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Browns running backs Kareem Hunt (27) and Nick Chubb (not pictured) combined for 92 yards on 13 carries (7.1 avg.) in the fourth quarter against the Bears on Sunday at FirstEnergy Stadium. | David Richard/AP Photos

Defensive coordinator Sean Desai wasn’t buying the idea that the defense wore down against the Browns because it was on the field for nearly 40 minutes. But a lighter load wouldn’t hurt.

One of the many joys of watching Walter Payton, especially in his early years with the Bears, was marveling at the way Payton could wear down a defense with a seemingly indefatigable physical and mental toughness.

Payton’s relentless aggressiveness just wore people out– an effect that never was more evident than in back-to-back games against the Chiefs and Vikings in 1977 that sparked a miraculous run to the playoffs. That spectacular 18-yard run where Payton avoided or broke seven tackles — the definitive Payton run that is part of any Payton highlight package? It happened in the third quarter of the 28-27 victory against the Chiefs and help set up the first of Payton’s three second-half touchdowns that day, two in the fourth quarter.

Payton had 33 carries in that game, but outdid himself the next week, when he had 40 carries for an NFL-record 275 yards in a 10-7 victory over the Vikings. The 58-yard run that put Payton on the brink of the record came with three minutes to play in the game.

But you don’t need one of the greatest running backs in NFL history to wear down a defense. Sometimes all it takes is time — like when the Bears’ defense was on the field for nearly 40 minutes Sunday (39:34) against the Browns. With an inept offense held to just 42 plays, the Bears’ defense was out there for 78 plays.

And it took a toll. The Bears’ defense held the Browns to 4.8 yards per play (53 plays, 252 yards) and had sacked Baker Mayfield five times deep into the third quarter, with the Bears trailing just 13-6 despite a miserable offensive performance. But in the final 16:43 of the game, the Bears’ defense weakened and allowed 7.3 yards per play (23-168) as the Browns had the ball for 11:45 in the fourth quarter and coasted home to a 26-6 victory.

The Bears need to establish an NFL-quality offense against the Lions on Sunday not just to save Matt Nagy and itself, but also a defense that still has considerable bite but can’t run a marathon every week.

The Bears’ defense carrying Nagy’s offense was one of many broken-record themes at Halas Hall this week. It put defensive players and coaches on the spot — having to tip-toe around the reality that the defense wore down because it was on the field too long.

“I don’t think so,” defensive coordinator Sean Desai said. “I’ve got to do a better job of putting the guys in position to make plays, and then we’ve got to make plays.”

That’s a common, almost autonomic response from defensive players and coaches who want to avoid pitting the offense vs. the defense — a threat to the stability of any football team. It seems to defy human nature — the reality is pretty clear. But not to Desai. The Bears’ defensive unit not only says it, but believes it. Lives it.

“Human nature is a little bit different from football players to fans,” Desai said. “These guys understand what their jobs and their roles are, and our job on defense is to get the ball back to the offense and to stop scores.

“Maybe the media and fans have a different feeling towards that, and that’s OK — that’s their right to have those feelings. But when these guys are in the grind every day and going through it, they understand what it is. We know our standard on defense and we’re going to try and uphold that standard for as long as we can.”

That’s an admirable mentality on a team like the Bears that has been defense-heavy throughout Matt Nagy’s tenure. But every team, every defense has its breaking point. The solution to the defensive breakdowns is not stamina and focus, but first downs and touchdowns on the other side of the ball.

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The Chicago Bears’ defense was really only bad in the first game of the season. The team clearly wasn’t ready to go. We all know how pathetic the offense and coach have been which gives the defense no help as well. The Los Angeles Rams owned them and won the game 34-14. Since then, the […] Chicago Bears: 1 player that needs to keep his good play up – Da Windy City – Da Windy City – A Chicago Sports Site – Bears, Bulls, Cubs, White Sox, Blackhawks, Fighting Illini & MoreRead More

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Bears coach Matt Nagy is 1-2 this season. | AP Photos

He could have chosen to be bold and stake his reputation on a banged-up Andy Dalton or a still-reeling Justin Fields for the most critical game of his career. Instead, Nagy decided to act as though the injury report was deciding for him.

Last season, coach Matt Nagy and the Bears had a six-game losing streak. The season before, they lost four in a row.

Neither compares to their one-game losing streak right now.

After the Bears gained 47 yards on 42 plays last Sunday against the Browns, Nagy took criticism like never before. On Monday, one ESPN analyst wondered whether Nagy was trying to set up rookie quarterback Justin Fields to fail. Another called for his job. Later in the week, a debate show on the network wondered whether Fields should force his way out of town — and away from this mess altogether.

Locally, it was worse. The Wiener’s Circle called for Nagy’s firing on the famous sign outside its building and passed along the link to a petition online. Bears fans on social media and in their own homes insulted Nagy like, well, he was a customer at The Wiener’s Circle.

The fire rages outside.

”Where I’m at right now is inside,” Nagy said Friday. ”I’m inside with these guys. I’m inside this building. I’m inside with everybody that’s here together doing this.”

In terms of self-preservation, the Bears’ game Sunday against the winless, historically hapless Lions — thought of as a gimme as recently as 10 days ago — is the most important of Nagy’s career. A loss would spin the Bears’ season further out of control and do nothing to quell concerns that Nagy — despite his experience tutoring Patrick Mahomes in 2017 — is the wrong person to shepherd Fields’ career.

More immediately, a loss would send the Bears down the long ramp toward another six-game losing streak, with the Raiders, Packers, Buccaneers and 49ers next on their schedule.

The McCaskeys never have fired a coach in the middle of a season. If Sunday is ugly, perhaps they would reconsider.

Nagy feels the pressure from inside and outside Halas Hall. That’s part of the reason that, for the first time in his head-coaching career, he refused to name a quarterback during game week.

He could have chosen to be bold and stake his reputation on a banged-up Andy Dalton or a still-reeling Fields but decided to act as though the injury report was deciding for him.

If Dalton can’t play because of a bone bruise in his left knee and Fields shines, then Nagy made the right call. If Fields struggles, then Nagy was a victim of medical circumstance. If Dalton shines, then it validates him being Nagy’s starter. If he doesn’t, it’s because of the knee. Nagy probably figures he can’t lose — unless the Bears lose the game.

Nagy bunkered himself in like never before during the week, playing coy about quarterback and play-caller alike. On Tuesday, he took the bizarre measure of asking his offensive players during a meeting what suggestions they had to fix the offense. Veteran Nick Foles chimed in with an idea; Fields said he didn’t.

Either way, it was a bad look for Nagy for his offense to seem so lost so early in the season.

”We’re going to fight for him this weekend,” tight end Cole Kmet said.

We’ll see.

For three seasons and three games, Nagy has done an impressive job of rallying his players and minimizing whatever rifts existed between a dominant defense and a popgun offense. If he can’t hold his team together Sunday — if his players won’t fight for him — it’s fair to wonder what exactly he does well.

For two-plus seasons, Nagy’s quarterbacks — his area of expertise — have been among the worst in the league. And play-calling might not be entirely under his control anymore. While he wouldn’t say whether he had ceded that duty to coordinator Bill Lazor, it’s hard to believe Nagy’s bosses would accept another week with the same structure.

Nagy said Friday he wanted to keep the play-caller secret, so as not to give away tendencies to the Lions, the biggest walkover opponent the Bears will face all season.

”As much as the coaches can take accountability of what happened [last] Sunday, the coaches weren’t out there playing,” running back David Montgomery said. ”It was on us as an offense, us as a team, to get the job done. The play doesn’t make the play; the player makes the play.”

Montgomery is as close to Nagy as any player at Halas Hall. They communicate even when both are outside the facility, be it through FaceTime, text messages or phone calls.

He described Nagy last week as ”the leader we know him to be.”

”We still have a lot of opportunities and a lot of games to prove what we’re capable of,” Montgomery said. ”We’re still stuck together like glue.”

If the Bears don’t prove something Sunday, things will fall apart even more.

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At least 16 people were shot, two fatally in citywide gun violence Friday. | Sun-Times file

A SWAT team responded after a person was killed and two others were wounded in a shootout about 10:30 a.m. in the 1200 block of North Mason Avenue.

Two people were killed and 16 others, including two teens, wounded in citywide gun violence Friday.

A SWAT team responded after a person was killed and two others were wounded in a shootout in Austin on the West Side. Police officers responding to a call about 10:30 a.m. saw four people get out of two cars and begin firing toward a house in the 1200 block of North Mason Avenue, Chicago police said. People inside returned fire and hit one of the gunmen, police said. The person was transported to a hospital and was pronounced dead. Their name hasn’t been released. The other shooters jumped back into the cars and left, according to police. Two people inside the home were also shot, police said. Paramedics took one person in serious condition to Mount Sinai Hospital, Chicago Fire Department spokesman Larry Merritt said. The other went to a hospital too but the condition was not immediately released. One person was arrested near the scene and another was taken into custody by Oak Park police officers after the suspects were involved in a crash, police said. The second car was found burnt near Chicago and Lockwood avenues.

Hours earlier, a 26-year-old woman was standing outside of a residential building about 12:45 a.m. in the 6200 block of South Rockwell Street in Chicago Lawn when two males approached and opened fire, striking her in the head, police said. She was pronounced dead at the scene, police said. Her name hasn’t been released yet.

In nonfatal attacks, two teens were shot Friday evening in Austin on the West Side. About 5 p.m., they were walking in the 300 block of North Pine Avenue, when they heard shots and felt pain, police said. A 17-year-old boy was struck in the right foot, and a 16-year-old boy was struck in the right shoulder, police said. The 17-year-old was taken to Loretto Hospital and the younger boy was taken to Mt. Sinai Hospital, police said. They are both in good condition.

At least 12 others were wounded in citywide shootings Friday.

Ten people were wounded in shootings in Chicago Thursday.

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Julia Child and her husband, Paul, are seen in an image from the documentary “Julia.” | Sony Pictures Classics

Upcoming documentary on the great chef also celebrates her husband Paul, content to stay in the background as she taught French cuisine on TV.

The label “date movie” hasn’t traditionally been applied much to documentaries, but filmmakers Betsy West and Julie Cohen have twice now made non-fiction films of trailblazing female icons that also happen to be portraits of loving, supportive marriages.

In “RBG,” the 2018 Oscar-nominated bio-documentary of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the filmmakers lingered over the encouraging role of her longtime husband, the lawyer Martin D. Ginsburg. Their latest, “Julia,” is likewise about a pioneering 20th century woman, the adventurous TV chef Julia Child, whose ascent was tenderly and enthusiastically advocated for by her husband, Paul Child. He even wrote a sonnet for her.

For never were there foods, nor were there wines

Whose flavor equals yours for sheer delight.

O luscious dish! O gustatory pleasure!

You satisfy my taste buds beyond measure.

“Feminist love stories are our genre,” Cohen says in an interview alongside West. ” ‘RBG’ was a great date movie. ‘Julia’ is a slightly more expensive date movie because it really needs to be the movie and then a good dinner.”

“Julia,” opening in theaters Nov. 5, is an affectionate and flavorful tribute to a beloved culinary figure. The film surveys a life that found fame relatively late. Child was nearly 50 by the time her debut cookbook “Mastering the Art of French Cooking” was released in 1961. Her career on TV, beginning with an omelet on Boston’s WGBH, came the year after. There and beyond, Child was a charismatic, 6-foot-2-inch exception to a male-dominated cooking world and a carefree antidote to the force-fed image of the TV-dinner-cooking ’50s housewife.

Her husband, a former diplomat, contentedly took a background role. In “The French Chef Cookbook,” Julia Child wrote: “Paul Child, the man who is always there: porter, dishwasher, official photographer, mushroom dicer and onion chopper, editor, fish illustrator, manager, taster, idea man, resident poet, and husband.”

“Julia” is only set partly among the pots and pans (and heaps of butter) that made Child famous. (The filmmakers even built a replica of her kitchen to make and photograph some of her best-known dishes.) But the heart of “Julia” may lie outside the kitchen in capturing her larger life and passions. Over time, she spoke more openly about her political beliefs.

Child wrote a letter in 1982 that was sent to Planned Parenthood donors. It read: “Few politicians will take the risk of publicly supporting either contraception or abortion — and who is ‘for abortion’ anyway? We are concerned with freedom of choice.”

“What Julia did at the time was pretty risky. This was not a time when celebrities or celebrity chefs were going out of their way to take positions that were controversial,” says West. “Julia was very confident in her beliefs and determined to bring her celebrity to something she truly believed in.”

For West and Cohen, “Julia” is only part of their output following “RBG,” a blockbuster documentary that collected more than $14 million in ticket sales. Their “My Name Is Pauli Murray,” released Friday on Amazon Prime Video, profiles a pivotal but sometimes overlooked activist and writer who helped lay the legal framework for both the civil rights and women’s rights movements.

“There is just a huge landscape of women out there whose stories haven’t been adequately told,” says West. “It’s frankly an opportunity for us to tell these stories.”

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A man was shot in a drive-by Saturday morning on the South Side. | Sun-Times file photo

The 37-year-old was standing outside about 12:25 a.m. in the 2900 block of South Calumet Avenue when someone in a passing vehicle opened fire, striking him in the arm, Chicago police said.

A man was shot Saturday morning in a drive-by in Douglas on the South Side.

The 37-year-old was standing outside about 12:25 a.m. in the 2900 block of South Calumet Avenue when someone in a passing vehicle opened fire, striking him in the arm, Chicago police said.

He self-transported to Mercy Hospital, and was transferred to Stroger Hospital, where he was in fair condition, police said.

No one was in custody.

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NBAE via Getty Images

The Sky were able to make WNBA MVP, Jonquel Jones, appear mortal Thursday night holding her to four points on two of nine made shot attempts. Still, they gave up 12 offensive rebounds and were outrebounded 39-26.

The Sky are two wins from their second trip to the WNBA Finals and their first since 2014. After splitting the first two games of a best-of-five semifinal series against the Sun in Connecticut, they’ll play Games 3 and 4 at Wintrust Arena on Sunday and Wednesday, potentially setting themselves up to take the series at home and move closer to the first WNBA title in franchise history.

“We’re never going to relax,” guard/forward Kahleah Copper said Thursday before a difficult loss in Game 2 in which the Sky scored just nine points in the fourth quarter. “We don’t want to play five games. We want to win and end it as soon as possible.”

Preseason predictions from the media and coaches had the Sky as a favorite to make it to the Finals. Suns coach Curt Miller said the Sky were his preseason favorite to win it all. A survey of the WNBA’s general managers in May had the Sky tied with the Mystics as the second-most likely team to win the title, behind the Aces.

But not much has followed the expected plan for the Sky, who, it’s safe to say, were the WNBA’s most underwhelming team, given their talent.

Candace Parker was one of the most significant free-agent signings in recent Chicago sports history, with 58% of GMs believing she’d have the biggest impact on her new team among offseason additions.

She did, and the Sky’s record shows it. They went 1-7 during the regular season with Parker on the bench with ankle injuries and 15-9 with her playing — providing not just numbers but also leadership and a constant ability to facilitate.

So, how did the Sky end up an underdog in the playoffs? Inconsistency. They locked up the sixth of eight seeds with a 16-16 record that opposing coaches said doesn’t accurately tell their story, but also went 2-4 in the final six games, which didn’t bode well for their postseason chances.

In the do-or-die format of single-elimination games in the first two rounds, the Sky excelled. Their most complete game of the year was a 89-76 win over the Lynx in the second round last Sunday; they followed that up Tuesday by taking Game 1 from the Sun in double overtime on the road.

The adversity they faced during an up-and-down season has become their fuel.

“You don’t reinvent yourself in the postseason,” Parker said ahead of this series. “We need everybody to be the best version of themselves.”

If the Sky are to play for their first WNBA title, they’ll need the entire team involved offensively in Games 3 and 4. They’ll also need to escape the top-seeded Sun’s suffocating defense, which limited them to their fourth-lowest score of the year Thursday in an 79-68 loss. The bench will need to be more productive, too. In Game 1, it accounted for 27 points. In Game 2, that number fell to 15.

The Sky made Sun forward Jonquel Jones, the WNBA MVP, appear mortal Thursday, holding her to four points on 2-for-9 shooting. Still, they gave up 12 offensive rebounds and were outrebounded 39-26 overall.

It’s hard to imagine a team with guards Courtney Vandersloot, Allie Quigley and Parker as the underdog, but such is the case — at least for the rest of this series. Big performances are needed from all three Sunday if the Sky are going to steal another one.

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