One day late, StevePrestegard.com brings you our great tradition of dumping on Da Bears after yet another defeat at the hands of the NFC North (repeat) champion Packers.

(“Our”? Is your dog writing columns now? you ask. Answer: No, because fat chihuahuas don’t have opposable thumbs.)

The Chicago Sun–Times’ Sean Jensen thinks this is indeed a representative game for Da Bears:

In the most pivotal of regular season games, against the rival Green Bay Packers, the Bears many maladies in recent years under Lovie Smith were on full display.

The unforced errors, like Jay Cutler’s interception near midfield with 96 seconds remaining in the first half of a 7-7 game. The repeated failure to convert short-yardage runs. And the inability to prevent Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers from making the clutch plays to extend drives and toss touchdowns.

Even when the Packers handed them a couple of gifts – a fumble and a botched lateral on a punt return – the Bears could only muster a pair of field goals.

The Chicago Tribune’s Brad Biggs quotes wide receiver Brandon Marshall, who shot off his mouth last week:

“It’s the same every single game,” said Marshall, who stirred things up during the week with his passionate anti-Packers news conference. “We need to be held accountable. What I have to do is try my best to keep it together and not let this affect me because it’s starting to affect me more than it should.”

There is no guarantee general manager Phil Emery, who gambled in trading for Marshall, will shake things up at the end of the season and fire coach Lovie Smith, who is signed through 2013. The Bears close out the season at Arizona and at Detroit, and with 10 victories, they would have a reasonable chance at reaching the postseason.

Things are slipping for Smith when it comes to battling Green Bay, the opponent he made such a big deal of in his introductory news conference. This game was made closer by two missed field goals from Mason Crosby, whose job status is now tenuous, at best. Smith is 2-9 against quarterback Aaron Rodgers after ending Brett Favre’s mastery of the Bears.

On his third offensive coordinator in four seasons and fourth overall, it’s fair to wonder if the team will ever get that side of the ball right under Smith. It’s also worth wondering if chairman of the board George McCaskey will play a central role in end-of-season decisions. It may come down to candid discussions about whether Smith and his staff or a flawed roster are more to blame for a painful free fall.

Consider this: If you add up the records of Brett Favre as a Packer and Rodgers against the Bears, you get 29 wins and 12 losses. That’s the record of two quarterbacks against Jay Cutler, and before him in reverse order, Jason Campbell, Caleb Hanie, Josh McCown, Todd Collins, Kyle Orton, Rex Grossman, Brian Griese, Jonathan Quinn, Chad Hutchinson, Craig Krenzel, Chris Chandler, Kordell Stewart, Henry Burris, Jim Miller, Shane Matthews, Cade McNown (not to be confused with the aforementioned Josh McCown), Moses Moreno, Steve Stenstrom, Erik Kramer, Rick Mirer, Dave Krieg, Steve Walsh, Peter Tom Willis, Will Furrer and Jim Harbaugh — the complete list of Bears starting quarterbacks since Favre’s first start against Da Bears Oct. 25, 1992.

This piece from the Sun–Times’ Rick Morrissey fits in the circular firing squad category:

‘Two of the people I don’t care about: fans or media.’’ — Bears linebacker Brian Urlacher, Dec. 16, 2012

That might be the quote of the year, not just for its Yogi Berra clumsiness, but because it perfectly represents the disdain the Bears have for the people who follow them.

Usually we get only a glimpse of the team’s true feelings via a dirty look or good, old-fashioned condescension. But now it’s all on the table, in words, impossible to misconstrue. Urlacher, the Bears’ future Hall of Famer, made the above statement Sunday after Fox-32 sports anchor Lou Canellis asked him what he thought of the people calling for the firing of coach Lovie Smith.

“Those people don’t know what they’re talking about, obviously,’’ he added.

Urlacher doesn’t care about the fans. And neither do the Bears, who charge an average of $111 a ticket and laugh at you poor, witless slobs all the way to the bank.

It would be easy to say Urlacher was simply lashing out on an emotional issue, but if you’ve paid any attention to this franchise during the Smith era, you know that the Bears treat media members like nonpersons. It means that fans, by extension, get the same nonperson treatment, with all the eye-rolling contempt that goes with it. …

In his nine years as coach, Smith couldn’t have been more dismissive of the media. He has never cared that, by doing so, he was also deeming fans as unworthy of his valuable time and deep well of football knowledge. He has made a career out of saying nothing — not out of having nothing to say, but out of sheer disregard for his audience.

He’s not alone.

Phil Emery rarely talks with the media. He is the general manager of an NFL team. Amazing.

Virginia McCaskey, the owner of the team, makes herself available to reporters about as often as white smoke wafts from the Sistine Chapel.

You can count on one or two fingers the times chairman George McCaskey, her son, has sat down with the media as a group this year.

That’s how a player of Urlacher’s stature — a player whose jersey hundreds of people wear to Bears games — can say publicly that he doesn’t care about the fans. It’s shocking it came out of his mouth. It’s not so shocking an attitude like that would be allowed to take root and grow in Lake Forest. …

Holding to form, Smith said Monday he was unaware that the person most closely associated with the franchise had ripped the paying customers the night before. At least quarterback Jay Cutler admitted Bears fans had a reason to boo.

I’d like to tell you all this would change with Smith’s firing, but I’m not sure it would, not with the McCaskeys in charge, which, as far as I can tell, is for eternity.

I can’t tell you how many times over the years I’ve had people tell me that Bears ownership needs to change. It’s like saying a mountain needs to move. The McCaskeys aren’t going away. You don’t get to choose who owns your favorite football team. Life is unfair that way. In Chicago, life is cruel that way.

CBS Chicago’s Adam Hoge has little good to say either in his weekly grades:

190 total yards in the biggest game of the season. That just about says it all. The Bears actually got off to a decent start by committing to the run, but then the offensive line happened — again. Roberto Garza’s false start on the first drive was a killer. Still, the Bears managed to get off to a 7-0 lead in the second quarter by using creative formations to get Brandon Marshall open. But then the Packers scored and it was as if the Bears panicked.

Dom Capers deserves credit for having the Bears’ number, but let’s be honest, it’s as easy as stopping Brandon Marshall this season. In fact, it’s mind-boggling that the Packers and 49ers are the only two teams that have refused to play press coverage on Marshall, essentially taking him out of the game and daring others to step up.

This week’s blunders go deep into the week’s preparation and possibly even beyond the coaching staff. The inactive list was so packed that Michael Bush dressed even though he couldn’t play. How does that happen? Kahlil Bell was waived by the Jets last week — are you telling me you couldn’t cut Josh McCown for the weekend just to get a healthy body for the biggest game of the year?

Mike Tice no longer deserves a pass. Yes, the offensive line is horrible, but he’s partially to blame because he vouched for J’Marcus Webb and Gabe Carimi. He has an elite wide receiver, one of the best pass-catching running backs and a more than adequate quarterback. It’s now Week 16 and Tice hasn’t found a way to consistently score points.

Amazingly, Mike McCarthy made the biggest coaching blunder of the game (and maybe the season), yet the Bears couldn’t take advantage of it. The offense didn’t even gain a yard.

Yes, you don’t often see a four-play zero-yard scoring drive, which only happened because of the fumbled kickoff return. Since the Packers won despite that, to call that the biggest coaching blunder maybe of the season seems excessive. Then again, if I had to cover Da Bears, I wouldn’t be in a good mood either.