On his Chicago-based sports-talk radio show Monday morning, former Bear Tom Waddle put the Bears’ embarrassing 45-10 Week Seven loss to the Bengals in Cincinnati on the “team photo” of all-time worst defeats that he had witnessed. Not too many will disagree with him following a mystifyingly awful performance in every way imaginable. “I didn’t have my team ready to go this week,” said Bears head coach Lovie Smith following an eyesore that nobody saw coming from a team that, despite some obvious flaws, looked like it would remain in the playoff hunt based on its play in the first five games.

There are a number of areas that are easy to pick on after the debacle in Cincinnati, but the two biggest bones of contention the day after one of the team’s biggest nightmares in recent memory are an offensive line that was expected to be much better than it has been after bringing in free agents Orlando Pace, Frank Omiyale and Kevin Shaffer, and a defense that, for whatever reason, failed to show up at all against Carson Palmer, Cedric Benson and Chad Ochocinco. For the second straight week the Bears failed to register a sack. In addition, one missed tackle after another and a complete failure to fill gaps resulted in Benson punishing his former teammates with 189 yards rushing and a TD on 37 carries.

Compounding the problems on defense is the suddenly very curious case of 3-technique DT Tommie Harris, who said he was miffed as to why he didn’t really practice much all week leading up to the Bengals game and was placed on the inactive list on Sunday.

PFW spin

The Bears’ offensive line has been ordinary at best all season, and against the Bengals, it was out of sync from the get-go, when former first-round draft pick Chris Williams set an ominous mood with a false start on the Bears’ very first offensive play. Pace, a probable future Hall of Famer, unfortunately appears to be completely over the hill at the all-important OLT position. At two other positions, the cries for Josh Beekman to return to left guard in place of Omiyale and Shaffer to get a shot at right tackle in place of Williams are growing louder every day. The unit’s run-blocking has been particularly weak, although Sunday the team fell behind so quickly, it was pretty much forced to abandon the run early.

On the other side of the ball, the defense’s complete unraveling is hard to explain, although it would appear the inability of Harris to get act his together on a consistent basis this season might have a lot to do with it. Harris’ playing status has been a vague topic since training camp, when he announced two weeks into camp that he had undergone arthroscopic surgery on his left knee in March, unbeknownst to the local media.

What made the Bears’ terrible effort against the Bengals especially disturbing was the haphazard play of a LB corps that had been holding up well despite the early-season loss of veteran MLB Brian Urlacher. Against the Bengals, the Bears’ 'backers looked dazed and confused except for perhaps Lance Briggs, who at least looked like he gave a damn.

Can the Bears bounce back from a miserable performace? Going up against the lowly Browns this Sunday at Soldier Field certainly won’t hurt. It’s also worth noting that there are more NFL teams than ever these days suffering dramatic swings in their performance level. Just last season, the defending NFC champion Cardinals had a couple of regular-season games that rivaled the Bears’ Week Seven effort in flat-out ugliness. But it’s impossible to paint a happy face on the Bears at the moment — not with high-powered offenses like those belonging to the Cardinals, Eagles and Vikings lurking in the not-too-distant horizon.