LAKE FOREST, Ill. (AP) -Desmond Clark didn’t want to think that far ahead.
Sure, he realizes the Chicago Bears have little room for error and that a veteran core could change if they miss the playoffs again, but the tight end wasn’t ready to quit on this season.
“You would like to think that the people we have here could do it,” said Clark, in his sixth season with the Bears. “You’ve got to go out and do it, and if you’re not going out and doing it, obviously there are going to be changes. What kind of changes? I don’t know. But it’s got to be changes to get better.”
For now, any improvement will have to come from within.
And at 6-6 with a playoff spot hanging in the balance, Chicago certainly has room for that heading into Sunday’s game against Jacksonville (4-8).
A win last week over Minnesota would have given the Bears a two-game sweep and control of the NFC North race. Instead, they fell 34-14 at the Metrodome and dropped a game behind the Vikings.
Bears don’t necessarily need to win their remaining four games to capture the division, they have little wiggle room. The Vikings would own all tiebreakers over Chicago if they beat Detroit this week, meaning the Bears would have to finish with a better record, and Green Bay is still in the running at 5-7.
With a 7-3 lead last week, the Bears had a first down at the Minnesota 1 in the second quarter and looked as though they were ready to take control of the game and the division.
Instead, there was a violent momentum swing.
The Bears got stopped, Minnesota took over, and Gus Frerotte immediately hit former Bears receiver Bernard Berrian along the sideline for a 99-yard touchdown after cornerback Charles Tillman bit on a pass fake and left his man open. Just like that, the Vikings had control and the Bears couldn’t get it back with Kyle Orton enduring his worst game of the season.
Regaining control of the division could be difficult, too, even though the Bears appear to have an easier remaining schedule.
Sure, they won’t have much time to prepare for New Orleans on Thursday, but the game is at home. Then, they’ll have 11 days before their Monday night game against Green Bay at Soldier Field before finishing the season at Houston.
Like Jacksonville, none of those teams has a winning record.
The Vikings?
ing Detroit this week. And, by the way, they might be without star defensive tackles Kevin Williams and Pat Williams, whose suspensions for violating the league’s anti-doping policy were being blocked in court.
The Bears haven’t won more than two straight since the 2006 Super Bowl season and have been 1-1, 2-2, 3-3, 5-5 and now 6-6. Even so, Orton was a picture of optimism this week.
“I feel like we’re going to play our best ball from here on out,” he said.
It would help if Orton played the way he did before he got carted off the field with a sprained ankle against Detroit last month. He sat out the next game against Tennessee and has been just a 49-percent passer the past three weeks, with three interceptions against the Vikings after throwing 205 passes without one.
His receivers haven’t helped lately, dropping passes and struggling to get open against man-to-man coverage.
“If one particular part of the offense is breaking down, the whole offense looks bad,” Clark said. “We just have to tie everything in together and make it work.”
Little has worked for the Jaguars, who are trying to avoid their first last-place finish in the AFC South after making the playoffs last season.
n Fred Taylor called them the “worst team” he’s been on during an interview with Sirius NFL Radio after a 30-12 loss to Minnesota two weeks ago that “reminded me of the Bad News Bears.”
And the 30-17 beating they took last week at Houston was, well, more bad news.
“We’re playing for respect,” safety Gerald Sensabaugh said. “When teams play the Jags, they know we’re going to give it all. We’ve been playing hard football. It’s not been a lack of effort. We’re just missing some executions here and there. That’s what our games have come down to.”
And their season has come to this: Playing the spoiler role.
The Jaguars remaining games are against playoff contenders, with Green Bay (Dec. 14) and Indianapolis (Dec. 18) visiting before they finish at Baltimore on Dec. 28.
“I think for us right now, we just want to pull together, play good football and enjoy playing the game for the love of the game,” coach Jack Del Rio said. “Let’s go out, let’s compete and let’s get after it and have a little fun doing it.”
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