Poor Marion Barber!

All he had to do was fall down.

The Bears were leading Denver 10-7 with less than two minutes left in the game. If Barber could have simply stayed on his feet for, say, five seconds, and then fallen down, Caleb Hanie could have taken a few knees and it would have been over.

Unfortunately, Barber drifted off into a momentary cerebral snooze and went out of bounds.  The Bears had to punt. Shortly thereafter, the Broncos kicked the tying field goal and sent the game into overtime.

Barber did make a nifty catch then, on what seemed to be Chicago's game-winning drive. And when Hanie handed off to him, Barber broke through the line and seemed headed toward the end zone for the touchdown that would have redeemed his earlier mistake. Unfortunately, though, he forgot something.

The ball.

It was stripped as Barber cleared the line of scrimage. Denver recovered- and a few plays later kicked another field goal.

When I started watching the game, the Bears led 10-0 with less than eight minutes left. They lost, 13-10.

Two thoughts: first, don't be too hard on Barber. With Jay Cutler out, the Bears were reduced to a strictly one-dimensional offense. All they could do was run. The Ursines need a reliable, experienced backup good enough to give them a credible passing game even if Cutler is unavailalbe. They do not need a young quarter back to "bring along-" although there would be nothing wrong with having one of those, if one of sufficient talent to clearly have a claim to be the "quarterback of the future" came their way. He could play third-string.

But first and foremost, they need a substitute for Cutler who will enable them to survive if Jay goes down. This is essential. There is no option.

Secondly, it has been a long time since I heard a network NFL broadcast in which the annuncers rooted as openly for one of the teams as the announcers yesterday rooted for Denver in those closing minutes.

Well, a third thought, although it's pretty obvious: whatever chance the Bears still have of a wild card berth is looking mighty thin this morning.