CHICAGO – After allowing six touchdowns and a field goal on the first seven possessions two weeks ago in an embarrassing 45-10 loss to the Cincinnati Bengals, the Bears chalked it up as an aberration.

They seemingly can make no such claim after a defensive performance that was eerily similar and just as horrendous Sunday in a deflating 41-21 defeat to the Arizona Cardinals at Soldier Field.

Devin Hester's 42-yard reception on the Bears' first possession set up Jay Cutler's 33-yard TD pass to Greg Olsen in Sunday's 41-21 loss to the Cardinals.

Just like in Cincinnati, the Bears permitted touchdown passes on their opponent’s first four drives and a fifth later in the game, allowed 31 points in the first half, and couldn’t get off the field on third down.

“Don’t have a lot of reasons to give you why we played that way,” said coach Lovie Smith. “I know we’re a better football team than that. But of course, our play didn’t say that today.”

Kurt Warner picked up where Carson Palmer left off two weeks ago, capping drives of 81, 74, 70 and 86 yards with TD passes the first four times the Cardinals had the ball. Warner threw scoring passes of 11 and 17 yards to receiver Larry Fitzgerald, 6 yards to tight end Ben Patrick and 15 yards to tight end Anthony Becht.

Neil Rackers’ 43-yard field goal on the final play of the first half gave the Cardinals (5-3) a 31-7 lead.

Arizona converted its first eight third-down opportunities stretching into the third quarter while amassing 320 total yards and 21 first downs in the first half alone. 

The Bears (4-4) have now lost three of their last four games following a 3-1 start.

“Before it’s going to work, we’ve got to believe it’s going to work,” said defensive end Alex Brown. “We’ve got to have a sense of urgency, and we don’t have that right now. I don’t know what the hell is wrong, but we’ve got to change it.

“This is the eighth game of the season, and I know a lot of people like to think that we’re better than 4-4. But hell, our record is 4-4. So that’s what we are. If we have any aspirations of going further or making it to the playoffs, then we’ve got to play a hell of a lot better.”

The Bears defense lost three starters in the first half Sunday. Cornerback Charles Tillman and safety Al Afalava both exited with shoulder injuries, while defensive tackle Tommie Harris was ejected after the game’s fourth play from scrimmage for punching Cardinals guard Deuce Lutui in the face.

It wasn’t clear what caused Harris to wallop Lutui, who was lying on his back following Tim Hightower’s 13-yard run. But it certainly wasn’t something that Smith was too pleased about.

“You can’t lose a player like Tommie Harris,” said the Bears coach. “Tommie has to be smarter than that. He can’t get himself thrown out of the football game. That hurt our football team.”

Warner did a lot of damage as well, completing 22 of 31 passes for 261 yards and a 135.9 passer rating. Fitzgerald had nine receptions for 123 yards. And a Cardinals rushing attack that was averaging an NFL-low 64.9 yards per game compiled a season-high 182 yards on 31 carries.

“We’ve got to play better,” Brown said. “Everybody that doesn’t feel bad after that shouldn’t be here. That’s horrible. We stunk up the place. It was pretty bad.”

It was of little consolation, but the Bears offense actually played pretty well, even after it was apparent to all that Jay Cutler would have to throw the ball virtually on every play. Cutler completed 29 of 47 passes for 369 yards with three touchdowns—all to tight end Greg Olsen—and one interception.

Zack Bowman produced the Bears' lone takeaway Sunday with a leaping fourth-quarter interception.

Cutler’s 98.6 passer rating was the highest of his career in a game his team lost.

“It’s tough,” Cutler said when asked about facing a large deficit. “We tried to mix in some runs. We tried to mix in some quick screens and stuff to the wide receivers. But when you boil it down, we’ve got to get some chunks of yards. We’ve got to score and we’ve got to do it quickly. The defense knows that. They understand that. It makes it an uphill battle.”

The Bears made up some of that ground in a hurry when Cutler threw touchdown passes of 3 and 20 yards to Olsen in a 2:46 span early in the fourth quarter, cutting the deficit from 34-7 to 34-21.

The two scores were sandwiched around Zack Bowman’s 39-yard interception return to the Arizona 28. Bowman picked off backup quarterback Matt Leinart, who had replaced Warner. After the turnover, the Cardinals put Warner back into the game. 

Trailing by 13 points, the Bears had the Cardinals backed up on their own 5. On third-and-25, Warner completed a 24-yard pass to Steve Breaston, who started for the injured Anquan Boldin. Ben Graham then boomed a 56-yard punt, and the Bears took over at their own 17.

Three plays later, Cutler threw his only interception of the game, and the Cardinals converted the turnover into Warner’s 4-yard TD pass to Breaston, making the score 41-21.

“When you get yourself back in position at home, normally with momentum, good things happen,” Smith said. “But that’s the way our day went a little bit. In critical situations, we didn’t make the play.”

The Bears won’t have much time to dwell on Sunday’s loss, not with their next game on Thursday night against the 49ers in San Francisco.

“We have some soul-searching to do right now on a short week,” Smith said.

“When you play a game like this, you want to play [again] almost immediately. That’s the good thing about having the chance to play the 49ers on Thursday night. We have a lot of character on our football team. We realize where we are right now. We’ll come back ready to go this week.”