Chicago Bears vs Dallas Cowboys: A look inside the numbers

All statistics and snap counts are taken directly from the NFL's Game Statistic and Information System.

Last season the Chicago Bears gave up a franchise worst 478 points. This year, with 3 games remaining, they are at 378. Could the Bears allow 101 points to break their own record? Next up is the New Orleans Saints and they're averaging about 27 points per game and they just dropped 35 on the Steelers in Pittsburgh. The Detroit Lions are up after that and they just walloped the Bears 34-17 on Thanksgiving. Then the Bears travel to play the Minnesota Vikings in week 17, and while the Vikes' offense isn't as good as those other two, they did just put up 31 against the Panthers.

Bears' fans, we might get three more ugly games to close out the embarrassing 2014 season.

As for the debacle last night against the Dallas Cowboys, it was 3rd down problems on both sides of the ball that really hurt the Bears. Defensively, they allowed the Cowboys to convert half of their 14 3rd down attempts, and on offense they were only 2 for 10. Dallas' ability to run the ball effectively led to many makeable 3rd down tries. Their offensive line helped DeMarco Murray and Joseph Randle rush for 192 yards.

The Cowboys controlled the clock, holding the time of possession edge 32:28 to 27:32.

Chicago only allowed 203 yards through the air, but when you're running as well as the Cowboys were, there's no need to get pass happy. Dallas QB Tony Romo did throw 3 touchdown passes and only 5 of his 26 pass attempts fell incomplete. He had a very efficient evening. And speaking of efficiency.

(You may have to click on the tweet, then on the pic in the tweet, but it's worth it)

Romo makes it 7 of 15 most efficient passing games vs. Bears ever (min. 20 attempts) occurred under Tucker/Trestman: pic.twitter.com/bnlgLjKM1n

— Kevin Fishbain (@kfishbain) December 5, 2014

It was just another typically horrible day for the Bears defense of late.

Three Bear defenders played all 62 snaps last night, weakside linebacker Jon Bostic, corner Tim Jennings and defensive end Jared Allen. I can see Jennings (2 tackles) and Bostic (7 tackles) staying on the field, but Allen? The game was out of hand, the defense was getting shredded, so why not get back up defensive end David Bass (1 tackle) more than 7 snaps in relief of Willie Young, who had 55 plays?

Young and Allen did share a sack, but in a game as lopsided as that, there's no reason to not play Bass more. Allen had 5 tackles and Young had 4 plus a tackle for loss, but Chicago's d-line was obviously being pushed around, so get some warm bodies in there.

The Bears did rotate their 4 defensive tackles, with Stephen Paea (5 tackles, 1 TFL) leading the charge with 48 snaps and Will Sutton (1 tackle) close behind with 47. Ego Ferguson (1 tackle) and Brandon Dunn played 14 and 15 snaps respectively.

Rookie corner Kyle Fuller (5 tackles) nearly played the entire game, he gave way to fellow rookie Al Louis-Jean for 2 snaps.

Safety Chris Conte (2 tackles) left another game early due to injury. He made it through 41 snaps before giving way to rookie Brock Vereen (2 tackles), who played 28. The other starting safety, Ryan Mundy (6 tackles), played 55 snaps.

The Bears didn't spend much time in nickle against the power running game of the Cowboys, so nickleback Demontre Hurst only had 12 snaps on D (2 tackles) plus another 6 snaps on special teams (2 more tackles). Strongside linebacker Shea McClellin racked up 6 tackles and a TFL while playing 81% of the defensive snaps (50/62).

Middle linebacker D.J. Williams was in on 39 defensive plays making 4 tackles. Rookie OLB Christian Jones made 4 tackles in his 23 snaps on D and 1 tackle in his 26 special team's snaps.

Senorise Perry, Anthony Walters, Sherrick McManis and Danny McCray all played 18 snaps on the 3rd phase for the Bears.

The Bears were penalized 9 times for 54 yards, with Dallas getting flagged 8 times for 97.

On offense, it was Jay Cutler, Matt Forte, Kyle Long, Jermon Bushrod, Roberto Garza and Jordan Mills that played all 69 offensive snaps for the Bears.

Left guard Michael Ola was pulled after 28 snaps, with undrafted rookie Ryan Groy playing 41 in his place. Charles Leno was used as a 6th offensive lineman on just 3 plays.

Cutler got plenty of yards in the 2nd half while the Cowboys were playing a loose 2 deep zone, but he was efficient in the first half going 10 of 13 for 100 yards, 1 TD and a 123.9 passer rating. For the game he was 32 of 46, 341 yards passing, 2 TDs, 1 Int and a passer rating of 96.4. He also had a rushing TD on a 10 yard scamper and he wasn't sacked.

Matt Forte, who I believe should have received a little rest, had 100 yards from scrimmage and a costly fumble. Running the ball he only had 26 yards and his 13 attempts resulted in a 2.0 yards per carry average. He did have a rushing TD and he ran in a 2 point conversion. As a receiver, he was targeted 9 times, catching 8 for 74 yards. Back up running back Ka'Deem Carey had one offensive snap.

Among the wide receivers, it was Alshon Jeffery that played the most. He caught 6 of the 9 balls throw his way for 95 yards and a TD in 66 snaps. Marquess Wilson played 62 snaps and caught 2 of 5 balls for 19 yards. With Brandon Marshall out for the season, Wilson will become the #2 receiver for the Bears. Speaking of Marshall, he exited the game after just 17 plays with a rib/lung injury. He made 3 receptions of 4 targets for 61 yards. Josh Morgan had 1 catch on 4 targets for 8 yards in his 46 plays.

Marc Mariani saw his first action on offense for the Bears playing 3 snaps at WR, but he continued to look the part as a returner. He only had 1 punt return for 4 yards, but he had 6 kickoff returns for 136 yards.

Tight end Martellus Bennett gutted it out for 60 plays, catching 12 balls out of 15 targets, for 85 yards and a TD. With 77 catches on the season Bennett passed Mike Ditka for first on the single season TE reception list for the Bears. He's only 256 yards away from Ditka's single season TE yardage mark of 1,076.

Dante Rosario played 17 snaps on O and another 21 on the special teams. Third TE Blake Annen saw 1 snap on offense.

Rookie punter Pat O'Donnell struggled to a net average of 33.3 yards per punt on 4 punts. He'll need to work on speeding up his punting motion this off season in my opinion.

Any thing stand out about the numbers this week?