LAKE FOREST, Ill. – No one has to get in Adewale Ogunleye’s face and tell him that the Bears defense must rebound Sunday against the Cleveland Browns. After the unit’s horrendous performance last weekend in Cincinnati, the veteran defensive end knows exactly what’s at stake.

“Even without anything being said, if you have pride and you’re a real man and you enjoy what you do and as a job you want to do well, you should feel called out,” Ogunleye said.

Marcus Harrison and Al Afalava team up to tackle Bengals receiver Chad Ochocinco last Sunday.

“You can’t let this loss turn into two, three or four, and in this league it easily can. It’s about morale and your mindset and how you bounce back from obstacles. This is not only a football lesson but a life lesson hopefully we learned last week, and we’ll move forward.”

The lesson was a painful one as the Bengals scored six touchdowns and one field goal on their first seven possessions en route to a 45-10 drubbing that left the Bears searching for answers.

As they prepare to host the Browns, some pressing questions remain: What happened to the pass rush? Why can’t the Bears stop teams on third down? Where are the takeaways? Why do they start so slowly?

After registering 14 sacks in their first four games—exactly half their total from all of last season—the Bears have been blanked in their last two contests while generating little if any pressure in losses to the Falcons and Bengals.

“We have gotten a lot more maximum protection, especially in passing situations, but that’s a part of life,” said coach Lovie Smith. “We just need to do a better job getting pressure. I feel like we can do some things to help them out a little bit, but it starts up front for us as far as making our defense click.”

Ogunleye knows that the Bears must get to the quarterback regardless of the protection scheme.

“If you talk to coach [Rod] Marinelli, there are no explanations and no excuses, so I’ll give you none,” Ogunleye told reporters. “But you guys watch the game as much as we have. They have been [keeping] tight ends in and max-protecting. But we knew that was going to happen.

“When that happens, that means there are less guys out in the route, so we should be doing a little better job in the backend if that happens. So there’s give and take when it comes to defense. We’ve got to do a better job of adjusting when stuff like that happens.”

The defense’s troubles on third down have been particularly vexing. After finishing fifth in the NFL in that category last season, the Bears rank 28th this year, allowing opponents to convert 44 percent of their opportunities. Last Sunday in Cincinnati, the Bengals were successful on 8 of 12 third-down chances.

Takeaways are also a problem. After ranking second in the NFL with 32 last season, the Bears are tied for 22nd with just eight in six games after getting blanked in Cincinnati.

“Up until this point, our third downs and our takeaways, it hasn’t happened,” Smith said. “But I found if you keep plugging away you eventually start getting some of those stops. You start converting a little bit more on third downs and you start getting more takeaways.

“There are a lot of different things we have to improve on. That’s why we’re a .500 ballclub with a big stand coming up. They don’t give out championships in October, though. You get into position up through October. In November that’s when you decide what’s going to happen throughout the rest of the year. We’re in position now to make a run, and that’s what we need to do.”

Starting quickly against the Browns would help. The Bears have permitted touchdowns on their opponent’s opening possession in four of their last five games after doing so only once all of last year. Chicago has scored first in only one of six contests this season and has been outscored 45-7 in the first quarter.

Briggs is perplexed by the defense’s slow starts.

“We’ve prepared virtually the same way since I’ve been here,” he said. “There’s not much of a difference. We have the same schedule, do the same things. We’re very confident with our game plans. But not everything works. Also, if you’re not playing well it doesn’t matter what scheme or game plan you have, it’s not going to work.”