Chicago Bears offense has struggled during recent slide

The Chicago Bears haven't simply hit a stretch of bad luck, losing four of their last five games and control of the NFC North division. They've struggled mightily on offense, with production dropping way off from the first eight weeks of the season. ESPN Chicago

took a look at what's gone wrong for the offense and there's some eye-opening stats.

For one, Jay Cutler and Jason Campbell have combined to throw seven interceptions over the past five weeks, which is tied for fifth-most in the league over that span. Over the first half of the season, Cutler threw eight interceptions.

Both Cutler and Campbell have combined for a yards-per-attempt of just 6.0, which is down from 7.3 over the first eight games. Over the last five games, this is third-worst in the league, behind the Arizona Cardinals and Minnesota Vikings.

Teams have figured out the way the offense works, it would seem. Brandon Marshall is now being targeted on 40.3 percent of all of the team's passes - up significantly from the first half of the season - while running back Matt Forte has averaged just 3.5 yards per carry over the last five weeks.

In short, there's plenty of reasons as to why the offense could be blamed for the lack of production these past weeks.