FOXBORO, Mass. – The Bears will head into their bye week following Sunday's debacle in New England, but not before meeting at Halas Hall Monday and punching the reset button.
"We've got a whole half season to play," coach Marc Trestman said after his team's 51-23 loss to the Patriots. "We're going to go back tomorrow and start over and address every situation that we have in all aspects of our football team and get ready to start this thing up again in a week."
The Bears put up little if any resistance in dropping to 3-5 with their fourth loss in five games. The Patriots scored five touchdowns and one field goal on their first six possessions and added a sixth TD on defense in storming to a 45-7 third-quarter lead.
"As coaches we're going to certainly assess all three phases of our football team and our personnel, talk to [general manager] Phil [Emery] about it and we'll go from there," Trestman said.
"We've got a team that works extremely hard. They prepare hard. They're a very compliant football team and they're doing everything we're asking them to do. So we start with that baseline and then we'll work from there."
Quarterback Jay Cutler, who passed for 227 yards with three touchdowns and one interception Sunday, knows there are two paths the Bears can follow when they return from their bye week.
"Collectively as a whole we've got to decide how we want to end this year; how we want to do in the second half," Cutler said. "If we want to just pack it in and hover around .500 or maybe a little bit below or if we want to use the talent in the locker room and try to make a run at this."
After attending meetings Monday, Bears players will not be required to return to Halas Hall until next Monday, six days before they visit the Green Bay Packers at Lambeau Field.
"That's part of the Collective Bargaining Agreement," Trestman said. "We can't go out and practice tomorrow. We're going to do the right things. We're going to give the team a chance to get rested.
"We're going to have time to really look at ourselves individually and collectively, and that break comes at a good time for that."
Safety Ryan Mundy no doubt agrees that the bye week is coming at the right time.
"Right now we're definitely frustrated, upset and disappointed; all of those emotions," Mundy said. "But the bye is coming up, so we'll have an opportunity to get our minds right, get refreshed, recharge and come back and get ready to play these next eight games."
Asked how long the disappointment over Sunday's destruction will linger with Bears players, Cutler said: "Everyone's different. Some guys are going to beat themselves up over the bye and some guys will forget about it when they get on the bus. Either way whenever we come back everyone needs to be able to play."
