Katherine Terrell, ESPN Staff Writer 6y

A.J. Green calls blowout loss to the Bears 'definitely embarrassing'

CINCINNATI -- The Cincinnati Bengals insisted their effort wasn't the problem in a 33-7 loss to the Chicago Bears. Most of the Bengals who spoke to the media after the game defended the energy, with the exception of quarterback Andy Dalton.

"We didn't have a lot of energy," Dalton said. "Offensively we didn't get that one play that gave us a spark."

The rest of the Bengals defended their effort, and linebacker Kevin Minter defended the game plan, but there was no defending how they played.

Bengals wide receiver A.J. Green began nodding his head almost immediately when a reporter brought up the word "embarrassing."

"It's definitely embarrassing," he said. "Any time you lose 33-7, no matter how good the other team played, it's embarrassing."

Most of the Bengals seemed downright puzzled about their lackluster performance, and no one seemed to have an explanation for why the they played so badly. Green, who dropped a pass, had one go off his hands for an interception, and had the ball stripped, put a large part of the blame on himself.

"I didn't play well at all, and it starts with me," he said." Being one of the playmakers on the team, I made no plays today. I have to do a better job of making plays whenever my number is called. I had a couple of deep balls that I should have made and somehow come up with the ball. It starts with me, and I played like s--- today."

Nobody seemed to know if the team's physical game against the Pittsburgh Steelers played a toll on Sunday, although the long list of injuries clearly played a role in the loss.

"You've got to come back and you've got to play," said Bengals coach Marvin Lewis. "I'm not giving that to be an excuse. We didn't play well enough today."

The Bengals had a chance to turn their season around against the Steelers on Monday. But they've taken a step backward since the second half of that game and have now dropped two straight.

"We couldn't move that ball or make a play to save our life," said wide receiver Brandon LaFell. "I felt like the effort was there, but we couldn't make plays. We had a sense of urgency since we left the Jacksonville game that we needed to win every game the rest of the year to give us a chance to make the playoffs, and we haven't done that, especially on this short week. We lost two games that we should have won. We came out and laid an egg."

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