season on a bad knee.

It hasn't been quarterback Jay Cutler, although he certainly has thrown more than his share of stupid interceptions.

Most of Cutler's mistakes, the poor running game, and about any other ill besetting the team came down to the offensive line's struggles to provide time to pass or holes to run.

They didn't have the right group together from the start, then injuries hit and offensive line coach Mike Tice searched for the right combination. It appears they have it.

So much of offensive line play comes from repetition, communication and confidence, mainly confidence. It's hard to be confident when all hell is breaking loose and the quarterback is getting sacked nine times by the New York Giants in one half.

However, two straight games with the same group, with the five players they deem their best five offensive linemen, and the Bears' offense worked like it hasn't against a decent opponent all season.

This wasn't the Buffalo Bills defense that ranked last against the run. It wasn't the Carolina Panthers, who fell all over themselves. Admittedly it was a fast-fading Vikings defense, but one that still had four Pro Bowl players among the front seven. The Bears line handled them just fine.

"They felt like they did a great job of keeping the guys in front of them," Cutler said of his line. "We didn't see as much blitzing today as we expected, but with those front four that they have they didn't really need to.

"We've got to take a look at it, but those guys are finally coming together. It's a new group. We've been shipping guys in there left and right and finally have got a group that has a little bit of consistency and have got a few games under their belt."

Two straight games of 58 percent conversions on third downs—11-of-19 on Sunday—have made some possession time possible and longer drives, too.

"We’ve played the same group (of linemen) two weeks in a row, too," Smith said. "That may have a little bit to do with it.

"But this is the crew we want to go with. They should get better, just like our football team.

"We just passed the halfway point of the season. So much football is left to go. We haven’t peaked yet by any means.”

In the past, some Bears, and even Smit, had a tendency to gloat about proving the critics, the media and nay-saying fans wrong. Beating Dallas, Carolina, Buffalo and Detroit had earned the Bears little respect.

Yet, beating Green Bay and Minnesota at home certainly counts for something.

Beating the Vikings by completely dominating the second half means even more.

And beating the Vikings with an offensive line that more than held its own but said little more than that they have to go out and keep getting better meant a lot about the future.

"For us it’s just going out there and competing and getting the job done," Garza said. "The past two weeks we’ve done that and we’ve been able to buildon that from the Buffalo game and now we’ll build on it from this week.

"It’s just the confidence of continuing to play together and building on that."

When an offensive line gains confidence, it can be dangerous. The Bears went eight games without much confidence in the line and still went 5-3.

 It could be something special if that missing ingredient continues to build.

________________________

Gene Chamberlain is a rapid reporter for CBS Sports.com and his posts can be found at CBSsports.com/NFL/

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Yes, to those who thought they would never hear it, Lovie erred. He made a mistake by not challenging officials’ rule of no touchdown on Jay Cutler’s lost third-quarter fumble at the 1-yard line.

“You guys want to know about whether I should have thrown the red flag on the 1-yard fumble down by the end zone,” he told reporters. “Yes, I should have, looking at it of course in hindsight.

“Normally, if there's a critical situation, I throw it whether I have a good look or not on it. I didn't have a great look on it. I understand the reasons why but that was a critical play in the game. I need to be able to make that call.”

And since he was good enough to admit it, here’s the obligatory, then why didn’t you?

The Bears have coaches in the box above looking at replays. Fox TV had both a side angle and reverse angle that conclusively showed Cutler extend the ball out across the front edge of the goal line, firmly in possession of the ball before being pushed back by Albert Haynesworth and having the ball jarred loose by linebacker London Fletcher.

“We have people that are talking, but let's keep in mind, there's a reason why the officials didn't call it: because it's a close play,” Smith said.

Because it was close, it really was going to come down to the camera angle and view. Smith thought he had a good challenge one play prior to the fumble when wide receiver Earl Bennett was down at the 1-yard line, but replay upheld no TD on the play.

What it sounds like is Smith got a little squeamish. He failed on the first replay challenge and lost a timeout and didn’t want to risk it again.

“Well, I had just used one up before that and at the time I thought we were in control of the game,” he said. “And we've given the opponent the ball at the 1-yard line before and forced them to punt it and I felt like we would get the ball back right away, which we did, and we failed to get it back down. So those were the reasons why.”

In control of the game? You’re never in control of a game until the scoreboard says you are.

The season-opener with Detroit should have told the Bears this much. They dominated that game like few other contests they’ve played the last few years, holding Detroit to 110 yards until its final possession and outscoring the Lions until that point, 4.5 yards to every yard.

Yet Detroit had the chance to win it in the end because they didn’t score. So to hear an NFL coach say they felt they were in control of the game when the scoreboard showed 14-10 is inexcusable.

Then Smith fell back on the replay technology excuse again.

“There wasn’t a good enough reason to do it at the time,” he said about the quality of the replay.

The replays Fox had, though, clearly showed Cutler with the ball over the goal line.

A football scout I know said Smith probably heard them calling for a replay on the headset, without being specific, and suggested Smith misinterpreted what they had wanted the replay for, thinking it was to challenge if it really was a fumble.

With his own eyes, it was easy to see the fumble.

However, there is no evidence this scenario is true, even though it wouldn’t be difficult to imagine it happening this way.

What also isn’t clear is why the Bears would even run the play. Fans and media alike had been calling for it in goal line situations because the Bears came into the game 0-for-9 on plays from the 1-yard line with two turnovers and only two field goals to show for those efforts from 36 inches away.

After all, Cutler has been asked about it two or three times this season.

Last week, longtime Chicago sportscaster Les Grobstein asked him during the Wednesday press conference about using QB sneaks and Cutler said they don’t work near the goal line.

“That’s because they put guys right there in both gaps, so it makes it a little difficult,” he said.

Apparently they weren’t that difficult. Except the place where the Bears ran the sneak wasn’t exactly where they wanted it to go. Haynesworth was too close and had been caving in the line all day.

“We didn't execute the way we needed to on that play, just say that,” Smith admitted.

And Smith didn’t execute the way he needed to after Cutler fumbled and the replay showed it should have been a touchdown for a 21-10 lead.

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Yes, to those who thought they would never hear it, Lovie erred. He made a mistake by not challenging officials’ rule of no touchdown on Jay Cutler’s lost third-quarter fumble at the 1-yard line.

“You guys want to know about whether I should have thrown the red flag on the 1-yard fumble down by the end zone,” he told reporters. “Yes, I should have, looking at it of course in hindsight.

“Normally, if there's a critical situation, I throw it whether I have a good look or not on it. I didn't have a great look on it. I understand the reasons why but that was a critical play in the game. I need to be able to make that call.”

And since he was good enough to admit it, here’s the obligatory, then why didn’t you?

The Bears have coaches in the box above looking at replays. Fox TV had both a side angle and reverse angle that conclusively showed Cutler extend the ball out across the front edge of the goal line, firmly in possession of the ball before being pushed back by Albert Haynesworth and having the ball jarred loose by linebacker London Fletcher.

“We have people that are talking, but let's keep in mind, there's a reason why the officials didn't call it: because it's a close play,” Smith said.

Because it was close, it really was going to come down to the camera angle and view. Smith thought he had a good challenge one play prior to the fumble when wide receiver Earl Bennett was down at the 1-yard line, but replay upheld no TD on the play.

What it sounds like is Smith got a little squeamish. He failed on the first replay challenge and lost a timeout and didn’t want to risk it again.

“Well, I had just used one up before that and at the time I thought we were in control of the game,” he said. “And we've given the opponent the ball at the 1-yard line before and forced them to punt it and I felt like we would get the ball back right away, which we did, and we failed to get it back down. So those were the reasons why.”

In control of the game? You’re never in control of a game until the scoreboard says you are. The season-opener with Detroit should have told the Bears this much.

They dominated that game like few other contests they’ve played the last few years, holding Detroit to 110 yards until its final possession and outscoring the Lions til then 4 ½ yards to every yard.

Yet Detroit had the chance to win it in the end because they didn’t score. So to hear an NFL coach say they felt they were in control of the game when the scoreboard showed 14-10 is inexcusable.

Then Smith fell back on the replay technology excuse again. “There wasn’t a good enough reason to do it at the time,” he said about the quality of the replay.

The replays Fox had, though, clearly showed Cutler with the all over the goal line. A football scout I know said Smith probably heard them calling for a replay on the headset, without being specific, and suggested Smith misinterpreted what they had wanted the replay for, thinking it was to challenge if it really was a fumble.

With his own eyes, it was easy to see the fumble. However, there is no evidence this scenario is true, even though it wouldn’t be difficult to imagine it happening this way.

What also isn’t clear is why the Bears would even run the play. Fans and media alike had been calling for it in goal line situations because the Bears came into the game 0-for-9 on plays from the 1-yard line with two turnovers and only two field goals to show for those efforts from 36 inches away.

After all, Cutler has been asked about it two or three times this season. Last week, longtime Chicago sportscaster Les Grobstein asked him during the Wednesday press conference about using QB sneaks and Cutler said they don’t work near the goal line.

“That’s because they put guys right there in both gaps, so it makes it a little difficult,” he said. Apparently they weren’t that difficult. Except the place where the Bears ran the sneak wasn’t exactly where they wanted it to go. Haynesworth was too close and had been caving in the line all day.

“We didn't execute the way we needed to on that play, just say that,” Smith admitted. And Smith didn’t execute the way he needed to after Cutler fumbled and the replay showed it should have been a touchdown (their first points of a third quarter this season) and a 21-10 Bears lead.

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