After carrying their struggling offense by keeping the game within one score at the half, the Chicago Bears defense finally wore down yielding back-to-back touchdowns to the New Orleans Saints offense on their third and fourth drives of the second half.

In the game of football, it's not “if” injuries will happen, but “when”. The Chicago Bears offense already went into the Saints game without starters wider receiver Roy Williams, right guard Lance Louis, and backup running back Marion Barber before the in-game injuries began to mount.

After going three and out on their first drive, the Bears first of two major offensive injuries occurred on the fifth play of their second drive when Earl Bennett took a helmet to the chest courtesy of Saints safety Roman Harper. The Bears then went three and out, with three incompletions on third down, on their next three drives before starting right tackle Gabe Carimi injured his leg, forcing him to miss the remainder of the game. With Bennett gone, third downs were much harder to convert and with Carimi out, the Bears running game disappeared.

Even before Carimi was injured, the running game was not very effective except marginally for the runs that went to his side. Of the five runs to the left side of the line, the Bears gained -5 yards for an average of -1. Runs up the middle gained 20 yards on two attempts, though one of those attempts was a Jay Cutler scramble for 12 yards, the other run being a draw by Forte for eight yards. The five runs that went to the right side gained 45 yards for a nine yard average thought 42 of those yards came on one play. Take that play out of the picture and the Bears only gained three yards on the remaining four attempts for a .75 yard average. Once Carimi left the game, the remaining two runs, which the Bears would attempt in the third quarter before falling behind 30-13, gained a pathetic -1 yard for an average of -.5 yards.

I know countless fans and media alike were begging for more running plays, but I for one can not partake in the collective blasting of Martz for abandoning an ineffective running game before being forced to throw. While writing this very post, I heard Hunter Hillenmeyer on NBC's Sports Sunday echo the same sentiment stating how hard it is to go back to the run during a set of downs after you have poor production on first down runs. Of their eight first down runs outside of the 42 yard run by Forte, the Bears mustered only seven yards for an average of .88 yards per attempt. That type of production left Martz with little choice on the following plays faced with consistent second and longs.

The devil is in the details my friends. Many fans and media seem to be allowing themselves to be blinded by the final pass-to-run totals instead of looking at the context of the game and the effectiveness, or lack thereof, of the running game within that context. It's not the first time this has happened and it surely won't be the last time.

For example, of the Bears first nine drives before falling behind 30-13 with 12:12 left in the game, the Bears only had three drives where they didn't run the ball. One of those drives included the two minute drive at the end of the first half which resulted in a field goal. Another drive resulted in a field goal after the Bears gained 46 yards in the air on two plays. The remaining drive resulted in a three out afterwhich the Saints scored a field goal to take a 13-7 lead early in the second quarter. Of the remaining six drives in which the Bears did run the ball before falling behind 30-13, they scored only once albeit for a touchdown, punting on four other drives, and fumbling on the remaining drive. The Bears running game was clearly not very effective though it's hard to say who's to blame for it before reviewing the actual game itself.

Though the defense did yield 30 points and 382 net yards to the Saints, it's hard for me to put the majority of the blame on them for not winning the game by themselves. The Bears ineffectiveness in the running game continued to put the Bears in second, third and longs. Whether it was the offensive line, the tight ends, or the running backs, the lack of protection didn't help convert those long yardage situations to keep the chains moving. Without Roy Williams and third down go-to-guy Earl Bennett, the Bears offense eventually put too much pressure on the defense until they broke.

The real offensive questions which hopefully the upcoming game review will shed light on is who failed the Bears on their unsuccessful running, passing plays and what adjustments must they make accordingly. For example, if Martz finds that Kellen Davis keeps making the same mistakes and can't be counted on to block well on his own, then Martz will have to adjust his offense accordingly. We'll see what the game review shows in the next coming days. For now, all the Bears players can do is lick their wounds and hope that they can heal quickly.