Big question: just what happened here?

Three games remain in the Bears dismal season, but you would not know it from covering the team this week.
 
The entire focus is on “what went wrong” amid varying degrees of expectations following the acquisition of quarterback Jay Cutler.
 
On Thursday, the defensive breakdown was under the microscope.
 
“Through much of the year we didn’t play anywhere near where we capable of playing,” said Lance Briggs. “It’s hard to  talk about talent when you’re not even playing decent enough… to say, the belief in the locker room is strong, but when you get on the field and you don’t show it of course you’re going to have critics, you’re going to have doubters and your confidence is not going to be there either because you can’t seem to get it right.”

Briggs chose to look at who is not on the 2009 roster, than who is. He ticked off names like Mike Brown, Chris Harris, Rueben Brown, John Tait, Ron Rivera, Perry Fewell, Thomas Jones, and Ian Scott…all parts to a bigger puzzle l his opinion are missed.
 
“You know in football nothing lasts forever. Who’s to say if those guys were with us today that we would be successful?”
 
“I think sometimes when you believe in what we’re doing so much maybe that you think sometimes hey you know maybe we can let this guy go or we don’t need this guy and we’ll be just fine. But you miss some of those guys when you don’t have them.”
 
Bears defensive end Adewale Ogunleye disagreed with Briggs.
 
“Me and Lance we don’t agree on everything,” said Ogunleye. “Definitely we’re missing some guys from this year…I don’t even look at the past…but to look back and think about guys on other teams and see what they could have done for us…I don’t think that’s a great way to think.”
 
Alex Brown essentially agreed with Ogunleye saying “it sounds like excuses”.
 
All the players quoted today say 2009 has not been a talent issue, not a coaching issue, but a player issue. Too much inconsistency, mistakes, and poor play to be a winner.
 
THURSDAY PRACTICE REVIEW: RAVENS WEEK:

•  WR/PR Devin Hester (strained left calf) and Jamar Williams (ankle) missed practice.  Zackary Bowman (illness), and Charles Tillman (back) returned.
•  Baltimore Ravens report 10 players missing Thursday practice: WR Mark Clayton (knee), T Jared Gaither (foot), S K.J. Gerard (thigh), LB Jarret Johnson (knee/back), S Ed Reed (groin/foot), LB Terrell Suggs (knee), WR Kelley Washington (ankle)
• Lance Briggs and Adewale Ogunleye expressed their condolences to the family of Chris Henry. The 26-year old Bengals wide receiver died Thursday morning from injuries suffered in a Wednesday accident.  Henry was involved in a domestic dispute with his fiancee’ and fell off the back end of a moving pickup truck.